Tứ Vô Lượng Tâm

A. INTRODUCTION ( MC )
Everyone wants to be happy but the happiness cannot be achieved in
isolation. 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 many topics of meditation taught
by the Buddha, there are four specifically concerned with the
cultivation of the Four Immeasurable Minds. The teachings on the Four
Immeasurable Minds occupies a position of great importance in all
Buddhist traditions. ( phần này của MC )

B. CONTENT
I. ETYMOLOGY ( thầy bửu hạnh )
(1) These Four Immeasurable Minds are termed in Pali “brahmavihara”
which may be translated by “sublime states,” or “divine abidings.”
(Vihara means abode or dwelling place, so a brahmavihara is the
dwelling place of Brahma)
In Tevijja Sutta, Digha Nikaya, when a Brahman asked the Buddha,
“What can I do to be sure that I will be with Brahma after I die?”
The Buddha replied, “As Brahma is the source of Love, to dwell
with him you must practice the Brahmaviharas: love, compassion,
joy, and equanimity.”
These virtues tend to elevate man. They make one divine in this
life. If all try to cultivate them, irrespective of creed, colour, race,
 the earth can be transformed into a paradise where all can live in
perfect peace and harmony as ideal citizens of one world.
(2) The four sublime states are also termed appamanna -
illimitables. They find no limit and should be extended towards all
sentient beings without exception; and because the wholesome
karma produced through practising them is extremely great.
In the Itivuttaka, the Buddha says all the virtuous actions such as
building pagodas, making Buddha figures, doing social work,…
cannot bring about one-sixteenth of the merit of practicing love
meditation: “Mendicants, of all the grounds for making worldly
merit, none are worth a sixteenth part of the heart’s release by
love. Surpassing them, the heart’s release by love shines and
glows and radiates”. (The Meditation on Love, So It Was Said, by
Bhikkhu Sujato)

The Brahmaviharas can also lead to liberation and enlightenment.

The Buddha said: “Whoever practices the Four Immeasurable
Minds together with the Four Noble Truths and the Noble
Eightfold Path will arrive deeply at enlightenment.”
(Mettasahagata Sutta, Samyutta Nikaya)
II. THE ELEMENTS OF TRUE LOVE ( thầy bửu hạnh )
The Four Immeasurable Minds include:
(1) Metta — loving kindness (the desire to offer happiness)
(2) Karuna — compassion (the desire to remove suffering from the
other person)
(3) Mudita — joy (the desire to bring joy to people around you, and
allowing their happiness to bring you joy)
(4) Upekkha — equanimity (the desire to accept everything and not to
discriminate).
( Phần tâm từ : Thầy Hữu Sĩ , thầy nhuận giác và sư
minh châu )
1. METTA ( Thầy Hữu Sĩ )
There are many types of emotions, all of which come under the general
term “love”:
(1) “Selfish love” and “selfless love”, Love without any consideration for
the other’s needs of feelings. “Selfless love”, is felt when one person
surrenders his whole being for the good of another.
(2) “Brotherly love” or the love between friends. This kind of love can
be also considered selfish because the love is limited to particular
people.
(3) “Universal love”, “true love” or Metta. Unlike the other kinds of
love, metta can never end in disappointment or frustration, because it
expects no reward. It creates more happiness and satisfaction.
(What Buddhists believe,Venerable K. Sri Dhammananda)

a) DEFINITION ( Thầy Hữu Sĩ )

The first sublime state is metta. Metta is the sincere wish for the
welfare and happiness of all living beings without exception. It is also
defined as the intention and capacity to offer joy and happiness.
“Just as a mother protects her only child even at the risk of her life,
even so one should cultivate boundless loving kindness towards all
living beings” (Metta sutta)
b) ETYMOLOGY ( Thầy Hữu Sĩ )
The Pali word metta has two root meanings.
(1) “gentle.” Metta is likened to a gentle rain that falls upon the earth.
This rain does not select and choose—“I’ll rain here, and I’ll avoid that
place over there.”
(2) “friend.” To understand the power of metta is to understand true
friendship. The Buddha described a true friend as being a helper, who
will protect us and be a refuge to us.

