Mudita

 My son happens to be my Dhamma teacher at the moment. He gives me endless teachings about patience and loving-kindness and Sympathetic Joy which is Mudita's English name. The Mudita arises especially strongly when my son displays a new skill such as throwing a ball or feeding himself...or at least the desire to, or climbing a set of steps and entering a room without falling over.

The joy in having a young child is that they are always changing and growing. Children are amazingly busy both in the physical sense and the biological sense. I look at my son and there are times when I swear  I can almost see the neurons being made and connecting in his head and the literally millions of new cells that are being made every day. I also see him eating like a horse and being a vigorous, loud and radiantly happy person. And this is where Mudita arises. Every day is a challenge for my son and every day he succeeds at some thing new. Mudita is cheering my son on. There is such a depth of happiness in seeing my son grow.
Selina just asked what is the difference between pride and Mudita?
I replied that pride can be quite selfish. Her father had immense pride in her as a straight A achieving daught and as someone who made him look good. He has no Mudita in her happiness as a mother and a wife. If Mudita was present in her father then there would be contact between us and Selina's parents and they would be extremey happy in our progress as a couple and as parents. Thus pride can be selfish.
However we have both pride and Mudita for our son. We cheer him on and give him challenges. We encourage and take deep joy in his success as a person.
This is Mudita.