The History of Buddhist Thought c12.59

c12.59

The four Brahma-vihāras (Brahma-abodes) show direct connection with brahminical practices, as they occur in the *Yoga-sūtras* (i, 33). This does not necessarily prove borrowing on the part of the Buddhists, but the Scriptures do recognize them as a non-Buddhist practice, and give a legend of Makhādeva, an ancient king of Mithilā, who practised them and who in consequence was reborn in the Brahma-world.¹ They are, in fact, there depreciated, for though it is possible to attain trance through them, they do not tend to “aversion, absence of passion, cessation, peace, higher knowledge, enlightenment, Nirvāṇa”. They are thus described: