We’re delighted to announce that Wildmind will be launching a new double CD of guided meditations on October 16, 2007.
The double CD is a guide to the four meditations known as the “Brahmaviharas” (Divine Abodes). These practices include the Development of Lovingkindness (Metta Bhavana), the Development of Compassion (Karuna Bhavana), the Development of Empathetic Joy (Mudita Bhavana), and the Development of Equanimity (Upekkha Bhavana). The meditations are led by Bodhipaksa.
To the best of our knowledge this is the first time that all four Brahmavihara meditations have appeared on CD.
The two CD set comes with a 12 page booklet with detailed instructions about the four practices.
The title, “The Heart’s Wisdom” refers to the insights we can gain through the practice of the Brahmavihara meditations, such as:
- You cannot choose what happens to you in life, but you can learn to choose how you respond emotionally to those events.
- All beings want to be happy and free from suffering
- We can cultivate loving-kindness for a person regardless of whether we like them, dislike them, or have no feelings towards them at all
- In sharing another’s suffering we find ourselves becoming more fulfilled
- Approached with mindfulness pain becomes a skilled teacher, pointing out with exquisite clarity what’s wrong with our approach to life
happiness arises from skillful thoughts, words, and actions - The less we cling to our expectations, the happier we will be
- Equanimity is not indifference
The Brahmaviharas culminate in the Development of Equanimity, an insight meditation in which we contemplate the conditioned nature of happiness and suffering as we wish all beings well.
The meditations will be available as MP3 downloads in advance of the launch of the CD. The date of the launch will be announced in the blog.
2 Comments. Leave new
The practice of loving-kindness really improves my mood and outlook. A question I have is that since the meditations are progressive, should I look for a specific fruition of the practice before going to the next meditation, or will they all work if I just alternate the meditations daily?
Hi Laurie,
Good question!
I’d say that the jump from the metta (lovingkindness) practice to the compassion and empathetic joy meditations is a small but significant one, and that it would be best to have a reasonable degree of familiarity with the metta practice (a few months, say) before tackling them.
I also see the second and third practices as being on more or less the same level as each other, so you don’t have to spend a lot of time on compassion before moving on to the empathetic joy practice, and in fact you could learn them in reverse order if that suits your temperament.
The equanimity practice, however, seems to me to be a big jump up from the second and third practices, and again I’d suggest several months’ experience of karuna/mudita bhavana before moving on to the fourth meditation.
On the other hand these aren’t rules — just my own preferences — and you should feel free to experiment. At worst you may have a bumpy meditation or two, and at best you may discover a pattern that works particularly well for you.
All the best,
Bodhipaksa