The Brahmavihāras and the Achievement of Nonegocentricity

Abstract

This chapter characterizes the four brahmavihāras, or divine states: friendliness, care, sympathetic joy, and impartiality. Also addressed are their relationship both to their antitheses and to their “near enemies,” or the states that are similar enough to masquerade as these virtuous ones, yet differ because they are egocentric, and thus become a vice. The chapter examines the question of why morality is rational, including discussions of this topic in both Western and Buddhist thought, and its connections to egoism, and argues that the four divine states, when considered together, can be understood to constitute an analysis of a non-egocentric ethical perspective.