Four thought vibrations

According to the Buddha's teachings there are four emotions used by the higher celestial beings called "Brahmas" to do meditation every day. They are able to live very long lives because of their pure thought forms. There are twenty planes of Brahmas and they meditate on the following four emotions or thought vibrations:

1. Loving kindness (Metta)
2. Compassion (Karuna)
3. Sympathetic joy (Mudita)
4. Equanimity (Upekka)

The words on the right in brackets are in the Pali language. Pali is an ancient language of India used during the time of Gautama Buddha.

There are 40 methods of concentration meditation according to the Buddhist tradition. Concentration meditation on the "Four Brama Viharas" was the name given in the Buddhist scriptures for this type on meditation on the Four Thought Vibrations.

The name Four Thought Vibrations is a modern term that I have coined to teach this form of meditation to modern western audiences.

With the advance of science, it is now possible in modern developed countries to monitor the thought patters of the brain and also see the brain wave patterns on a monitoring device such as a computer screen or TV monitor.

In the normal state, the brain is full of normal every day thoughts such as worries, planning to do something, feeling hunger, doing mundane things like eating, taking a shower or even negative emotions such as greed, anger, hatred or lust. All of these thought activities can now be seen on the monitoring device.

However, when a person is doing meditation on pure and positive emotions such as loving kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy or equanimity, the thought patters take a different form as the mind becomes quiet and settles down by concentrating on one thought such as "loving kindness".

Western science has now discovered and there are numerous studies out there that can prove the fact that a healthy thought form or a thought vibration can result in a healthier body. This is one of the main things that the Buddha's teachings talk about over and over again. During his time, Buddha asked his disciples to control their thoughts by doing meditation on certain meditation objects. Thus the meditation on the "Four Brahma Viharas" is one way of creating positive emotions or positive thought vibrations.

Here I wish to explain a bit about the word "Brahma vihara". Vihara in the Pali language means a place to stay. So when we say "Brahma vihara" we mean to say that these are the emotions that the Brahma celestial beings are always thinking about.

To explain this in another way, when a person is angry, his face will become distorted, he will start to tremble and he will start to shout abusive words. In a sense, the emotion of anger is accompanied by very violent vibrations in the heart and in the whole body and also in the voice.
On the other hand, when a person is thinking about loving kindness or doing a meditation on loving kindness as a meditation object, that persons heart rate will become slower until you cannot even hear the heart beating any more. The face will change and look as though that person is smiling within, he or she will look very calm and satisfied at the emotion of peacefulness. This sort of calmness and serenity can be achieved by doing 'loving kindness meditation" or 'Metta meditation".

This is the meditation method that I teach to western audiences when I have a mixed group of people coming from different religious traditions. This way, we do not go into any arguments about the merits or demerits of any belief system but just enjoy the positive energy of the meditation practitioners.

Let me explain a little bit about "Sympathetic joy" or "Mudita". This emotion is the opposite of jealousy. When we do meditation on "Mudita" we generate in our minds a feeling of being happy at the success of others. We don't feel jealous. If someone is richer than us we feel glad and we feel happy for them. If some one is prettier or more handsome than us, we feel glad and we feel happy for them. This is the emotion that we meditate upon when we are doing meditation on "Mudita" or "Sympathetic joy".

Kyaw Myaing