Berget Jelane has been practicing meditation since 1986 with Gil Fronsdal as her primary teacher. She coordinates SJ Insight Meditation, teaches at various groups in the Bay Area, and has a small sitting group in Morgan Hill. Berget was ordained as a lay Buddhist minister in 2010. She is a psychotherapist and incorporates mindfulness and the Buddha's teachings into her work with clients.
Berget Jelane gave the tenth talk in a eleven-week series titled "Ten Perfections", on the parami of Wisdom. Wisdom is broader than knowledge, also encompassing compassion. Three characteristics of wisdom are: understanding impermanence (anicca), suffering (dukkha), and emptiness, or non-self.
Mudita, or sympathetic joy, is the third quality of the Brahma Viharas. It is expressing gladness for the happiness, joy, or success of someone else. This practice enhances the opening of our hearts. In addition, when we feel happiness for someone else, we actually increase our own happiness. Hindrances to mudita include our envy, our selfishness, our judgment, and our comparing mind.
