This podcast is offered by the San Francisco Zen Center on the web at www.sfcc.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations from people like you. Good evening, everyone. Joyous spring evening. And for those of you who don't know me, my name is Tenzin David Zimmerman, and I am a resident here and a priest here and a teacher here. And I want to welcome you all to Beginner's Mind Temple. And I'm often curious to see who's here for the first time. Great. Welcome. Wonderful. So, welcome again. So, when I was a child... I spent a number of years in a Mennonite children's home. And every, twice a week, we went to church.

[01:01]

And usually on Sunday, there was Sunday school. And there was a song that I learned that was called, I Have a Joy Down in My Heart. It's a Christian song. Does anyone know this song? A few of you? Okay. I'll give you a few of the lyrics. Okay. I'm a terrible singer, so my apologies in advance for not being able to give the perfect tune. So the lyrics go something like this, and I'll just do two of the stanzas. I have the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart. Where? Down in my heart. Where? Down in my heart. I have the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart. Where? Down in my heart to stay. And then there's another couple of verses about I have the joy of Jesus down in my heart, something along those lines. You can replace Jesus with Buddha or any other figure that brings you joy down in your heart. And then there's another verse that I want to point to. It says, I've got the peace that passes understanding down in my heart.

[02:05]

Where? Down in my heart. Where? Down in my heart. I've got the peace that passes understanding. Down in my heart. Where? Down in my heart to stay. So thank you very much for entertaining that and my poor singing skills. This song has been circling in my head all week because I've been thinking about joy. And joy is one of the four boundless abodes, or four boundless heart qualities known as the Brahma Viharas. And there are a number of us here who are studying for the six-week spring practice period, the Brahma Viharas, the divine abodes. They're also known as. And they are four limitless qualities of mind or heart. And they include everybody. What's the first one? Metta, which is often translated as kindness.

[03:09]

And what's the second one? Karuna, which is often translated as compassion. And the third one is motita, which is often translated as sympathetic joy. And I'll say a little bit more about that. And what's the fourth one? Which translates as equanimity. Great, you guys are already good. You've got it. Okay. So these are really considered the Buddhist heart teachings and they're really the kind of the connect us with our deepest desire for happiness. And they are often what we say can be aroused or cultivated through particular meditation practices. And so tonight, as I said, I'm going to speak on the third one, Mudita. So the last few weeks we've looked at metta, kindness, our goodwill. We've also looked at compassion last week, and now we're moving on to the third room in the house of love, you could say.

[04:10]

So this seed of joy, this joy down in my heart, is a joy that's actually an innate aspect of our true nature. So we all have the capacity to experience peace and joy. And you only need to watch children playing in a part to really see how this is kind of an essential quality of who we are as human beings. It just comes naturally forward from them, even at a very young age. And to know this joy is to know, as the song goes, a peace that passes understanding. It's a form of knowing before conceptuality. before we even think about, well, what is joy? Should it be joyful here, right? It's something that arises from a very deep place in us. And we can learn, so it's an innate quality, but we can also learn to cultivate it, to develop it, to understand what are the roots of joy, right?

[05:16]

What's the roots of joy? And also, as we study how to cultivate joy, we also study what are the obstacles to experiencing joy, what keeps us from connecting to, realizing, and expressing joy in some way, right? And with practice to even, it's said, be able to abide in joy in all circumstances. All circumstances. Even very difficult circumstances, right? So that's a pretty amazing proposition, right? Always to be in a... place of joy and an abode of joy? How is that possible? And one of the things to point to, therefore, is that joy is not, true joy is not dependent on external circumstances. It's not outside getting conditions to be just the right way, which is oftentimes what we think we have to do. If I get things just right, I'll be happy and joyful.

[06:18]

And then we rush around our whole lives trying to get things right. And even if we get it right for just a moment's it's going to change, right? And then we run after trying to, again, re-sustain it or get the conditions right once more. So it's exhausting. So instead, to look at how is joy an internal experience, an internal resting, if you will, in a natural state. And I'm going to say that this natural state is a state of openness, a state of of calm, of stillness, and also of wholeness. A wholeness that we all share. It's one fabric of wholeness. So another name for the knowing of this state, I would say, is love. And joy is, again...

