The Brahma viharas (or the Four Immeasurables) are some of the oldest known meditations from the Buddhist tradition. The story goes that a group of young monks upon seeing the Buddha asked him how they could also become enlightened. He replied that no one can teach you to become enlightened, but if you practice these practices regularly it will create the conditions into which enlightenment may spontaneously arise.

The four practices are lovingkindness, compassion, sympathetic joy and equanimity. These are attitudes or internal states, and they are also practices for living your life in a more loving, grounded, blissful and peaceful way. What I’ve noticed personally upon practicing these practices is that I am slower to anger, quicker to forgive, faster to turn toward love and more likely to celebrate the joys and successes of others and less likely to be envious. By changing my own internal state through these practices, I believe the world cannot help but respond differently to me. In this way, by working on ourselves, we can have a positive ripple effect into the world.

Join Roger Rippy in learning and practicing the brahma viharas in this four-week live video course. Each week of the course, Roger will explain the intention and philosophy behind one branch of the brahma viharas, we will practice the practice related to the branch and we will engage in some group pre and post meditation interaction/Q&A.