muditā
Sympathetic joy
[ moo-DEE-taa ]
Seeing it in life
Muditā rejoices in others’ welfare; antidote to envy. A brahmavihāra.
In short
Gladness at the success and happiness of others.
The analysis
Muditā rejoices in the success and happiness of others — the third brahmavihāra, and the direct antidote to issā (envy). Its near enemy is superficial exuberance mistaken for genuine gladness, and its far enemy is envy itself. Muditā is sometimes described as the most difficult brahmavihāra to cultivate genuinely.
Where it sits
Muditā is cultivated as part of the fourfold brahmavihāra set — often directed specifically toward someone else's good fortune as the deliberate practice object, since it's the state issā would otherwise displace.
The unguarded gladness at hearing good news about someone else's win, with no undertone of comparison or diminishment of one's own situation, is muditā — rarer, in unguarded form, than it might seem.
Commonly mistaken for
Forced enthusiasm or performed happiness for someone. Genuine muditā is unguarded gladness, not a social performance.
The same as ordinary happiness. It's specifically joy at another's good fortune, distinguished by that outward orientation.
Abhidhammattha Saṅgaha IX; Brahmavihāra Sutta (AN 4.125).
Related terms