Scientific studies of happiness have begun to investigate positive emotions, with some attention to “prosocial” emotions and their role in human happiness. This paper provides groundwork for a brief introduction to the Brahmivaharas. More specifically, I suggest that the Brahmaviharas, an ancient Buddhist prescription for the cultivation of lovingkindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity, rest on some observations from the social sciences (notably, psychology) and the neurosciences. These are the observations that; 1) We are creators of our own worlds; 2) We universally with to be happy; 3) We are predisposed to the capacity to register one another empathically, and; 4) What we do shapes us and our brains, creating dispositions for future action and experience. Taken together, these points suggest that through practicing of the prosocial emotions described by the Brahmaviharas, we can create the conditions within ourselves that are conducive to happiness. The four Brahmaviharas are also briefly described.
