Brahmavihara – four divine abodes, four divine emotions, four immeasurables, four sublime attitudes

Source: wikipedia

The four Brahmaviharas are a series of virtues and Buddhist meditation practices designed to cultivate those virtues. Brahmavihara is a term in Pali and Sanskrit meaning “Brahma abidings”, or "Sublime attitudes." They are also known as the Four Immeasurables.

According to the Metta Sutta, Shakyamuni Buddha held that cultivation of the Brahmavihāras has the power to cause the practitioner to be re-born into a Brahma realm (Pali: Brahmaloka). The meditator is instructed to radiate out to all beings in all directions the mental states of:
1) loving-kindness or benevolence,
2) compassion,
3) sympathetic joy, and,
4) equanimity.

These virtues are also highly regarded by Buddhists as powerful antidotes to those negative mental states (non-virtues) like avarice, anger, pride and so on.

Brahmavihara may be parsed into "Brahma" and vihara; which is often rendered into English as "sublime" or "divine abodes". They are also called the "Four Immeasurables," or "the four sublime attitudes (loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy and equanimity)", and are Buddhist virtues that followers can cultivate endlessly, that are without limits, as good qualities for any Buddhist to possess in good measure. They form a sequence of Buddhist virtues recommended in the Brahmavihara Sutta.

When developed to a high degree in meditation, they are said to make the mind "immeasurable" and like the mind of the loving Brahma gods.

Metta/Maitri:
loving-kindness towards all; the hope that a person will be well; loving kindness is "the wish that all sentient beings, without any exception, be happy."

Karuna:
compassion; the hope that a person's sufferings will diminish; compassion is the "wish for all sentient beings to be free from suffering."

Mudita:
altruistic joy in the accomplishments of a person, oneself or other; sympathetic joy, "is the wholesome attitude of rejoicing in the happiness and virtues of all sentient beings."

Upekkha/Upeksha:
equanimity, or learning to accept both loss and gain, praise and blame, success and failure with detachment, equally, for oneself and for others; equanimity means "not to distinguish between friend, enemy or stranger, but regard every sentient being as equal. It is a clear-minded tranquil state of mind - not being overpowered by delusions, mental dullness or agitation."

Metta and Karuna are both hopes for the future (leading, where possible, to action aimed at realizing those hopes), while Mudita and Upekkha are attitudes to what has already happened, but also having consequences for future action. While these four might be delineated as attitudes of the future or past, they contain the seed of the "present" within their core (as a living embodied practice). This is the essence of the spiritual laws of karma, self-responsibility, and samma sankkalpa - right thoughts. A dedicated intention that all beings are in the "here and now" tranquil, happy, in touch with their gifted talents/accomplishments, and feel interconnected by that synergy to eschew suffering by abdication.