Please join us for a day retreat at the Unitarian Church with Bhikkhu Amaro on the theme ‘Kindness, Compassion, Joy and Equanimity:what helps and what hinders their practice and development?’

This daylong will consist of reflections and practices related to the ‘sublime abiding places for the heart’ – the four brahma-vihāras, in Buddhist parlance.

The vision for the day is to explore these sublime abidings via the somewhat oblique approach of looking at their opposites. The four brahma-vihāras are listed, in the Buddhist scriptures, as:

Mettā – loving-kindness, benevolence, radical acceptance, non-aversion.

Karuṇā – compassion, empathy, appreciation of the suffering of others.

Muditā – sympathetic or altruistic joy, gladness at the good fortune of others.

Upekkhā – equanimity, caring even-mindedness, serenity amid all turbulence.

For example we will investigate mettā through the lens of contention and self-righteousness, and compassion through compulsive helping and numbness. During the day we will similarly explore the remaining brahma-vihāras through aspects of mind and behaviour that oppose or confuse them.

About Bhikkhu Amaro

Born in England in 1956, Ven. Amaro Bhikkhu received his BSc. in Psychology and Physiology from the University of London in 1977. Spiritual searching led him to Thailand, where he went to Wat Pah Nanachat, a Forest Tradition monastery established for his Western disciples by Thai meditation master Ajahn Chah, who ordained him as a bhikkhu in 1979. He returned to England that same year and joined Ajahn Sumedho at the newly established Chithurst Monastery. He resided for many years at Amaravati Buddhist Monastery, Hertfordshire, making trips to California every year during the 1990s.