Śhamatha Practice – Four Immeasurables

CULTIVATING BOUNDLESS QUALITIES

First Floor - Small Vehicle • Module 10

Estimated time to complete: 80 minutes

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The Heart of Śhamatha

Think of the last time we genuinely wished someone well — not out of politeness, but because their happiness actually mattered to us. A friend recovering from illness. A child figuring something out for the first time. For a moment, our attention was completely absorbed — not through effort, but because warmth itself held it there.

That experience reveals something important about how the mind settles. The previous module presented the theory of śhamatha through a technical lens—nine stages, five faults, eight antidotes. The contentment meditation we practiced after the Third Noble Truth might have already revealed a deeper dimension: genuinely calm is instantly accessible when we are simply at ease with whatever we are experiencing. But this module goes even deeper than contentment. Here we turn to practice śhamatha meditation not on the breath but on the positive emotional qualities—loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity. For those who incorrectly might have thought that śhamatha is aiming for some sort of calm but cerebral, dry, neutral indifference, this practice makes clear that it is directed toward an imperturbable warmheartedness toward all. In fact, the subtle form meditations (dhyāna) that the Buddhist tradition describes — the four meditative states beyond the nine stages of attentiveness — are characterized not by grim concentration but by profound joy, bliss, and equanimity. The practices in this module help reveal how śhamatha meditation practically reduces toxic mental states and develops positive ones instead. As we will see, they are not a detour from the ethical and meditative trainings we have discussed but an essential dimension of them. Just by doing these practices wholeheartedly once, many students report feeling more transformed and liberated from suffering than through meditating on the breath for months.

For this reason, rather than continuing to discuss the theory, this module jumps right into practice with six videos: a brief introductory lecture, an even shorter lecture on why the practice itself begins with equanimity, and four guided meditations — one for each immeasurable quality. We recommend trying each meditation at least once, following the sequence presented here.

What to watch for: The surprising claim about what we already possess — and what stands in the way of making it boundless. The practical, no-nonsense approach to evoking feelings. How the learning progression works and where it eventually leads.

Video 1: Introduction to Four Immeasurables

Duration: 10 minutes

From Understanding to Practice

The video laid out what the four immeasurables are and how the technique works — a structured approach that moves from following fixed scripts to finding our own way in. Before beginning the practices themselves, we need a preliminary step without which the entire endeavor can quietly be undermined.

Preparing the Ground

We naturally extend warmth to those we love and withhold it from those who have hurt us. That selective quality is understandable — but it is precisely what the immeasurable part of these practices is designed to overcome. Before we can genuinely wish happiness for all beings, we need to address the ego-centric bias that keeps our circle of care small. The next short video explains how equanimity serves as the necessary foundation, and the guided meditation that follows puts it into practice.

What to watch for: The four different approaches to developing impartiality. Why some traditions prefer not to practice the four in the original order listed—loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, equanimity.

Video 2: Why Equanimity Comes First

Duration: 3 minutes

What to watch for: The movement from specific individuals to broader circles. The instruction about what equanimity does not mean — it does not require condoning harmful actions or abandoning appropriate boundaries.

Video 3: Guided Meditation – Equanimity

Duration: 9 minutes

Entering the Practices

With preliminary equanimity established — or at least initiated — we can now work through the three remaining immeasurables. Each guided meditation follows a similar structure: begin with ourselves, extend to those we love, then to those we feel neutral toward, and finally to those we find difficult. The meditative object in each case is a specific feeling tone — a distinct emotional quality that the practice is designed to evoke. These are not intellectual exercises. The point is to actually feel the qualities, not just think about them. At any point, if you find yourself unmoved by the words or images in the guided meditation, just come up with your own emotional triggers for each of the qualities described. In the meantime, give each meditation at least one full attempt, and notice what arises.

What to watch for: The feeling of yearning for happiness — first in ourselves, then in others. Notice whether sending the wish changes how we feel. The visualization of faces brightening (which can be more a “feeling” than a “visual image” if that makes it easier).

Video 4: Guided Meditation – Loving-Kindness

Duration: 10 minutes

What to watch for: How imagining another’s suffering affects our own heart. This practice asks more of us emotionally than loving-kindness — but notice the instruction to end with relief. That closing is important because it prevents ending on a down note.

