དན་རྣམ་པར་ངས་པ་ཞས་བྱ་བའ་ཆས་ཀྱ་རྣམ་གྲངས 10

10

one abides with equanimity, and one is mindful, discerning, and feels pleasure in one’s body. Hence, the noble ones say, ‘equanimous and mindful, he abides in pleasure.’ Thus, one reaches and abides in the third meditation, which is without joy.⁴⁷ Due to the abandonment of pleasure, due to the prior abandonment of pain, and due to the disappearance of mental well-being or anguish, one reaches and abides in the fourth meditation, which is without pleasure or pain and purified in terms of equanimity and mindfulness. These, bhikṣus, are the four meditations.⁴⁸

“Now, what are the four Brahma abodes? Here, bhikṣus, a bhikṣu, with (1) a mind accompanied by friendliness, a mind without enmity, antagonism, or harming, an expansive, great mind without duality, without measure, and well cultivated, becomes intent upon one direction, fills it, reaches it, and abides thus. He then does the same for the second, the third, and the fourth direction and above, below, and across; for this world on all sides and on all ends, he, with a mind accompanied by friendliness, a mind without enmity, antagonism, or harming, an expansive, great mind without duality, without measure, and well cultivated, becomes intent upon one direction, fills it, reaches it, and abides thus. In the same way, with (2) a mind accompanied by compassion, (3) a mind accompanied by rejoicing, and (4) a mind accompanied by equanimity, a mind without enmity, antagonism, or harming, an expansive, great mind without duality, without measure, and well cultivated, he becomes intent, fills, reaches, and abides thus. These are the four Brahma abodes.

“Then, what are the four courses? There is the course that is painful and that is slow in superior cognition. There is the course that is painful and that is quick in superior cognition.