c) THE NATURE OF METTA ( thầy nhuận giác )

(1) Metta is neither attachment nor passion.
Passion is feelings of desire, of wanting or of owning and possessing.
The expectation of exchange that underlies most passion is both
conditional and ultimately defeating.
Sentimentality, the other mental state that pretences as love, is really
an ally of delusion. It limits itself only to experiences of pleasure.
Sentimentality finds pain unbearable and so rejects it.
(2) Metta counters ill-will, aversion, anger. It can also uproot fear or
guilt. A mind that is saturated by metta cannot be overcome by fear.
-The Buddha states:
Hatreds do not cease through hatreds:
through love alone they cease.
Metta not only tends to conquer anger. One who has metta never
thinks of harming others, nor does he condemn others. (Ven. Narada)
Loving-kindness is the most effective method to maintain purity of mind
and to purify the mentally polluted atmosphere. When a group of
monks told the Buddha that the spirits living near their forest
monastery were causing others to suffer, the Buddha taught the
Discourse on Love. After several months of reciting and practicing the
Metta Sutta, the monks came to understand the sufferings of the
troubled spirits. As a result, the spirits began to practice, also. They
became filled with the energy of love, and the whole forest was
peaceful. (Sutta Nipata, Chapter 1, Sutta 8)
Metta overcomes the illusion of separateness, of not being part of a
whole. Thereby metta overcomes all of the states of separateness—
fear, alienation, loneliness, and despair. The genuine realization of
connectedness brings unification, confidence, and safety.
(3) Metta is limitless in scope and range. Barriers it has none.
Discrimination it makes not. it embraces all living beings including
oneself.
-Such was the boundless metta of the Buddha who worked for the
welfare and happiness of those who loved him as well as of those who
hated him and even attempted to harm and kill him.
-Authentic intimacy is not brought about by denying our own desire to
be happy in unhappy deference to others. Metta means equality,
oneness, wholeness. To truly walk the Middle Way of the Buddha, to
avoid the extremes of addiction and self-hatred.
Trong thanh tịnh đạo luận có ví dụ

“Suppose a bandit were to approach a person travelling through a

forest with an intimate friend, a neutral person and an enemy, and
suppose he were to demand that one of them be offered as a victim. If
the traveller were to say that he himself should be taken, then he would
have no metta towards himself. If he were to say that anyone of the
other three persons should be taken, then he would have no metta
towards them. Such is the characteristic of real metta” (Visuddhi
Magga)
(4) the true nature of love is the source of healing for ourselves and our
world. This is the ground of freedom.
“We can open to everything with the healing force of love. When we
feel love, our mind is expansive and open enough to include the entirety
of life in full awareness, both its pleasures and its pains.”(The
Revolutionary Art of Happiness, Sharon Salzberg)
(5) The other sublime minds—compassion, sympathetic joy, and
equanimity—grow out of metta, which supports and extends these
states.

d) THE BENEFITS OF METTA ( Sư Minh Châu )

In the Anguttara Nikaya, the Buddha mentions eleven advantages of
practicing love meditation:
“(1) One sleep at ease. (2) One wake happily. (3) One don’t have bad
dreams. (4) Humans love One. (5) Non-humans love One. (6) Deities
protect One. (7) One can’t be harmed by fire, poison, or blade. (8)
One’s mind quickly enters immersion. (9) One’s face is clear and bright.
(10) One doesn’t feel lost when one die. (11) If one doesn’t penetrate
any higher, one’ll be reborn in a Brahmā realm.” (The Numerical Discourses of
the Buddha, The Book of the Elevens,The Chapter on Recollection, Loving-Kindness, by Bhikkhu
Sujato)
e) METHODS TO CULTIVATE METTA ( Sư Minh Châu )
In Subha Sutta, Majjhima Nikaya, the Buddha taught: “With his mind
filled with love, the monk permeates one direction, and then a second,
a third, a fourth, above, below, and all around, everywhere identifying
himself with all. He permeates the whole world with his mind filled with
love, wide, far, developed, unbound, free from hatred and ill will. He
does the same with his mind filled with compassion, joy, and
equanimity.”

