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.

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Episode link in bio.

Also available on Youtube, iTunes, & Spotify – search ‘Guru Viking Podcast’.

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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

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Previous episodes with Leigh Brasington:
- guruviking.com/search?q=brasington

To find our more about Leigh Brasington visit:
- leighb.com

For more interviews, videos, and more visit:
- guruviking.com

Music ‘Deva Dasi’ by Steve James