Video 5: Guided Meditation – Compassion

Duration: 10 minutes

What to watch for: Whether rejoicing in others’ good fortune comes easily or meets resistance. Some practitioners find this the most challenging of the four — if so, notice what arises and where it arises.

Video 6: Guided Meditation – Sympathetic Joy

Duration: 8 minutes

A few Insights:

When I first encountered these practices, I assumed they were a kind of emotional exercise — useful for becoming a nicer person, perhaps, but separate from the “real” work of developing concentration aimed at liberating insight into the nature of reality. That turned out to be a significant misunderstanding.

The four immeasurables are śhamatha. They develop concentration — not by forcing the mind to let go of toxic states and stay put, but by giving it something pleasurable that naturally captivates the mind. When loving-kindness arises and warmth spreads through the chest, the mind feels instantly settled and calm. When compassion opens the heart, restlessness quiets on its own. When equanimity sets in, the push and pull of attraction and aversion lose their grip entirely. This is concentration developing through the heart rather than against it.

The approach the introduction video described — finding scripts that evoke feelings, treating this like an actor learning to produce tears on cue — may seem surprisingly unsentimental for practices about love and compassion. But that pragmatism is the point. We are not manufacturing feelings we do not have. We are learning to access and expand feelings we already possess but have kept within a narrow circle. By seeing how simple this is, we may even begin to question why we normally dwell in toxic ego-centered mental states and become more enthusiastic about the path.

A note on the guided meditations in this module: I deliberately avoided a strictly traditional Small Vehicle approach and left out any references to rebirth. Even though we can always take Buddhist teachings to be non-literal, metaphoric, or dream-like, my goal was to create something clearly secular so that a wider variety of people might be able to glimpse the beauty of these practices. But each person must find their own inspiration and triggers in order to unlock the emotion that makes the practice come alive.

In my view, learning to do these practices well is basically learning how to do self-therapy. If we are brave enough to let go of our grudges, attachments, and confusions, we can use the systematic methods here to clean up any and all of our emotional baggage. I have personally gotten over deep-seated emotional issues with family members, friends, colleagues, frenemies, rivals, ex-spouses, political opposites, complete assholes, and hardened criminals. Getting over emotional baggage never means suddenly condoning their views or actions. It just means that my mind and heart is no longer disturbed by them. Until I tasted the kind of emotional freedom this practice reveals, I did not realize how tightly bound and numb my heart actually was. Doing the practice naturally became contagious. If you even glimpsed the superpower of contentment through the meditation we practiced earlier in the course, just wait and see what happens after you have a breakthrough moment cultivating one of these four qualities.

To be clear, doing the practice does not require us to go through each step. If we know how to evoke the feelings in ourselves, we can just feel the loving kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, or equanimity, then radiate them outward with our breath toward whomever comes to mind. If we do even just a few minutes of this practice daily together with our other meditations—on the four applications of mindfulness or the breath—it very quickly will shift the way we understand meditation and what it is ultimately aimed at.

Questions for Reflection

These are not comprehension questions. They are observation prompts — invitations to investigate your own experience across multiple practice sessions.

1. Which Quality, Which Resistance?

As you work through the four practices, notice which immeasurable arises most naturally and which meets the most resistance. What does the resistance feel like — is it tightness, skepticism, distraction, something else? Does the resistance differ depending on the category of person (liked, disliked, neutral), or is it the same regardless?

2. The Feeling Tone

After trying each practice, see whether you can identify the distinct feeling tone of each immeasurable. Does loving-kindness feel different in the body from compassion? How does sympathetic joy differ from loving-kindness? There are no right answers here — investigate what you actually notice.

3. Equanimity as Ground

Try the loving-kindness practice with and without the preliminary equanimity session. Does beginning with equanimity change how the practice unfolds — especially when you reach the difficult-person stage? Notice whether impartiality makes it easier, or just different.

4. Settling Through Warmth

After a session of immeasurable practice, observe the state of your mind. Is it calmer? More scattered? More alert? How does this compare to how you feel after breath meditation? We are not looking for a particular answer — just observing what these practices actually do.

5. Working Without Guidance

After listening to each guided meditation several times, try running through one of the practices on your own — from memory, without the video. What do you remember? What do you improvise? Does practicing without guidance change the experience? This is the natural next step.

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