[07:23]

one of the four faces or expressions or manifestations of love. So mudita, mudita. Is that correct, Kodo? Mudita or mudita? Mudita. Okay, there you go. It's both in Pali and Sanskrit. It's basically the same word. And it's a term for the quality of rejoicing and sharing in the joys, happiness, good fortune, and well-being of others. So it is extended to all beings, not just those close to you. Again, like all the Brahma-viharas, joy, as well as compassion, as well as kindness, is deeply inclusive. No one is left out from this radiating quality. Everyone is included as we extend this particular mind state or heart state to all beings.

[08:30]

So how do we extend joy to everyone deeply inclusively? And Mudita is described as an inner wellspring of joy that is always available in all circumstances. It's said that the more deeply one drinks of this spring, the more securely one becomes in one's own abundant happiness. The more bountiful it becomes to relish the joy of other people. So a bountiful spring that has no end and everyone's dry. And because it doesn't run dry for you, you can continue giving it to others. So it seems that mudita actually lacks an exact equivalent in terms of translation to English. And there's no really one single English word that really encompasses what it is that mudita is about. And oftentimes you'll see it translated as sympathetic joy, which means taking sympathetic joy and happiness of others.

[09:39]

Other ways that mudita is rendered includes unselfish joy. Empathetic joy, altruistic joy, vicarious joy, celebratory joy, and gladdening, which I actually kind of like. It's a little bit of an archaic word, right? How many of us go around saying, I'm gladdening, I want to gladden today, right? But that's part of the traditional texts, they say to gladden our minds, to gladden our hearts, you know, to bring a sense of gladness to them, you know, so... I've been using more the sense of appreciative joy because I think it includes this quality of conscious gratitude. And most simply, mudita is the quality of vicarious joy when someone else is experiencing happiness or good fortune. And as such, mudita is pure joy unadulterated by self-interest.

[10:44]

I'll come back to that. There's joy that isn't clouded by self-concern in some way. Now, the thing is that joy, actually, mudita, is not discussed in Buddhist literature as much as metta, as much as kindness, or as much as compassion. And in fact, in some cases, it's a little bit dismissed. Like, oh joy, that's kind of a superficial thing, right? And we had tea today, and even if someone else brought that forward, it's like, I don't quite, joy doesn't quite, I quite don't get joy. I get compassion, I get kindness, the joy thing, eh, you know. And the other thing, though, is you also read in some cases that joy, in this case, appreciative joy, is probably the most difficult of the Brahmaviharas to actually practice, particularly in relationship to someone with whom you have difficulty with. to experience joy for their happiness when you actually aren't so happy with them.

[11:50]

So this is kind of an interesting dynamic here. We can think of Murtita in a few ways. First, it's the quality of showing up with presence and tenderness for the joy around you. So, presencing, being mindful. of the joy around you, and this tender quality to feel it, to be open to it in some way. So when someone else is happy, mudita is the quality of heart that allows us to truly rejoice as if we were experiencing the joy ourselves. Again, this is... limbic resonance, this empathetic resonance, our own being vibrates with the same quality of vibration that the other person experiencing as they're experiencing joy and happiness. So try to think of a time in your own life in which someone close to you experienced some success or happiness.

[12:52]

So take a moment to pause and really notice the joy with an open heart and presence. What was that quality How did you feel? How did you know you were feeling joy or experiencing joy? How do you know when you're experiencing joy? What is that quality? What is the tenor, the tactile sensations in the body, the kind of atmosphere in the mind? How do you identify joy? How do you know you're experiencing it? You have to kind of know that in order to cultivate it. You have to know what you're actually trying to cultivate. Oh, this quality, now I know that I'm successful in cultivating this particular quality because I remember its tenor in some way. Another way to think about sympathetic joy is through the lens of kindness, through metta. Metta is the quality of caring for the well-being of others and for ourselves. And as I mentioned last week, when metta comes in contact with pain or suffering...

