Four Immeasurables for 2020 / 2021

"May all beings be free from suffering and its causes."

As 2020 draws to a close, we might recall it as a year with many names. COVID year. Black lives year. The year of riots, earthquakes, tornados, fires, and uncertainty. Around the world, we have experienced so much suffering. We need to think about how we are living our lives and then ask ourselves if it's worth it.

Through all of this suffering, can we, however, see the importance and the preciousness of the Buddha's teachings on loving-kindness, compassion, and understanding?

Think of it this way. Can the suffering we are experiencing help us generate a motivation to be free from this cycle of birth and death and to go towards enlightenment for the sake of liberating all sentient beings from their suffering?

If so, now is a time where The Four Immeasurables are very important.

We are always thinking about our suffering, yet we don't often think about the causes of this suffering. All suffering and all happiness need to have a cause. So what is the cause for so much suffering? According to the Lam Rim, other texts, and Lama Zopa Rinpoche, the cause of all suffering is self-cherishing. Self-cherishing is based on fear, so how do we free ourselves from this fear? We need wisdom. You light the fire of wisdom in your heart. And to awaken wisdom, we must accumulate merit for this wisdom to arise.

We need to pray and to focus on how to overcome our ignorance. We know that without light, it's always going to be there. We cannot do everything alone so what's most important is our coming together as a community in loving-kindness, forgiveness, and mutual support for the benefit of this life and future lives.

We are all 'feeling, emotional beings' as we are in samsara. By doing prayers, accumulating merit, and reflecting upon the daily happenings in the world and our own lives, we can understand that our personal problems are so ridiculously small. That is why it is so important to think about the purpose of our life. Is it just about fulfilling our own wants and dreams? What does your life mean for you and others? Does it serve a greater good?

     1.     May all sentient beings achieve extraordinary superior happiness and its causes.

     2.     May all sentient beings be free from the unbearable sea of suffering and its causes.

     3.     May all sentient beings never be parted from the bliss of supreme liberation.

     4.     May all sentient beings be free from aversion, attachment, clinging, and feeling close to some and distant from others.

These words are a beautiful wish for all beings, so we should all think about them, The Four Immeasurables, every day. In the beginning, maybe it's just reciting the words. But after a while, there comes the feeling. When we develop loving-kindness and say these words in our minds and prayers, it helps.

 

Dharma Teaching by Singha Rinpoche and Edited by Sandeep Nath

15 Nov 2020