Mudita to purify the Heart

Joy isn't something we have to manufacture — it's something we can learn to recognize and receive.In this talk, Ginger Clarkson guides the group through mudita, or sympathetic joy, drawing on teachings from Sylvia Boorstein, the late Cambodian Buddhist patriarch Maha Gosananda, and a newly trained Spirit Rock teacher named devon hase.Ginger explores why sympathetic joy may be the hardest of the four heart practices — envy and the fear that there isn't enough happiness to go around are its natural obstacles — and why the antidote is simply remembering that joy and sorrow visit everyone, and that it's sometimes just someone else's turn. The talk includes a guided mudita practice directing phrases of appreciative joy toward a loved one and a benefactor, with Sylvia Boorstein's gentle reminder woven throughout: the whole of the Dharma can be summed up as paying attention and being kind.About GingerGinger Clarkson is a Community Dharma Leader certified by Spirit Rock Meditation Center in California, where she studied under the mentorship of Jack Kornfield and completed the Dedicated Dharma Practitioner program with Eugene Cash and other senior teachers.