[14:01]

it becomes compassion. So this wish for all beings to be happy, when it comes in contact with suffering, it is defined as compassion. When metta comes in contact with joy, it becomes mudita. The wish that that joy continue, that that happiness continues, that there be no end to that joy, that sense of open-heartedness. So when you... open your heart to care for the well-being of another, it's natural that you want to rejoice in happiness that they experience. So joy allows us to show up for others, to really appreciate their experience, and also, at the same time, to work with our own feelings of envy or lack. I'm going to talk about that a little bit more when I talk about the far and near enemies of Mudita. So again, this quality of joy, we think of when joy, it's kind of a buoyant, I'm going to describe it as a buoyant, upward, moving feeling, upward sense of energy coming up, of delights, kind of a lightness, a little luminosity, a brightness, a pleasure, you know, sukha, and appreciation.

[15:22]

So, you know, we often experience joy with happy things, right? like falling in love, or getting what we want. Oh, I'm so happy, I'm so joyful, I got what I want. But actually, there is a deeper, more resonant, heartfelt feeling. And this is the joy of life. The joy of life, no matter what the circumstances. Just being alive is its own joy when we're fully present. Is that true for you? Do you sense that? Is being alive in your fully present a joyful experience? So, one of the most memorable and impactful experiences that I've had of modita

[16:32]

of witnessing and celebrating another's capacity for joy despite the circumstances of their life occurred for me in 1995 when I was traveling through Nepal. I'd spent over a year backpacking through Asia and spent about a month in Nepal. And I had gone down to the Chitwan National Park, which is a jungle in the southern part of Nepal. And on the first day that I arrived there, I met a young homeless boy. He was about six or seven. And his name was Ali. And he was basically wearing literally rags. And he walked with a very noticeable limp, which I understood later was due to malnutrition. And apparently his parents had abandoned him. And he lived at the edge of the jungle. In the jungle, this jungle had tigers and rhinoceros and other kind of, you know, somewhat scary animals.

[17:36]

And this was part of the thing to go there and see these wild animals. And yet he lived and slept at times in the jungle. And what struck me most during the brief time that I shared with him over just a couple days, you know, was despite his challenging circumstances, this boy created joy. It was just kind of this shining quality of the way he kind of just was, and the way he connected, and his way of being present. And it was just, it drew you to him in some way, right? And over the short time I was there, I befriended him. And even though he couldn't speak English, and I just spoke a few words of Nepalese out of my little Nepalese guidebook, I found a way to connect with him and I was concerned like many other people who had met him about his well-being and I took the opportunity to feed him so I would take him to restaurants or buy him some food I even bought him a whole new set of clothing and just kind of really wanted him to experience a little bit more care and ease and I got permission on the second night that I was there since I had in my guest room I had two beds

[18:57]

And I got permission from the guest house. Could he stay in the second bed for the night so he didn't have to sleep on the jungle floor in some way? And so what I had planned to do is after dinner, we went out to a restaurant and started walking back to the guest house. And it started to storm. And I was worried that it would get really windy. And I was worried about it would start downpouring on us. So because he couldn't walk so fast, I put him on my shoulders. and we walked through this kind of windy, stormy, inclement weather, right? And he was delighted. For him, I don't think he ever had this experience of being up so high on someone's shoulders, right? And he was just holding on to my head and giggling and laughing. pointing around, you know, and the other villagers, as we walked by them, delighted as well, you know, and waved to him and so on. And he was just this happy, brilliant kind of ball of laughter. And it was, it just kind of brought delight to me.

