the four rooms of the heart

The old traditions speak of four brahmavihāras — the word means something like "spacious dwellings." Not virtues to perform. Rooms to live in.

Maitrī, friendliness. Karuṇā, compassion for those who suffer. Muditā, gladness at another's gladness. Upekṣā, the even mind that does not tip over.

They appear in the Buddhist teachings as places the heart can dwell, and Patañjali lists the same four in the Yoga Sūtras — friendliness toward the happy, compassion toward the suffering, gladness toward the good, evenness toward the rest — as a way of keeping the mind clear, the way you keep a well clean.

In most houses, muditā is the least furnished of the four rooms. We visit friendliness daily and compassion when the news demands it. The room where we are simply glad that someone else's child is thriving — that one gathers dust.

You do not have to move in tonight. It is enough to know the room is there.