Còn bổ sung thêm phần tu tập ( Sư Minh Châu ) – phần này dài
2 trang

Phần tâm bi : Thầy Hữu Lộc và Chúc Giáo

2. KARUNA ( Thầy Hữu Lộc và Chúc Giáo )
a) DEFINITION ( Thầy Hữu Lộc )
The second aspect of Brahma-viharas is karuna, compassion. Karuna is
the wish for all beings to be free from suffering. It is the intention and
capacity to relieve and transform suffering and lighten sorrows.

b) ETYMOLOGY ( Thầy Hữu Lộc )

Compassion is translated literally from the Pali and Sanskrit word
karuna, which means experiencing “a trembling or of the heart” in
response to a being’s pain.
c) THE NATURE OF KARUNA ( Thầy Hữu Lộc )
(1) Karuna makes the heart quiver when others are subject to suffering.
It is compassion that compels one to serve others with altruistic
motives.
A truly compassionate person lives not for himself but for others. He
seeks opportunities to serve others expecting nothing in return, not
even gratitude. (Ven. Narada)
(2) Compassion counters cruelty and grief.
In Buddhist psychology, grief are known as compassion’s near enemies,
because it may disguise itself as compassion. Compassion’s far enemy,
cruelty, is so clearly the opposite state that it is easy to detect.
We may feel angry at injustice. We may become afraid when we
witness the fear of others. We may feel grief over the losses suffered by
others. All of these feelings are similar to compassion, “the trembling of
the heart.” But compassion is quite different from anger, fear, and grief.
These states of aversion can drain and destroy us.
(3) Compassion is not at all weak. It is the strength that arises out of
seeing the true nature of suffering in the world.
“To develop an open heart, to be truly compassionate, doesn’t mean
that we need to be passive, to allow others to abuse us, to smile and let
anyone do what they want with us.” (Ven. Sujiva)
Compassion is a mind state in which there is no bitter, condemning
judgment of oneself or of others. This mind does not see the world in
terms of good and bad, right and wrong; it sees only “suffering and the
end of suffering.”
To view life compassionately, we have to look at what is happening and
at the conditions that gave rise to it. The essence of the Buddha’s
teachings is the understanding that all things in the conditioned
universe arise due to a cause.
To see the interdependent arising of these impersonal forces that make
up our “selves” can provide the opening for forgiveness and
compassion.

d) THE BENEFIT OF KARUNA ( Thầy chúc giáo )

Karuna also has elevent benefits as Metta does.
Karuna arises a sense of purpose, a sense of meaning so strong in our
lives that no matter what the circumstances, no matter what the
situation, our goal or our greatest desire at any moment is to express
genuine love.

f) EXERCISES: ( Thầy chúc giáo )

“To develop compassion in ourselves, we need to practice mindful
breathing, deep listening, and deep looking. The Lotus Sutra describes
Avalokiteshvara as the bodhisattva who practices “looking with the
eyes of compassion and listening deeply to the cries of the world”.
(Teachings on Love, Thich Nhat Hanh)
(1) Exercise: Meditation on Compassion
In doing compassion meditation, we usually use just one or two
phrases, such as “May you be free of your pain and sorrow” or “May
you find peace.”
The first object of the compassion meditation is someone with great
physical or mental suffering. The Visudhimagga state that this should be
a real person.
You can progress from there through the same sequence in the metta
practice: self, benefactor, friend, neutral person, difficult person, all
beings, all living beings,… all females, all males,… all beings in the ten
directions.
If you feel yourself moving from compassion into fear or sorrow, accept
that this is natural. Breathe softly, and use your awareness of the
breath to anchor yourself in this moment.
(2) Giving support and helping others, practicing the perfection of
giving.
The Buddha himself expressed compassion in different ways. His
compassion was measureless. His service to beings ranged from caring
for the sick to teaching a path of liberation.
One compassionate word, action, or thought can reduce another
person’s suffering, give confidence, destroy doubt, reconcile a conflict,
or open the door to liberation. With compassion in our heart, every
thought, word, and deed can bring about a miracle.
Phần tâm hỷ : ( Thầy Quảng Nghị và sư minh viên )
3. MUDITA

a)DEFINITION ( sư minh viên )

