- Karuna-Cultivation of compassion toward those who are in
sorrow. - Mudita-Cultivation of joy toward those who are virtuous.
- Up eksa-Cultivation of indifference or neutrality toward those
who are full of vices.
These four seem so simple as to be banal. In reality they are subtle
and deep. Remember that I opened the discussion of emotional distur
bances by treating them as naturally occurring flaws by which we dis
sipate our energies. In other words, energy must be enticed within,
increased through techniques of generation, contained, distributed, and
invested within. But in reality we leak energy like a sieve. Whenever
you are jealous of someone else's happiness and fortune, you leak en
ergy. "It should have been me," you say. "Why did he win the lottery,
not me?" Jealousy, envy, and resentment impoverish the person who
feels them, not just morally but energetically. They literally shrink you.
To take joy in the well-being of others is to share in the riches of the
world. When we dip our cup into the infinite, we are enriched, but the
infinite is not diminished. When you stare at the sunset, you are filled
with its beauty, but the sunset remains as beautiful as ever. When you
resent the happiness of others, you lose even the little that you have.
Worse than that, when you are puritanical toward the defects you
perceive in others, when you are condemnatory and disdainful toward
the victims of vice and use their misfortune to feel superior, you are
playing a dangerous game. "There but for the grace of God, go I"
should be your attitude. Otherwise you are setting yourself up for a
fall. Besides which, it is exhausting to spend one's time disapproving of
others. It causes your ego to form a hard shell of false pride and cer
tainly has no reforming effect on the victim of your disapprobation.
Compassion for the suffering of others is more than just sympathy. Thl'
superficial sympathy we express for the woes of others, wlwn Wl' watch
the nightly television news, for example, is often no morl' than a wish
V I 'J' A I. I 'J' Y 'J' II I' I', N I', Ill; Y II 0 I l Y ( /' U II N A I