The four sublime states

The four sublime states are four qualities of heart that Buddhists cultivate towards all beings. In Pali they are called the brahmavihāra, the “divine abodes” or “best ways of living”. They are also known as the four immeasurables, because they can be extended without limit.

The four states

• Loving-kindness (mettā): the wish that beings be well and happy.
• Compassion (karuṇā): the wish that beings be released from suffering.
• Sympathetic joy (muditā): gladness at the happiness and success of others.
• Equanimity (upekkhā): a balanced mind that accepts that beings are the owners of their actions.

Each one answers a particular difficulty. Loving-kindness counters ill will, compassion counters cruelty, sympathetic joy counters envy and discontent, and equanimity counters both clinging and aversion.

Near and far enemies

Later commentaries describe a “near enemy” for each state: a quality that looks similar but is subtly wrong. Attachment can pass for loving-kindness, pity or grief for compassion, excited self-interest for sympathetic joy, and indifference for equanimity. The “far enemy” is the plain opposite. This teaching helps practitioners check whether what they are cultivating is the real thing.

In the early texts

The early suttas often describe a meditator who fills the first direction with a mind of loving-kindness, then the second, the third and the fourth, above, below and all around, “abundant, expansive, limitless”. The same is then done with compassion, sympathetic joy and equanimity. In one sutta the Buddha explains this practice to young brahmins as the way to companionship with Brahmā, reinterpreting their own religious language in ethical terms.

How they fit together

The four states support one another. Loving-kindness is the basic warmth. When it meets suffering, it becomes compassion. When it meets happiness, it becomes sympathetic joy. Equanimity keeps all three balanced and wise, so that care does not turn into worry or control.

Practising them

Each state can be developed as a meditation by repeating simple phrases and extending them in stages, from yourself or someone easy to love, to a neutral person, a difficult person, and finally all beings. They can also be practised in daily life, in how you speak, listen and respond. All Buddhist traditions value them, and in the Mahayana they are seen as the ground of the bodhisattva’s aspiration to help all beings.