The brahmavihārā (sublime attitudes, lit. "abodes of brahma") (Pāli: cattāri brahmavihārā), (Sinhala: චත්තාරි බ්‍රහ්මවිහාරා/සතර බ්‍රහ්ම විහරණ) are a series of four Buddhist virtues and the meditation practices made to cultivate them. They are also known as the four immeasurables (Pāli: appamaññā) or four infinite minds (Chinese: 四無量心). The Brahma-viharas are: loving-kindness or benevolence (mettā) compassion (karuṇā) empathetic joy (muditā) equanimity (upekkhā) According to the Metta Sutta, cultivation of the four immeasurables has the power to cause the practitioner to be reborn into a "Brahma realm" (Pāli: Brahmaloka). Etymology and translations Pāli: cattāri brahmavihārā (IAST: ) | (Wylie: tshad med bzhi) Brahmavihāra may be parsed as "Brahma" and "vihāra", which is often rendered into English as "sublime" or "divine abodes". Apramāṇa, usually translated as "the immeasurables," means "boundlessness, infinitude, a state that is illimitable". When developed to a high degree in meditation, these attitudes are said to make the mind "immeasurable" and like the mind of the loving Brahma (gods). Other translations: English: four divine abodes, four divine emotions, four sublime attitudes, four divine dwellings. East Asia: (), (), (). (four Brahmavihara) or (four immeasurables). The Brahma-vihara The four Brahma-vihara are: Loving-kindness (Pāli: mettā, Sanskrit: maitrī) is active good will towards all; Compassion (Pāli and Sanskrit: karuṇā) results from metta, it is identifying the suffering of others as one's own; Sympathetic joy (Pāli and Sanskrit: muditā): is the feeling of joy because others are happy, even if one did not contribute to it, it is a form of sympathetic joy; Equanimity (Pāli: upekkhā, Sanskrit: upekṣā): is even-mindedness and serenity, treating everyone impartially. Early Buddhism The Brahma-vihara are a pre-Buddhist Brahminical concept, to which the Buddhist tradition gave its own interpretation. The Digha Nikaya asserts the Buddha to be calling the Brahmavihara as "that practice", and he then contrasts it with "my practice" as follows: According to Richard Gombrich, an indologist and scholar of Sanskrit, Pāli, the Buddhist usage of the brahma-vihāra originally referred to an awakened state of mind, and a concrete attitude towards other beings which was equal to "living with Brahman" here and now. The later tradition took those descriptions too literally, linking them to cosmology and understanding them as "living with Brahman" by rebirth in the Brahma-world. According to Gombrich, "the Buddha taught that kindness - what Christians tend to call love - was a way to salvation. In the Tevijja Sutta, "The Threefold Knowledge" in the Digha