The Four Immeasurable Minds

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Everyone wants to be happy but happiness cannot be achieved in isolation. The happiness of one depends upon the happiness of all and the happiness of all depends on the happiness of one. This is because all life is interdependent. In order to be happy, one needs to cultivate wholesome attitudes towards others in society and towards all sentient beings.

The best way of cultivating wholesome attitudes towards all sentient beings is through meditation. Among the many topics of meditation taught by the Buddha, there are four specifically concerned with the cultivation of Loving Kindness, Compassion, Appreciative Joy and Equanimity. These four are called the Four Immeasurables because they are directed to an immeasurable number of sentient beings and because the wholesome Karma produced through practicing them is immeasurable.

The Four Immeasurables make up "True Love", which brings joy to ourselves and to the ones we love. If our love does not bring joy to ourselves and to both of us, it is not true love. In true love, there is also no sense of ourselves being separated from others. These aspects of True Love like all aspects of the Buddha's teachings, inter-are or interconnect; that is to say, each aspect contains all the other aspects.

By cultivating the wholesome attitudes of Loving Kindness, Compassion, Appreciative Joy and Equanimity, people can gradually remove ill will, cruelty, jealousy and desire. In this way, they can achieve happiness for themselves and other, now and in the future.

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