Virtues

Mudita

Brahmaviharas

Citation Formats

General Reference

Divinity Atlas. "Mudita." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://www.divinityatlas.com/virtues/mudita.

APA Style

Divinity Atlas. (n.d.). Mudita. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://www.divinityatlas.com/virtues/mudita

BibTeX

@misc{divinityatlas-mudita,
  author = {Divinity Atlas},
  title = {Mudita},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://www.divinityatlas.com/virtues/mudita},
  note = {Accessed August 30, 2026}
}

The third brahmavihara: unselfish delight in the good fortune, success and happiness of others, taught as the deliberate cure for envy. Commentarial literature treats it as the hardest of the four to sustain, since it requires taking as much joy in another's advantage as in one's own.

Facts

Origins

Place of Origin

North India, in the earliest recorded teaching; systematized in Sri Lanka by Buddhaghosa. 1

Origin of the Name

Sanskrit and Pali mudita, joy or gladness, from a root meaning to be pleased. 1

Attributed Author / Compiler

Taught throughout the Pali Canon as the third of the brahmaviharas; systematized alongside the other three in Buddhaghosa's fifth century Visuddhimagga, chapter nine. 2

Language

Sanskrit and Pali 1

Disputed

Origin Period

Taught within the earliest strata of the Pali Canon, whose own compilation and dating remain debated among scholars, ranging from oral transmission at or near the Buddha's own lifetime through committal to writing centuries afterward; fixed as the third brahmavihara in Buddhaghosa's fifth century CE Visuddhimagga. 2

Status

Status Within the Tradition

Standard teaching, not formally defined 1

Doctrinal Status Detail

Third of the four brahmaviharas; the Visuddhimagga names envy as its far enemy and frivolous exuberance as its near enemy, the counterfeit that resembles delight without its depth. 2

Attestation

Meaning in the Attesting Source

Unselfish delight in the good fortune of others, the third of the four brahmaviharas, taught as the direct cure for envy. 1

Cross-Tradition Connections

Attested In

Visuddhimagga

Source Visuddhimagga (The Path of Purification)Buddhaghosa

Belongs to Tradition

Buddhism

Source The Princeton Dictionary of BuddhismRobert E. Buswell Jr. and Donald S. Lopez Jr.

Opposes

Matsarya (Envy)

The Visuddhimagga names envy directly as sympathetic joy's far enemy; Matsarya, the Sanskrit term for envy already catalogued among the arishadvarga, is the atlas's existing entry for that disposition.

Source Visuddhimagga (The Path of Purification)Buddhaghosa