Mudita

My fiancee is a marathon runner. I've hardly ever run in my life. I've been training in the past few weeks to improve my endurance. I'm not a competitive person, but I'm still afraid I'll be taking a hit to my self-esteem when I go run with her this week. In that light, I went out on the web looking for a good meditation to prepare myself, and I found one on "mudita."

In buddhist philosophy, mudita is the third of the four brahmaviharas, the inner "divine abodes" of lovingkindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity that are every human being's true nature. The term mudita is often narrowly translated as "sympathetic" or "altruistic" joy, the pleasure that comes when we delight in other people's well-being rather than begrudge it. But since in practice, it's all but impossible to experience happiness for others unless we first develop the capacity to taste it in our own lives, many Buddhist teachers interpret mudita more broadly as referring to the inner fountain of infinite joy that is available to each of us at all times, regardless of our circumstances. The more deeply we drink from this fountain, the more secure we become in our own abundant happiness, and the easier it then becomes for us to relish the joy of other people as well.

I love yoga and every bit of the philosophy that I've learned. I wish I knew where to find a more spiritually-based yoga center in downtown Boston. E-mail me if you know of one - so far I've mainly gotten into Iyengar Yoga at Beacon Hill Athletic Clubs.