Goodwill All Around
November 02, 2006
Every evening before the meditation, we chant the four brahmaviharas. Actually just chant the words that are meant to be conducive to these sublime attitudes. And they are meant to remind you that it’s good to actually cultivate these attitudes as part of your practice. They are the context for what we’re doing, thoughts of goodwill. If the Buddha’s teachings weren’t based on a motive for goodwill, he wouldn’t have focused on the issue of suffering, the issue of stress. He wouldn’t have focused on the question of how to put an end to suffering and stress as the primary point of the Dharma. So we have to assume that that was the underlying motive, both for his teaching and for the practice of his teachings. That’s what we are doing right now, we are looking for an end of suffering, trying to find a true happiness.