Ep378: Entering the Brahma Viharas - Leigh Brasington

In this episode I am once again joined by Leigh Brasington, Buddhist meditation teacher and author of “Right Concentration, A Practical Guide to the Jhanas”. Leigh discusses his new book “Love, Compassion, Joy, Equanimity: The Brahma Viharas – Suttas, Stories, Practices, Hidden Gems” in which he delves into the Pali canon of Buddhist scripture to shed new light on how to understand and practice these potent meditations. Leigh gives detailed descriptions of each of the four brahma viharas. He draws from his decades of teaching experience, as well as scriptural and commentarial literature, to offer his best advice for how to utilise these methods in meditation practice. Leigh reveals how far the brahma viharas can take you towards enlightenment, reflects on the trivialisation of love in today’s culture, and I challenge Leigh to retire what I describe as a tired cliché of Western Buddhist pedagogy. … Episode link in bio. Also available on Youtube, iTunes, & Spotify – search ‘Guru Viking Podcast’. … Topics Include: 00:00 - Intro 01:05 - Why Leigh wrote the book 05:50 - How far towards enlightenment can brahma vihara practice take you? 08:54 - Entering the jhanas with the brahma vhiaras 11:48 - Defining “brahma vihara” 13:41 - Paucity of sutta evidence to link the four attitudes with the term “brahma vihara” 14:12 - The Buddha did not invent the brahma viharas 16:43 - Using phrases is a much later development 18:14 - The pervading practice 19:51 - Ayya Khema’s metta practice method 22:32 - Steve’s brahma vihara story 25:46 - Real or fake? 28:19 - Brahma vihara as antidote practice 32:25 - Steve challenges Leigh on mudita claims 37:17 - Suttas do not teach mudita as appreciative joy 37:44 - Leigh’s disappointment in the English language 39:25 - How to practice appreciative joy 40:43 - Can we retire the cliche? 42:30 - Does the West lack the concept of appreciative joy? 44:13 - Metta, unconditional love 47:27 - Problems with “unconditional love” 47:54 - Trivialisation of love 50:34 - Attachment vs love 53:07 - How to practice metta in daily life 56:43 - How metta reduces personal suffering 59:17 - Less thinking, more loving 01:03:25 - Late night reading and being a night owl 01:04:15 - Karuna, compassion and kindness 01:07:42 - Compassion is active 01:10:40 - Do gooders and dumb compassion 01:14:52 - Compassion burnout 01:20:01 - Does compassion need results? 01:21:16 - Ambiguity of sickness 01:22:56 - Upekkha, equanimity 01:25:28 - Leigh’s stories of equanimity 01:32:54 - Equanimity vs apathy 01:36:14 - States, traits, and the equanimity range 01:39:12 - Antidote to freak out 01:43:32 - Bias and practicing equanimity with political enemies 01:45:47 - Exchanging self and other and reducing self clinging 01:49:10 - Will brahma vihara lead you to enlightenment? 01:54:17 - Leigh’s mahasiddha story 01:55:49 - The beauty of the metta sutta 01:57:40 - Leigh reads the metta sutta … Previous episodes with Leigh Brasington: - https://www.guruviking.com/search?q=brasington To find our more about Leigh Brasington visit: - http://www.leighb.com/ For more interviews, videos, and more visit: - https://www.guruviking.com Music ‘Deva Dasi’ by Steve James