{"id":37375,"date":"2025-10-31T08:57:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-31T07:57:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kontemplation.dk\/?p=37375"},"modified":"2026-07-06T11:15:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T09:15:12","slug":"de-fire-umaalelige-tanker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kontemplation.dk\/en\/de-fire-umaalelige-tanker\/","title":{"rendered":"The four immeasurable thoughts"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/kontemplation.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Soeren-Munk_okt25.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-37599\" src=\"https:\/\/kontemplation.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Soeren-Munk_okt25-768x1024.jpg\" alt=\"Profilbillede af S\u00f8ren Munk\" width=\"768\" height=\"1024\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.kontemplation.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Soeren-Munk_okt25-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.kontemplation.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Soeren-Munk_okt25-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/www.kontemplation.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Soeren-Munk_okt25.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<div id=\"buzzsprout-player-18103761\">\u00a0<\/div>\n<p><script src=\"https:\/\/www.buzzsprout.com\/2018767\/episodes\/18103761-blogcast-de-fire-umalelige-tanker-soren-munk.js?container_id=buzzsprout-player-18103761&#038;player=small\" type=\"text\/javascript\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>There is a concept in Buddhism called <em>The four immeasurable thoughts<\/em>. The concept dates back to the teachings of the historical Buddha, and is found as a common part of the foundation behind all versions and traditions of Buddhism.\u00a0 <br \/>\nIt is an attitude that has traditionally been used as a support for one&#039;s meditative practice and also for one&#039;s life in general.<\/p>\n<p>The four immeasurable thoughts, attitudes, or qualities are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Loving-kindness<\/li>\n<li>Compassion<\/li>\n<li>Compassion<\/li>\n<li>Equilibrium<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>Loving-kindness<\/em> is a quality we immediately recognize, a kindness that stems from a desire for others to do well. <br \/>\n<em>Compassion<\/em> We also know the basic desire that others may be free from suffering. <br \/>\n<em>Compassion<\/em>, a fun and lovely, but also a bit unfamiliar word. You could also say &#039;to rejoice on behalf of others&#039;. The word covers the quality of being happy when things go well for others.<br \/>\n<em>Equilibrium <\/em>is in this context probably best covered by the English word <em>content,<\/em> to be happy or satisfied with things as they are in one&#039;s life. By not being taken by the desire to have more of something and to avoid or get rid of something else. In a state of having enough, we rest within ourselves, in an inner balance or harmony, equilibrium.<\/p>\n<p>The first few times I heard about<em> the four immeasurable thoughts<\/em>, the word \u201cimmeasurable\u201d was a bit strange to me. Both because it is a word I had not come across very often, and because it seemed a bit pompous and grandiose. It made me feel that the four thoughts and the methods associated with them were not really something I could use. I could only perceive the expressions linguistically, theoretically and abstractly, and did not connect with them more closely.\u00a0<br \/>\nIt took me some time to take them in. But fortunately, over time I discovered that their meaning and content are not theoretical or abstract at all \u2013 but that they contain instructions that point towards concrete and down-to-earth wisdom and joy.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>The sea<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>An image that can perhaps be used to come to terms with the concept of immeasurable is the sea. When we stand on the shore and look out over the sea, we can get a sense of infinity, immeasurableness. Both with the diffuse, almost dizzying vanishing point of the horizon, and with the eternal, timeless breathing of the waves. <br \/>\nWe can also take off our shoes and socks and step out to the water&#039;s edge. Now we experience the ocean more directly, feel the cool temperature, the soft pull of currents and waves, and perhaps see some of the infinite number of creatures that live in the sea, curiously and cautiously swimming around us. <br \/>\nAnd then we can go completely into the water, bathe, swim, splash around, and dive below the surface. Now the experience is more total, the body and consciousness are one with the sea. Several new nuances emerge. Both in the interior, the primeval sea, the cradle and lap of life. And also sensations, the water, the sand, the movements of the swells, the sun&#039;s millions of reflections in the constantly moving conjunctures of the surface. And below the surface, ever new depths of blue silence and an immeasurable number of landscapes to explore.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>The infinity of thoughts<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>There are several reasons why immeasurable thoughts are called what they are. If we use compassion as an example, we can rejoice when things go well for those closest to us. But we can also extend that and rejoice when things go well for someone a little further out in our circle of acquaintances. And we can, as an extreme, perhaps somewhat theoretical, extreme, rejoice when things go well for anyone at all. Everyone. People and animals. And since there are immeasurable numbers of them, the potential for rejoicing when things go well for others is infinite.<\/p>\n<p>\nAnother meaning of the term immeasurable is that the feeling itself, compassion, comes in many gradations. When something goes well for someone we know only peripherally, it may mostly give rise to a quiet smile. But when it is someone very close to our heart for whom something exceptionally good happens, we can be completely overwhelmed with feelings of happiness and joy on their behalf. This suggests that there may be no upper limit to how deeply or intensely we can experience affection and joy. Hence another reason to call it immeasurable.<\/p>\n<p>As in the picture with the sea, we can also engage with the four thoughts to varying degrees. We can, as a start, rejoice when we encounter them and use them as general inspiration in life.