Just as Christians believe in life after death, Buddhists believe in reincarnation as an intermediary step on the path to Nirvana.
It might take several lifetimes to reach enlightenment, and where you spend your time before another rebirth is based on the accumulation of merit. To end up in the brahma world, one of the heavenly realms in Buddhist cosmology, you need to have a lot of good karma. One of its main sources for monks, as well as for laypeople, is a set of meditation practices known as the brahmavihara, or four sublime states of mind.
The first of these is called metta or lovingkindness, which serves as a potent antidote to anger and resentment. You can try it right now by reading our article titled “How to Practice Lovingkindness Meditation for Beginners.” However, it’s only one of the four meditations that devout Buddhists use to deepen their spiritual practice and ensure a fortunate rebirth after death. In this article, I provide a short definition of each, from the book titled In the Buddha’s Words by a renowned scholar-monk Bhikkhu Bodhi:
Briefly, loving-kindness (metta) is the wish for the welfare and happiness of all beings;
compassion (karuna), the feeling of empathy for all those afflicted with suffering;
altruistic joy (mudita), the feeling of happiness at the successes and good fortune of others;
equanimity (upekkha), a balanced reaction to joy and misery, which protects one from emotional agitation.
About the book’s author: Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi is an American Buddhist monk. He obtained a BA in philosophy from Brooklyn College and a PhD in philosophy from Claremont Graduate School. After completing his university studies he traveled to Sri Lanka, where he received full ordination in 1973. From 1984 to 2002 he was the editor for the Buddhist Publication Society in Kandy, where he lived for ten years. He has authored several books on Buddhist practice, including In the Buddha’s Words: An Anthology of Discourses from the Pali Canon.
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