The Four Sublime States And The Practice Of Loving Kindness

The Four Sublime States And The Practice Of Loving Kindness As Taught By The Buddha In The Pali Canon contains two essays: Four Sublime States by Nyanaponika Thera and The Practice of Loving-Kindness (Mettā) by Ñāṇamoli Thera. The “four sublime states”, known as the brahmavihārās, are the lofty mental states of love, compassion, sympathetic joy and equanimity. Ven. Nyanaponika gives us a brief description of all four with a section of contemplation exercises for each. He closes with a section on the interrelationship of all four. Ven. Ñāṇamoli’s essay focuses on the the basic brahmavihārā of mettā, translating for us in his usual lucid style the key passages from the Pali Canon in which the Buddha taught the practice of mettā.