<br \/>\nOr we can dip our toes in, seek them out more directly, remember them more actively, and perhaps even include aspects of them in our practice, and in our lives.<br \/>\nWe can also dive right into them. Take them on, live by them, use them as a compass in life, have them as the cornerstone of our contemplative practice. And practice, no matter what life offers us, meeting it with the attitude of at least one of the four immeasurables.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, this requires <em>commitment<\/em>, alertness and a good deal of practice \u2013 but fortunately there are methods to train the mind and our habit apparatus to better remember and meet the world with the four settings.<\/p>\n<p>And all four settings are designed in such a way that when we follow them, they help create a flow of joy, both in ourselves and in others. In a way, they are the gift that keeps on giving. When you notice this, it becomes easier, more fun and more meaningful to work with them.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Methods and training<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Over time, various methods have emerged to train more systematically in the four settings. In Tibetan Buddhism, the most widely used collection of practices is a form of practice called <em>lojong<\/em>, or mind training. The method came to Tibet from India around the turn of the millennium. It first became widely used when a master and professor of Buddhist philosophy, Chekawa, was visiting a house where he happened to see a small fragment of a text, where he could sense the sentence \u201cSee all faults as your own. See all beings as your beloved children\u201c. <br \/>\nAlthough he was already a qualified Buddhist master, he was so moved by the sentence and its implications that he set out on a journey to find the rest of the text and someone who would be able to teach him. He managed to track down an old Buddhist master, Sharawa, who knew the entire text and had been thoroughly taught it by the very translator who had brought the text from India to Tibet. Chekawa traveled to him and asked him to explain the text and its methods. <br \/>\nSharawa replied that if Chekawa truly wanted to practice the four immeasurables, he had to be prepared to turn his entire mind upside down. Chekawa agreed, and he stayed with Sharawa and studied for the next twelve years. <br \/>\nHe compiled the texts into a short and clear form and spent the rest of his life teaching them in monasteries and to practitioners \u2013 and to the sick, the poor and the socially excluded.<\/p>\n<p>The story of Chekawa is thought-provoking. Partly because it points to the depth of the four immeasurables; that even a master like Chekawa could be deeply moved by them, and subsequently devote a large part of his life to training in them. <br \/>\nPartly because Sharawa points out something interesting when he says that Chekawa should be prepared to turn his life upside down; namely that there is something counter-intuitive in the four immeasurables. There is a place where they contradict the conventions of ordinary society. They challenge and push the inner habit that everything should primarily be done by ourselves. And instead points out that when we loosen up a little on that habit, both ourselves and those around us become happier.<br \/>\nAnd then because Chekawa showed us that these are methods that are applicable to all of us, no matter where in life we may be.<\/p>\n<p>It is hoped that one can now sense a little of the four immeasurable attitudes, loving-kindness, compassion, joy and equanimity. I can sense that they can be beneficial, no matter how little or much one is inspired by them. They are essential in deeper meditative practice, and they are also enriching and joyful to have with one in all other aspects of life. With them, as in the image of the sea, there are constantly new nuances and depths to discover. And if one is interested, fortunately, both here in the universe of Kontemplation and in more traditional texts, there are many instructions on how to weave them together with one&#039;s practice and existence.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">Photo: Hanneli<\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0 &nbsp; There is a concept in Buddhism called The Four Immeasurable Thoughts. The concept dates back to the teachings of the historical Buddha, and is found as a common part of\u2026<\/p>","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":37598,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":[230],"meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442,1],"tags":[431],"person":[345],"class_list":["post-37375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inspiration-til-meditativ-praksis","category-praxis","tag-inspiration-til-praksis","person-soeren-munk","format-lydfil"],"subtitle":"","embedded_audio":"","hasaudio":"1","hide_featured_image_on_post":"1","nobio":"0","infobox":"","quote":"","year_published":"2026","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kontemplation.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kontemplation.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kontemplation.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kontemplation.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kontemplation.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37375"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/www.kontemplation.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37375\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41099,"href":"https:\/\/www.kontemplation.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37375\/revisions\/41099"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kontemplation.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kontemplation.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kontemplation.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kontemplation.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37375"},{"taxonomy":"person","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kontemplation.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/person?post=37375"},{"taxonomy":"format","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kontemplation.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/format?post=37375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}