“It is a rare and beautiful qualify to truly happy when others are happy.
When we take delight in the happiness of another, when we genuinely
rejoice at their prosperity, success, or good fortune rather than
begrudging it in any way, we are abiding in mudita” (Bhante Sujiva)
The third sublime state is Mudita - Appreciative Joy. It is the wholesome
attitude of rejoicing in the happiness and virtues of all sentient beings.
It counters Jealousy and makes people less self-centred.

b) ETYMOLOGY ( sư minh viên )

The root of the Pali word mudita means “to be pleased, to have a sense
of gladness.” The Buddha called mudita “the mind-deliverance of
gladness,” because this force of happiness actually liberates us.

c) THE CHARACTERISTICS OF MUDITA ( sư minh viên )

(1) the difference between sukha-happiness and mudita-joy:
Commentators provide this example: Someone traveling in the desert
sees a stream of cool water and experiences joy. On drinking the water,
he experiences happiness.
(2) Mudita arises from meditation and not from the pursuit of the five
worldly pleasures. Meditative joy has the capacity to nourish our
mindfulness, understanding, and love.
Laughter are not the characteristics of mudita as exhilaration is
regarded as its indirect enemy.
“A deeper definition of mudita is a joy that is filled with peace and
contentment?” (Teachings on love, Thich Nhat Hanh)
(3) Mudita tends to eliminate envy, boredom, judgment, comparing,
discriminating, demeaning, avarice,… which are rooted in aversion and
attachment.
-For example, envy is the inability to endure the success, prosperity, or
happiness of others. The experience of envy only produce more and
more dissatisfaction and to make us miserable.
-Despite the hatred egoism evident in some human actions,
remembering the courage, and love people are capable of awakening
our appreciation. When we feel happy for others, we feel connected
ourselves. The dullness of boredom is dissolved. Attending to the small
things in our life becomes a way of self-renewal.
Qualities that support mudita—rapture, gratitude, metta, compassion
—share their origin in our basic goodness, and they form a potent team
to reduce suffering and to bring happiness.
(4) Mudita strengthens metta and keeps compassion from degenerating
into brooding over the enormous suffering in the world.
As mudita grows, we see that the happiness of others is our happiness.
Sympathetic joy allows us to open further and further with
lovingkindness, so that more and more we really do want other people
to be happy.
(5) The practice of metta and karuna is easier than the practice of
mudita which demands great personal effort and strong will-power.
Because there are so many constricting mind states (comparing,
discriminating, envy,…) that are impediments to mudita, sympathetic
joy is considered the most difficult of all the brahmaviharas to develop.
d) THE BENEFITS OF MUDITA ( Thầy Quảng Nghị )

-Mudita also has eleven benefits as Metta does.

-The joy of sharing merit generates considerable power.
In The Sutra of Forty-two Chapters, Buddha said that when you offer
your merit to others, your own merit grows: “It is like thousands of
people who light their torches from the flame of a single torch, to cook
food and dispel darkness, yet the original flame is undiminished. So it is
with these blessings.”
Wishing to diminish the happiness of others only diminishes our own.
Likewise, increasing the happiness of others, even of people we do not
like, increases our own.

e) HOW TO CULTIVATE MUDITA ( Thầy Quảng Nghị )