[19:59]

I find myself just like so happy, feeling his happiness in some way. And what really struck me at that time was just his own depth of joy and perseverance and courage and resilience, even in the midst of what was obviously very difficult experiences for a child so young. And I want to be careful about not romanticizing his situation. It really was terrible. It really was something that's heartbreaking to see a child that's homeless at the age of six or seven. And yet to celebrate his capacity to have delight in his life. And as someone who, myself, has been in children's homes, right, at a very young age and often didn't, you know, felt very displaced, didn't know where was my true home at some point, and who could I rely on, I found that part of me was deeply identifying with him, you know?

[20:59]

And it made me, you know, being with Ali made me turn to my own capacity to recognize what it was for me at that very young age that was resilience, that could still find joy and ease despite difficult circumstances in my life. So it made me to return to that place and honor that part of my own being that maybe I had lost contact with at some point. And so I remember he gave him a bath. He slept in a warm bed for the night. In the morning I woke up. And, you know, Ali's sitting up in his bed, right? And he's talking to himself and just kind of having a delightful time, enjoying himself, looking at the guidebooks that I had given him that had some pictures in it, you know? And then we had breakfast together, and he even tried... I had to schedule to go to Kathmandu, and I had to catch a minibus, so unfortunately I had to leave after developing this friendship.

[22:01]

And I remember kind of... He followed me to the gate and I got onto the back of the truck and he was really kind of sad at first. I could see him. And I was like, bye, Ali. I was trying to really connect with him and just giving a meaningful goodbye. And he rallied. And he started waving and smiling again and course at that point I was about to cry so I was just like okay I have to keep it together to emulate this kid you know what he's bringing forth in some way but again his his capacity still lingers for me his capacity to find joy in the midst of difficulty you know and to know that joy is an inner refuge it's not dependent on external circumstances in some way So a significant aspect of cultivating a liberated and awakened heart-mind, we need to undertake a genuine investigation of what it is that actually obstructs our joy.

[23:11]

If we want a joyful mind, what is it that keeps us from having a joyful heart-mind? Particularly when it's common to struggle to share in the joy of others or wish them joy when we ourselves are experiencing some kind of... difficult circumstance or a disconnect from the other person in some way. So rather than our hearts staying open, oftentimes our hearts narrow. And the narrowing of the heart is usually around some form of self-concern. And that self-concern also is married with or partnered with a sense of lack or scarcity. There's not enough for me. What about me? What's going to happen? Where is mine? If I give you, I won't have anything left. So what about me? And this quality of lack and scarcity, of self-concern, is the opposite of mudita, in terms of being able to extend joy outwards.

[24:14]

And as I mentioned earlier, each of the Brahmaviharas has a near quality, a near enemy, and a far enemy. And the far enemy is the exact opposite of the heart altitude of that we want to cultivate. And the near enemy is the quality which superficially resembles the heart attitude, but is in fact in subtle opposition to it. So it kind of looks like that quality, but it's not quite it. Edward Kahnse wrote in his book on Buddhist thought in India regarding Mudita, in the deeper layers of their minds, people harbor a definite aversion to dwelling on the happiness of others. Envy and jealousy are strong, deep-seated, and rarely admitted counterforces. All the time we just compare a lot with that of others and grudge them the good fortune which eludes us.

[25:17]

So there are a number of opposites to mudita, far enemies, and these include jealousy, envy, schadenfreude, I hope I said that right, comparison and boredom. And these all get in the way of our experiencing joy for others, especially when we're dealing with someone who's difficult or with whom we have an aversion to. So jealousy is an inability to bear another's happiness or success. Typically, it entails resentment and kind of an emotional rivalry. of some sorts. The sentiment is someone is taking something from me that is mine or that I should have. For example, a particular job that I applied for or a person that I'm interested in or a recognition or accomplishment of some sort. And envy is a feeling of discontent or covetousness with regard to another's advantages, success, or possessions.

[26:28]

I want what you got, period. For example, someone has a new car. That's really cool. I want it. Or someone else got invited to an all-expense-paid vacation to Hawaii. Like, hey, I want that. And then Schadenfreude. Does anyone know? You guys know that word? A few people? A word frequently borrowed from German, which means taking pleasure in the misfortune of others. So in other words, a rival competitor lost their lease to their business and now they have to close shop. And you're like, ha, ha, ha, good. It means I get their business. So the cultivation of buddhita is an antidote, it's said, to jealousy and envy and this kind of corrupted glee in another's misfortune. Mudhita is also... an antidote to the comparing mind.

