Resources
Other sources dealing with the Brahma Viharas include the following:
Brahma Vihara Foundation (http://www.brahmaviharas.org/)
The Brahma-Vihara Foundation is a non-profit, tax-exempt educational organization dedicated to the cultivation of the divine abidings in accordance with Buddhist teachings.
Support for the activities of the Brahma-Vihara Foundation comes through dana, which means giving and generosity. It expresses the spirit of providing for those who freely share their time and understanding to teach the path of tranquility, insight and compassionate deeds. Dana is a form of thanksgiving: a spontaneous offering of gratitude flowing from an appreciation of what has been received. Such generosity cannot be enforced. It opens as the tree of awareness flowers and then leafs.
Guiding Teacher: DaeJa Napier is the founding and guiding teacher of the Brahma-Vihara Foundation. She teaches Vipassana meditation with an emphasis on the cultivation of the four Brahma Viharas: loving kindness, compassion, appreciative joy and equanimity.
She has been practicing and studying in various Buddhist traditions since 1974. Her root teacher is the late Zen Master Seung Sahn. Her practice continues to be enriched through intensive practice under the guidance of Asian and Western teachers including Sayadaw U Pandita, Pa Auk Sayadaw and her western mentor, Joseph Goldstein. DaeJa has dedicated her life to exploring the traditional pathways to awakening and their application in daily life. Her conveyance of the Buddhist teachings and related practices reflect the more than 40 years spent raising five children while maintaining a formal practice.
DaeJa responds to dharma students with intuitive precision and insight, mirroring nuances of the awakening process that unfold naturally when practicing vipassana (insight meditation) and the brahma-viharas.
Vipassana Fellowship Meditation Course (http://www.vipassana.com/course/)
The course includes and covers the four brahmavihāras (divine abodes) or apamaññā (boundless states) in a detailed and thorough manner. It works with each of the practices in turn: Lovingkindness (metta), Compassion (karunā), Appreciative Joy (muditā), and Equanimity (upekkhā).
Quoting from their website, we read: “Vipassana Fellowship’s online meditation courses have been offered since 1997 and have proven helpful to meditators in many countries around the world. The main text is based on a tried and tested format and serves as a practical introduction to samatha (tranquility) and vipassana (insight) techniques from the Theravada tradition of Buddhism. Intended primarily for beginners, the 12 week course is also suitable for experienced meditators who wish to explore different aspects of the tradition. The emphasis is on building a sustainable and balanced meditation practice that is compatible with lay life. The course is led by Andrew Quernmore, a meditation teacher for nearly 20 years and with a personal meditation practice of more than 30 years. Andrew trained with teachers in Sri Lanka and in England and has taught meditation in London colleges and at retreats in the UK, Europe and Asia. The course is delivered wholly online in our Course Campus.”