This time on the Healing at the Edge podcast, RamDev shares a map of the heart laid out in the Buddhist Brahma Viharas and in the path of devotion.
Maps of the Heart
What are the greatest qualities of the heart? Dale shares the Buddhist teaching of the four Brahma Viharas. Four aspects of the heart that, with practice, we can embody in the pursuit of liberation for ourselves and others.
Love’s Guardian (7:55)
Of the four Brahma Viharas, equanimity is the most most important and most difficult quality to practice with and cultivate. We look at the key role that equanimity plays in keeping the heart in check. Dale shares insight on how we can cultivate equanimity in our own heats.
“Equanimity is the quality that keeps the other three Brahma Viharas from being defiled. So, I am feeling compassion. There is somebody in front of me that is clearly suffering. I begin to feel compassion, but then my compassion starts slipping over into, ‘I would like to fix you. I know just what you need. I’m going to do this for you right now.’ It is this quality of equanimity that keeps the open heart from sliding over into the enemy of the original quality. Equanimity is the protector of love and compassion.” – RamDev RamDev
Path of Devotion (20:40)
Dales shares another way into the abode of the heart that is blazed by the path of devotion. He talks about the boundaries we need to learn that allow us to work with the energy that we encounter on this path.
“There is also a path of devotion. Where instead of having an equanimous heart and mind, one drowns in love. One goes so deeply into love that one begins to disappear.” – RamDev RamDev