These three exercises are also along the lines of the Visuddhimagga:
(1) May I know how to nourish the seeds of joy in myself every day. May
you know how to nourish the seeds of joy in yourself every day. May
they know how to nourish the seeds of joy in themselves every day.
(2) May I be able to live fresh, solid, and free. May you be able to live
fresh, solid, and free. May they be able to live fresh, solid, and free.
(3) May I be free from attachment and aversion, but not be indifferent.
May we be free from attachment and aversion, but not be indifferent.
May they be free from attachment and aversion, but not be indifferent.
These meditations help us water the seeds of joy and happiness in our
store consciousness. Joy and happiness are the food of a monk.
F) Exercise 1 ( Thầy Quảng Nghị )
-As we undertake sympathetic joy as a formal meditation practice, we
begin with someone whom we care about; someone it is easy to rejoice
for.
Choose a friend and focus on a particular source of joy in this person’s
life. Whatever good fortune or happiness of theirs comes to your mind,
take delight in it with the phrase:
“May your happiness and good fortune not leave you”
or “May your happiness not diminish”
or “May your good fortune continue.”
This will help diminish the conditioned tendencies of conceit,
demeaning others, and judgment.
Following this, we move through the sequence of beings: benefactor,
neutral person, enemy, all living beings,… all beings in the ten
directions.
-Traditionally, sympathetic joy is practiced in sympathy with others, not
in terms of oneself. What is essential to develop in terms of oneself are
the abilities to rejoice and to have gratitude. This is a source of
exceptional gratitude.
Exercise 2: Sharing Merit ( Thầy Quảng Nghị )
At the end of an act of generosity, or meditation, or anything
wholesome, we can share the merit of the act with anyone we choose.
Feel the positive energy of the action, and dedicate it: “May the merit
of this action be shared by all beings, so that they may be liberated.”
We share the merit as an acknowledgment that our practices is never
really for ourselves alone.
( Phần Tâm Xả : Thầy Đức Ngộ , Thầy Vạn Tưởng ,Thầy Vạn
Sơn )

4. UPEKKHA

a. DEFINITION ( Thầy Đức Ngộ )

The fourth sublime state is Upekkha - equanimity which means non-
attachment, non-discrimination, even-mindedness, or letting go.
Upekkha is the ability to see everyone as equal and not discriminate
between ourselves and other people.

a. ETYMOLOGY ( Thầy Đức Ngộ )

In Pali, equanimity is called upekkha. The meaning of the term upekkha
is “seeing rightly” “viewing justly”, “looking impartially”, that is, without
attachment or aversion, without favour or disfavour.
“In Sanskrit, equanimity is called Upeksha. Upa means “over,” and iksh
means “to look.” You climb the mountain to be able to look over the
whole situation, not bound by one side or the other. If your love has
attachment, discrimination, prejudice, or clinging in it, it is not true
love.” (Teachings on love, Thich Nhat Hanh)
 b. THE CHARACTERISTICS OF UPEKKHA ( Thầy Đức Ngộ )

(1)The fourth boundless state is the most difficult and the most
important to practice.
(2)The characteristic of Upekkha is to arrest the mind before it falls
into extremes: attachment (its direct enemy) and indifference (its
indirect enemy). True equanimity is neither cold nor indifferent.
-As the Buddha taught, rather than being lost in conditioned reactions,
we can learn to be balanced in response to them. Such balance does not
mean that we do not feel things anymore. Meditation does not turn us
into gray. The Buddha taught that we can feel pleasure fully, yet
without craving or clinging, without defining it as our ultimate
happiness. We can feel pain fully without condemning or hating it.

-People who do not understand Buddhism sometimes have a

misconception that upekkha means indifference. Indifference is a subtle
form of aversion. There is no aversion in dispassion’s calm sureness.

Equanimity doesn’t mean indifference. For example, if a mother have

more than one child, they are all her children. Upekkha does not mean
that she doesn’t love. She love in a way that all her children receive her
love, without discrimination.

