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 OriginNorth India, in the earliest recorded teaching; systematized in Sri Lanka by Buddhaghosa. 1 Origin of the NameSanskrit and Pali mudita, joy or gladness, from a root meaning to be pleased. 1 Attributed Author / CompilerTaught throughout the Pali Canon as the third of the brahmaviharas; systematized alongside the other three in Buddhaghosa's fifth century Visuddhimagga, chapter nine. 2 Disputed
Origin PeriodTaught 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 TraditionStandard teaching, not formally defined 1 Doctrinal Status DetailThird 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 SourceUnselfish delight in the good fortune of others, the third of the four brahmaviharas, taught as the direct cure for envy. 1 Connections
Attested In
Source Visuddhimagga (The Path of Purification)Buddhaghosa
Belongs to Tradition
Source The Princeton Dictionary of BuddhismRobert E. Buswell Jr. and Donald S. Lopez Jr.
In Language
Opposes
Buddhist teaching: envy is the near enemy overcome by mudita (sympathetic joy), one of the four brahmaviharas.
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
Related To
Karuna, Virtues The four brahmaviharas, taught as one graduated set in the Visuddhimagga.
Source Visuddhimagga (The Path of Purification)Buddhaghosa
Upekkha, Virtues The four brahmaviharas, taught as one graduated set in the Visuddhimagga; equanimity is their completion.
Source Visuddhimagga (The Path of Purification)Buddhaghosa
Sources
1. The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism
Robert E. Buswell Jr. and Donald S. Lopez Jr., Princeton University Press, 2014View the Source 2. Visuddhimagga (The Path of Purification)
Buddhaghosa
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