Answering to a request for a talk from Canada on the topic of mudita – sympathetic joy. This divine emotion forms a pair with compassion. Whereas compassion feels the suffering of others and involves having our heart go out to others to sympathize with their pain, mudita involves having our heart go out to others to feel and sympathize with their happiness and joy. Ajahn Brahm explains why and how we can develop this divine emotion of sympathetic joy.

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This dhamma talk was originally recorded using a low quality MP3 to save on file size (because internet connections were slow back then – remember dialup?) on 3rd October 2003. It has now been remastered and published by the Everyday Dhamma Network, and will be of interest to his many fans.

These talks by Ajahn Brahm have been recorded and made available for free distribution by the Buddhist Society of Western Australia under the Creative Commons licence. You can support the Buddhist Society of Western Australia by pledging your support via their Patreon page.