(3) Equanimity provides the balance for metta, karuna and mudita.
Equanimity endows loving - kindness, compassion, and sympathetic joy
with their sense of patience, that ability to be constant and to endure.
-For example, when we practice the other three brahma-viharas,
we can slip into a sense of trying to manage people. We might be
working to generate a feeling of loving - kindness toward someone, and
start to feel impatient with them: “Why aren’t you happy yet? Get
happy! Start behaving properly.”
-Equanimity has all of the warmth of the previous three states, but it
also has balance, wisdom, and the understanding that things are as
they are, and that we cannot control someone else’s karma:
“All beings are the owners of their karma.
Their happiness and unhappiness depend
on their actions, not on my wishes for
them.”
This does not mean that we do not care. We do and we should care. We
choose to open our hearts and to offer as much love, compassion, and
rejoicing as we possibly can, and we also let go of results.

d) THE BENEFITS OF UPEKKHA ( Thầy Vạn Tưởng )

(1)Upekkha discards clinging and aversion. One who practises
equanimity is neither attracted by desirable objects nor is averse
to undesirable objects. His mind remains tranquil and serene.
Equanimity is a stillness of the mind that allows us to be present fully
with all the different changing experiences that constitute our world
and our lives.
As the Buddha said, pleasure and pain, gain and loss, praise and blame,
fame and disrepute constantly arise and pass away, beyond our control.
No one in this world experiences only pleasure and no pain, and no one
experiences only gain and no loss. When we open to this truth, we
discover that there is no need to hold on or to push away. We should
not judge but rather cultivate a balance of mind that can receive what
is happening. This acceptance is the source of our safety and
confidence.
(2)Equanimity’s understanding of relatedness helps us to
comprehend the profound law of karma which illuminates the
causes of happiness and suffering and clarifies the path to
changing our condition.
“To see things as they are, to see the changing nature, to see the
impermanence, to see that constant flow of pleasant and painful events
beyond our control. That is freedom” (Sharon Salzberg)
We must remember that our relationship with our relatives, masters,
friends and even enemies, are the results of previous Karma. Thus we
should not cling to relatives and friends while regarding others with
indifference or hatred.
(3)Equanimity gives us the ability to relate to each situation as if it
were new, with lightness and sensitive resilience, instead of rigidly
applying old standards and responses to it.
“Equanimity also strengthens decisiveness, straightness, honesty, and
sincerity of mind. It empowers faith or confidence, the capacity to trust
in our actions and our being.” (Ven. Narada)

e) HOW TO CULTIVATE UPEKKHA ( Thầy Vạn Sơn )

The first person we begin to generate equanimity toward is the
person said to be the easiest—that is, the neutral person.
Holding a sense of this person in your mind, you can recite the
equanimity phrases.
“All beings are the owners of their karma. Their happiness and
unhappiness depend upon their actions, not upon my wishes for them.”
Or you can change them however you wish. Some possibilities are:
“May we all accept things as they are.”
“May we be undisturbed by the comings and goings of events.”
“I will care for you but cannot keep you from suffering.”
“I wish you happiness but cannot make
your choices for you.”

After offering equanimity to the neutral person, the sequence is: the
benefactor, friend, enemy, oneself, all beings, . . . groupings, . . . and all
beings in the ten directions. Gently recite the equanimity phrase and
direct it to each of these categories in turn.
If you feel your mind slipping into indifference, reflect on the fact that
equanimity can bring one courage to face change and adversity. Reflect
on the immensity of change, and how much things are outside of our
control.
Then go back to repeating the equanimity phrases. Once you feel
established in the equanimity practice, you can begin to combine it
with other brahma-viharas.
After some time, switch to equanimity practice. You will find that the
spirit of love, compassion, and joy is balanced by equanimity, and that
equanimity is enriched by each of the other brahma-viharas. The
practice of these four together will lead to a deep feeling of well-being
that is not dependent on conditions. Barriers between different parts of
ourselves, and between ourselves and others, can be melted, and we
can awaken to a new way of living.
V. Benefits of the four immeasurables : ( Thầy Nhuận Thiện )

