Melvin Escobar helps us discover how we can tap into a source of happiness that doesn’t depend on our personal wins, but actually grows the more others succeed.

Here he explores the concept of mudita—often translated as unselfish or appreciative joy. He dives into how this practice, one of the four “divine abodes” or Brahma-viharas, helps us break out of the Western individualistic trap and realize that our happiness is deeply interconnected with everyone else’s.

Melvin reminds us that even when we feel stuck in aversion or judge ourselves for “not doing it right,” those very feelings are actually the path to joy; by noticing what we are reflexively pushing away, we create the space for a more authentic, humanized connection to the world around us.

He guides us through several ways we can cultivate this “immeasurable” joy in our daily lives, moving beyond the idea of it being a separate, lofty goal:

• The Path of Purification: We learn that mudita is often found right in the middle of our aversion. Instead of fighting our negative thoughts, we can see them simply as “sensations” and use that awareness to melt the “stone” of indifference.
• Integrating Our Life Stages: We reflect on how our capacity for joy evolves from the “bundle of joy” we were as infants, through the traumas of adolescence, and into a more “distilled” version of ourselves as we age and learn to laugh at our own forgetfulness.
• Sati (Remembering): We practice the intention of “remembering” our Buddha nature and the path, realizing that once we’ve seen the truth of interdependence, we can never truly “unsee” it.
• The “Buddha Smile”: We are invited to try a physical practice—the slight upward turn of the lips—that helps us stay present and serious about our spiritual work without losing our sense of lightness.
• Service as Joy: We see that humanizing each other is an act of joy, and through service, the separation between “who is serving who” begins to dissolve.

By practicing mudita, we find the “safety valve” that allows us to experience the world’s beauty and suffering without crumbling under the weight of it all.

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Melvin Escobar is a core teacher at the East Bay Meditation Center, a licensed psychotherapist, and a certified yoga instructor. Melvin has walked the path of service for much of his life, drawing on his experiences as a queer man of color born and raised in Los Angeles, CA.

Having encountered the priceless wisdom embodied in Buddhism and Yoga, he continues daily to learn the revolutionary potential of body-centered contemplative practices for personal and social healing. You can read his latest article in Lion’s Roar Magazine “Loving-Kindness: May All Beings Be Happy,” and visit his website http://www.melvinescobar.com for more information.