Unselfish Joy: A Neglected Virtue
by Natasha Jackson
(From Metta, The Journal of the Buddhist Federation of Australia, Vol. 12, No. 2.)
Mudita — unselfish or sympathetic joy — is one of the most neglected topics within the whole range of the Buddha Dhamma, probably because of its subtlety and of the wealth of nuances latent within it. Besides getting honorable mention within the context of The Four Divine Abidings (brahma-vihara), few commentators have had much more to say about it apart from explaining that it means "sympathetic joy at the good fortune or success of others." Only one notable writer, Conze (in Buddhist Thought in India), has had the insight to suggest that mudita, i.e. sympathy, is a pre-requisite of metta (loving-kindness) and of karuna (compassion). He thus names appreciation as one of the components of mudita. How right he is! For one cannot appreciate another person without seeing some good in him. If one does not appreciate the other person in the slightest degree, one would be hard put to experience joy at any stroke of good fortune or success that may befall him. To stimulate feelings of pleasure when, in fact, one feels none, would be the grossest of hypocrisy. Thus, mudita tacitly implies looking for the good in others and learning to recognize and admire what good there is.
Likewise, if one has a misanthropic view of mankind, regarding people as essentially evil and not worth being concerned about, one cannot, on the face of it, make much headway with any of The Four Divine Abidings. To have a sympathetic attitude towards human beings does not betoken an idealization of man, but rather a realistic appraisal: that, though often in error and grievously at fault, man has, nevertheless, the potential to rise above his darkness and ignorance into the light of knowledge and even to undreamed of heights of Nirvana. Unless one has that measure of faith and confidence in mankind which the Buddha himself had, the practice of metta and karuna is impossible. Thus, the broadest and most simple aspect of mudita as sympathy towards mankind, is also the most basic and important.
To regard mudita as being relevant only on certain relatively rare occasions when our friends and acquaintances come into a bonanza of some kind, is to fragment it and render it trivial, thereby missing the essential matrix. It should not be regarded as a matter of turning on a tap from which mudita will gush forth. There should be, in a certain sense, a quiet stream of sympathy and understanding flowing within the inpidual all the time. Though, to be sure, it does also mean developing the capacity to participate in another person”s finest hour and doing so spontaneously and sincerely. It is indeed a depressing fact that people are much more ready to sympathize with the misfortunes of others than to rejoice with them, a psychological quirk in people which wrung from Montaigne the ironic statement:
There is something altogether not too displeasing in the misfortunes of our friends.
Turning back to the essential matrix of mudita as sympathy towards mankind, faith in its potential for good and acceptance of its worthwhileness, this is precisely what is lacking in the world today. There is abroad a kind of cosmic gloom and, among some large sections of people, a feeling of defeatism. Probably the scene is largely colored by the shadow of the hydrogen bomb and the various other horrible weapons of destruction which we know the nations are so busy in manufacturing. All in all, too much has happened in too short a time. More scientific and technological discoveries have been telescoped into the last fifty (or is it thirty
) years than in the previous five hundred, and the total result is, at the moment, of dubious benefit to humanity as a who…
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