[27:30]

Comparing is this idea of ranking or evaluating ourselves in relationship to others. It's a thief of joy. And in doing so, it's a recipe for disappointment, negativity, and envy, of course. Comparison mind, in other words, is a poison. My teacher, Tia, says it's a form of death. We die on the inside to the life that we have. We die emotionally because we don't value who we really are when we compare ourselves to others. We also die literally because then we fight wars to prove we're better or more deserving or more right than another person. So comparison line also leads to competition rather than cooperation. So when we come from a place of comparison, we're always trying to get ahead of others from some place of a selfish interest, rather than acknowledging our mutual interdependence.

[28:40]

How do we together benefit and move forward in a sense of well-being? So moditta transcends comparing mind, and so it has a feeling of connectedness and generosity to it. and it dissolves the sense of separation that we might feel otherwise. Cultivating mudita is also an antidote to boredom, indifference, and aversion. Mudita is pretty good medicine, huh? It takes care of a lot of problems, right? In the Visita Maga, the path of purification, Bodegosa says that boredom, indifference, and aversion are akin to cynicism and despair. One description I read of boredom was an inability to connect with an activity. Boredom as an inability to connect to an activity. That is, unable to maintain focused attention for whatever reason.

[29:42]

So in this case, when we're talking about meditation and the Brahmavihara as expressions of meditation, boredom is thus the opposite of absorption. of a jhana state, of a meditation state in some way. So if we cultivate mudita, we bring an energized concern that burns away the fog of boredom. And Holocaust survivor Eli Wiesel said that the opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. And curiosity, the energy vitalizing The beginner's mind, we talk about this as a beginner's mind temple, the mind of not knowing, the mind of curiosity, is what burns away indifference. So whenever we feel indifference, can we cultivate a mind of curiosity as an antidote? The near enemies of Mudita, those who superficially resemble Mudita, but are actually in subtle opposition to her, are said to be frivolity, over-exuberance, and an ungrounded exhilaration.

[30:55]

So exhilaration superficially resembles joy, but it's actually kind of an opposition to it because it's grasping at pleasant experience out of a sense of insufficiency or lack. And so exhilaration and exuberance don't have the same depth as joy because they're not really based on the true happiness of others. Again, it comes back to this aspect of self-concern I want to be happy. I want to feel this excitement, not so much about what others feel. And all of these, again, point to this kind of sense of craving or aversion, a withholding of joy in some way. So mudita requires moving beyond the scarcity mentality to recognize that there is enough for all. There is enough for everyone.

[31:55]

Buddhism proposes there's enough joy for everyone. There's no limit to joy. True joy is boundless. It's immeasurable. And yet we're challenged to appreciate our own joy sometimes because we feel like we don't deserve it. So we need to study that. Mudita, the spirit of it, affirms that we deserve to be happy simply because you are. You exist. There is no other thing you need to do to be worthy or to deserve happiness or joy or love. And we're the same as others. We don't need to be richer or smarter or nicer or better than anyone else. So we can take the delight in other people's joy because when we don't have any lack, we're not threatened by anyone else. experiencing joy and happiness and well-being in some way.

[32:58]

And what happens is our relationship to the world becomes one of communion rather than competition. Joy helps us to turn that. There's a story about the Chinese Zen master Dongshan who was asked by his teacher, Yunyuan, is there joy in your practice? is there joy in your practice? And Dung Shan replied, it is not without joy. It's like sweeping shit into a pile and then picking up precious jewel from it within it. It's not without joy. It is like sweeping shit into a pile and then picking up a precious jewel from within it. So we can't escape the shit, right? Shit is a part of our life. Excuse my French. You can say shit is whatever it is that's left over from our actions, the smelly results of our ancient twisted karma, if you will.

