Mudita

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Muditā ( sympathy, recognition ) is a central concept of Buddhist mind training and ethics . Muditā is part of the Four Immeasurable (Appamaññā) - also called the "Four Divine States of Dwell" ( Brahmavihara ).

The with joy is essentially aimed at being happy with other beings for their well-being and wishing them not to lose this well-being again. In the same way, for example, karunā , compassion , aims to really understand the suffering of others and, on the basis of mutual identification, in the awareness of mutual dependency, to remember or empathize with the other. The consequence of this compassion (thinking) is then the wish that that other being may be freed from his suffering, free himself from the suffering. So while Karunā wishes the beings to be liberated from suffering, Muditā is the wish to attain and maintain a state of well-being free of suffering. What causes this well-being initially does not matter, as long as this well-being is not based on the harm of others and is not visibly to the disadvantage of the experience. Most of all, it is important to understand that something that makes another person happy does not have to be the same as what makes you happy. So you have to disregard your own ideas and try to really understand and empathize with the joy of the other - to empathize.

The opposite of sympathetic joy is envy (issā). This is a karmically unwholesome (akusala) mental factor , which is described in the Abhidhamma as belonging to the hateful mental formations (cf. greed , hatred and delusion as the three mental poisons ). More difficult for the practitioner to see than this opposite state of mind is the near enemy of compassionate joy, worldly cheerfulness , pleasure.

In his commentary on Tipitaka , the Visuddhimagga (Path to Purity), Buddhaghosa sums up the joyfulness:

“ The characteristic of sympathetic joy consists in rejoicing [with beings], their essence in not envy, their expression in driving away displeasure, their basis in recognizing the beings' state of happiness, their success in relieving displeasure, their aberration in the emergence of pleasure. "(Vis.IX.5)

Developing the joy of sharing

The development of shared joy (muditā-bhāvanā) is again described in more detail by Buddhagosa (Vis.IX.3 and Vis.IX.5), the section below follows this representation:

“First of all, you should think of a very dear friend as an object of mutual joy. One who is filled with joy through and through. One rejoices in his fulfilled state and thus directs his sympathy towards him. One should think and feel something like this: 'Oh, how happy this being is. How beautiful is that! ' - A feeling of joy, such as one has when looking at a loved one. "

“For the beginner in the practice of active sympathy, it is unsuitable to choose a loved, indifferent, or even a hostile person as an object. With the beloved, there is very likely more desire than joy in the sense of muditā, one will be indifferent to the person who is indifferent to one, and with the enemy one will tend to have aversion or even hatred. Above all, the extremes of desire and hatred are unwholesome states of mind that do not contribute to the cultivation of Brahmavihara, compassion (muditā), compassion ( karunā ), equanimity ( upekkhā ) and loving-kindness ( mettā ). "

“If one has now managed to feel sympathetic joy with regard to the dear friend, then one extends this practice to the persons who are indifferent to oneself and to the enemies. Only when you have been fully successful here should you include other people and beings. For example, one could first extend the joy of sharing to one's own family, then to all friends, all neighbors, the whole city, etc., until the joy of sharing no longer excludes any being. "

Related forms of compassionate joy

In the Polyamory subculture, there is a similar form of compassionate joy, expressed in the joy that a loved one is loved by someone else and feels happiness. The term compersion exists for this "opposite of jealousy " .

swell