STED 4bv☮️ , brahma-viharas, and symbols for them 1.🤝🤗 2.👐😊 3.😊 4.🛆👁️

(pali & english text, and audio here)

https://audtip.blogspot.com/2019/06/4bv-4-brahma-vihara-pali-and-english.html

An explanation of the 4bv emoticons 

4👑☸ → STED → 4bv☮️ → 1.🤝🤗 2.👐😊 3.😊 4.🛆👁️   (⤴)

4bv☮️ 🔬details

4bv☮️: brahma-vihāra: 4 divine-dwellings.
1. Mettā🤝🤗: friendly-kindness.
2. Karuṇā👐😊: Compassion.
3. Muditā😊: Altruistic-mirth.
4. Upekkhā🛆👁️: Equanimous-observation.

4. upekkha 

as a brahma vihara, uses the same emoji as upekkha in other Dhamma factors like 4th jhana, 7th awakening factor, etc. 🛆👁️ The Triangle is an equilateral triangle representing balance, 'equanimity'.  It's also reminiscent of the Pyramid and eye on the tip. The eye emoticon, is the same one used for "right view". To tie in the idea in 7sb, that with a mind in samadhi, the equanimous-observation of upekkha, is easily purified to attain right view. 

1. metta

the two hands 🤝🤗: are shaking, as in the modern western custom of friendly platonic gesture of good will. I originally followed Thanissaro in translating metta as 'good-will', but then realized I wanted to differentiate it from the abyapada (non-ill-will) that occurs frequently. Metta is closely related to "mitta" (friend), so I thought it would be good to re-establish that relationship with "friendly-kindness." Now I could have just used "friendliness", but "friendly-kindness" is a nice antidote to the frequent translation that B. Bodhi and Tibetan Buddhists use for metta, "loving-kindness." Love is loaded with too much entangled emotional baggage. Metta in the suttas, especially as a brahma-vihara, does not have that kind of connotation, as far as I've seen. If someone can show some EBT passages to suggest otherwise, I'd like to see it. 

2. karuna

Note the difference between 👐😊: and the metta emoji. Metta is more 'clingy' and emotional. The smiling face in metta has hands hugging the face. In karuna, the hands are open, a less clingy gesture and a more open attitude of wanting to help relieve beings from dukkha.

3. mudita

Now compared with karuna, mudita Muditā😊  is just the smiling without the open hands. As we move from 1st 4bv, to 2nd, to third, mind becomes less clingy, more open and expansive. I like B. Bodhi's translation of mudita as "gladness", but I translate this as altruistic-mirth for a few reasons. One, there are so many words that mean 'happy', that I wanted to pick a 'happy' word that starts with 'm' to make it easy to learn the pali word and remember it. Second, 'pa-mojja' is a closely related word, that occurs in the 7sb along with Piti of piti-sambojjhanga, and I translate that as "mirth", so I wanted to establish and show the connection between pamojja of 7sb, mudita of 4bv, and abhi-p-pa-modaham cittam from 16APS.

For mudita, I preface the 'mirth' with 'altruistic', as in altruistic-mirth. This is to emphasize that as a 4bv brahmavihara, one doesn't just  have any generic type of joy, it's a happiness that delights in virtuous activity. That is, delighting in other beings keeping sila well, practicing the 8aam noble eightfold path well.

what sutta passage give detailed meaning of mudita in 4bv brahma-viharas?

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Post by frank k » Tue Jun 18, 2019 4:34 pm

pa-mojja and piti often occur together, almost like synonyms.
(mudita is closely related to pa-mojja).

There are a number of passages where pamojja and piti has the role of being delighted, gladdened, in the context of 7sb awakening factors, that one's viriya and right effort are purifying the mind and sila.

But are there any sutta passages that explicitly establish the mudita as a 4bv factor, has the same function, in delighting in virtue and purification?

In Vimuttimagga, it also states that mudita is delighting in virtue.

But in Vism., it seems to go off on tangents, of being a type of joy in opposition to the negative emotion of jealousy. I'm interested in EBT passages that can justify Vism's tangent, or give explicit support for Vimt. interpretation, and the connection to 7sb piti-sambojjhanga and pa-mojja.