[34:07]

The residue of some kind of unwholesome quality of being that we still need to observe and work through in some way. Which contributes to our suffering. And yet, if there wasn't shit, we wouldn't appreciate the jewels. Right? In other words, true joy and true practice is not possible in a world without suffering. The suffering, the shit of your life, enriches us, gives us wisdom and compassion. The jewel is the joy of life itself, even in the midst of everything that's difficult. So, how do we cultivate modita? Even in the midst of life's Challenges and other shit. I get to say that word in Dharma talk. Isn't that great? Get away with it. How do we make ourselves available for joy to arise? The practice of modita is simply to simply begin by dwelling in joy.

[35:14]

By finding something that gladdens and uplifts the heart and mind and spirit. And then concentrating, focusing your mind on that buoyant energy that arises? Again, coming back to what's the tenor of that energy in your mind-body that you describe as joy? Can you make that your meditation and focus on it? But in order to do this, we have to stay open. We have to stay observant. We have to mindfully cultivate the jewel-finding tools, I would describe them, of contentment, appreciation, and gratitude. to help us discover the treasures already present in our lives, but that we often overlook or obscure due to our old karmic habit patterns. So contentment allows us to be satisfied with what we have. We have enough. We don't need anything else. I'm content with what I have. And appreciation and gratitude support us to recognize and value what's already available.

[36:20]

the quality of what is, is already something to be appreciated. It has its value, right? So can we allow ourselves to see our life through these lenses of contentment, appreciation, gratitude, and then doing so relate to the world in a way that we find and notice everywhere that there's happiness and delight in it for ourselves and others? So just stopping for a few moments. Coming back to the breath. Coming back to our body. Coming back to our being. Simply breathing in and enjoying the in-breath. This is something Thich Nhat Hanh talks a lot about. Just enjoy the breath itself. Can that be enough? Breathing in, enjoying the in-breath. Breathing out, enjoying the out-breath. Enjoying the experience of things as it is. And Dogen says in the Fukan Zazengi that Zazen is not learning to do concentration.

[37:33]

It is the Dharma gate of great ease and joy. So our meditation practice of just sitting, just being fully present with our experience, appreciating our experience just as it is. It is the Dharma gate of joy and ease. It's not a way to get there. In and of itself, it is that experience of joy and ease. So it brings us back to the source of joy. So when we take our seat, when we make our home in stillness, then what we notice that mudita, gladness, is born of that stillness, that inner stillness, that resting in that place of stillness. In that place of stillness, another name for that is peace. It's a contentment that we can be deeply intimate with and present with right here, right now. So when I rest in stillness, I've got the peace that passes understanding, that is beyond thought, that is deep down in the heart of all experience.

[38:42]

And I would propose that the nature of consciousness itself is one of joy. A feeling of unlimited, unmeasurable, immeasurable openness. And when we stay intimately connected with awareness, joy is always at hand. Just be aware. That being aware itself is the heart of joy. It's the room of joy. So, I'll close. And I'll close with a Mary Oliver poem. which we often have occasion to do here. And this one's called Don't Hesitate. If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy, don't hesitate. Give in to it. There are plenty of lives and whole towns destroyed or about to be. We are not wise and not very often kind. And much can never be redeemed.

[39:46]

still, life has some possibility left. Perhaps this is its way of fighting back, that sometimes something happened better than all the riches or power in the world. It could be anything, but very likely you notice it in the instant when love begins. Anyway, that's often the case. Anyway, whatever it is, don't be afraid of its plenty. Joy is not made to be a crumb. Joy is not made to be a crumb. Give it freely. Allow it to flow freely and give it freely. Thank you very much. Thank you for listening to this podcast offered by the San Francisco Zen Center. Our Dharma talks are offered free of charge. And this is made possible by the donations we receive.

[40:49]

Your financial support helps us to continue to offer the Dharma. For more information, please visit sfzc.org and click Giving. May we fully enjoy the Dharma.

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