Compassion resonates in the four corners

As the new year approached, Charlotte Rotterdam, co- director of Tara Mandala Buddhist Retreat Center spoke to the four immeasurables in Buddhist teachings at the Universalist Fellowship in Pagosa Springs, Colo.

The four immeasurables or states of mind are: loving kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity. With loving kindness “We begin loving kindness with ourselves, which means accepting us for who we are. What every one is trying to do is find happiness,” Rotterdam said. Compassion for those who are less fortunate is the second immeasurable. “Compassion is the cornerstone of many religions,” Rotterdam said. “The way our life force expresses itself is through compassion. Compassion is beyond limits and bounds. When we are truly open we release the armor of ourselves. We let go of agendas,” she said. “We hold within ourselves the clarity that allows suffering to transform.”

The third immeasurable is sympathetic joy. “We can actually follow someone else’s joy or happiness. Do not become elated or ride on someone else’s happiness,” she said. “Dwell happily in the present moment.” She discussed equanimity, the fourth immeasurable, which is maintaining composure or a balanced equilibrium, sometimes while under tension or strain. Equanimity is “a sense of looking over the mountain and letting go — non-attachment,” Rotterdam said. “Equanimity calls us to wake up to what is going on in order to be useful. We release the idea of self. We are in some ways a dynamic being,” she said, motioning her hands cohesively, back and fourth.

In a question and answer session, Rotterdam placed emphasis on “finding the gap of awareness on how to react. If we open the gap to all our scripts, that natural compassion will be there,” she said.

Addressing an attendee's concern about attachment, she emphasized the relationship in terms of having an image associated with another image, such as pairing tea and chocolate.

“I have one question. What teas are best with chocolate?,” said Ed Funk, member of the Unitarian Service Committee. Another audience member exclaimed, “She knew what we were thinking, she is special.” Telepathy is not Rotterdam’s forte, but her connection with the human quality of compassion was evident.