1. Open your soul, live in peace and harmony with everyone. Only
when we attain to the four immeasurable minds, we have true
peace and happiness .
2. These are the subjects that lead to one-pointedness, attainment of
form meditation and the holy results.
3. It's help eliminate four kinds of afflictions: anger, harm, jealousy,
greed
4. It serves as the foundation for developing and cultivating
bodhicitta, the bodhisattva path.
5.
VI. Some of notes about the four immeasurable minds : ( Thầy Nhuận
Thiện )
1. when you practice the true immeasurable mind, there is no
greed, no anger, no attachment, and no pollution. On the
contrary, the immeasurable mind is not true.
2. In order to practice the boundless mind to be accomplished, we
need to be sincere, purity and one pointmind
3. We have to goodwill when pratice the four immeasurable
minds
4. We have to practice perfection the precept and patience to
support the four immeasurable minds
VII. Practicing the four immeasurables minds in daily life ( Thầy
Nhuận Tạng )
1. Education :
- To open Buddhist classes to guide Buddhists to study the Buddha's
teachings.
- To organize summer retreat to educate people so that they have the
opportunity to listen and transform their bodies and minds .
- Through tea meditation to feel suffering and to share happiness with
other people , congratulation to other’s success, letting go ego , living
harmony with other people .
- To open charity class such as : charity english class ... to share
knowledge and experience learning .
2. Charity activities
- Calling people to support flood disaster people to stabilize their lives .
- Sharing such as: money, belongings , knowledge ... with difficult
people in life .
- Take care of other people when they sick or get a troubles .
- To establish scholarship funds for poor students to encourage them .
- To build houses of love and social protection centers for elderly,
orphans child...
3. Environmental ethics education
- Propaganda to preserve and protect the environment, do not to cut
down forests, plant trees for safe air and do not leave litter .
- To practice liberating animals to respect their life . It's also respect
human being . When loving kindness is nourished by yourself then the
world will live in peace and happiness .

VII . The images of bodhisattvas in mahayana tradition ( Thầy

Nhuận Hạnh )
1. metta ( tâm từ )

Avalokitesvara is a bodhisattva who embodies compassion in Mahayana

Buddhism. With 12 vows and 32 incarnations Avalokitesvara
Bodhisattva has always been referred to as a great mother from ancient
time until now. He considers all sentient beings as his own children,
always listening to the sound of suffering of the world to help, protect
sentient beings to overcome suffering and defilement in life.
Everyone is usually come to statue of Avalokitesvara bodhisattva to vow
something or when they get a problem in the life .
2. karuṇā ( Tâm bi )

Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva is a bodhisattva in Mahayana Buddhism. With

compassion mind, he is known for his vow to save all sentient beings in
the six paths of samsara and his vow not to attain Buddhahood if there
are still sentient beings for suffering in hell. Therefore, Ksitigarbha
bodhisattva is seen as the bodhisattva of the hell beings or the master of
the Dark Realm.
3. muditā ( tâm hỷ )
- According to the scriptures, Maitreya Bodhisattva is a bodhisattva who
is predicted in the future to become a buddha and appear in the world to
save sentient beings from the sufferings of samsara. The image of
Bodhisattva Maitreya is created in the form of joyful smiles with all
sentient beings. In terms of appearance, it has a short and fat body, a big
belly that holds the whole world, and a comfortable sitting posture,
which is a symbol of peace, freedom, joy.

- In addition, many naughty children surrounded him with the meaning

that he was in control of his mind and was not swayed by the six senses
and the six senses, no longer suffering from afflictions.
4. Upekkhā ( tâm xả )

Shakyamuni buddha when he was Prince Siddhārtha, he cut his hair and
gave up family to find the way to enlightenment to free himself and all
sentient beings from suffering. That image represents the mind letting
go, he was not stick anything, when he realizes and gives up selfish
greed, delusion, angry . In other words, he has found the middle path,
abandoning the two extreme ways of life, the elimination of afflictions
and suffering and to end the cycle of birth and death.

VIII. Conclusion : ( Phần nay của MC )

The four immeasurables of loving-kindness, compassion, joy, and

equanimity are peaceful and noble states of mind that we need time and
effort to practice seriously .
The main porpose of practice is to attain samadhi to help our mind be
immeasurable so that we can conquer the infinite amount of afflictions
accomplishes immeasurable merit

IX. References ( thư mục tham khảo – thầy nhuận hạnh đảm nhiệm
( sẽ bổ sung sau ạ ) )

Phần số 10 : Mini game ( MC đảm nhiệm )