Search results for: "Equanimity"

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  2. Boxed Stories
     … There are also the mental qualities of equanimity or concentration, or whatever good mental qualities you’re working on. They’re all right here. Ajaan Lee makes the same point as well: You want all frames of reference to be right present here at the breath. It’s simply that one framework takes precedence, and you see all the other ones in relationship to … 
  3. Pleasure on the Middle Way
     … You can view these impermanent relations of the world with a lot more equanimity. And a lot more discernment. And a lot less desperation. So the pleasure of concentration is an important part of the path. You can’t do without it. Sometimes you hear that right concentration is an optional part of the path, that you can just go straight for insight. But … 
  4. Heedful, Attentive, Mindful
     … The qualities you’re trying to develop are mindfulness, the ability to analyze what’s going on in the mind, persistence, rapture, calm, concentration, and equanimity. Ajaan Fuang gives the example: He says, “If you want to see the mind, you don’t just follow it around. You give it something that it likes, and then it’ll be there. And then you can … 
  5. True Values
     … It develops determination, equanimity. So you look for that kind of work, but you do it for the purpose of your true well-being. That’s something you always have to keep in mind. While you’re here, take advantage of the opportunity to develop these skills. While you’re out there, carry these values with you. Remind yourself of the kind of wealth … 
  6. Goodwill Starts with Gratitude
     … spreading goodwill to all beings, compassion to all beings, empathetic joy to all beings, equanimity to all. That, too, should be based on the reflection of making your mind like earth. Because there are a lot of beings out there who’ve been unkind to you, unkind to people you love, unkind to people you’re concerned about, but you have to have goodwill … 
  7. The Energy You Broadcast
     … It can be compassion flowing out, goodwill flowing out, or equanimity. Again, that’s your choice. The Buddha gives an extreme example. You’re pinned down by bandits who’ve taken a two-handled saw and are sawing you into little pieces. You could simply react to that event and get upset, give rise to anger, ill will, frustration: all the unpleasant emotions that … 
  8. Like Earth and Space
     … Of course, you have to back up your goodwill with equanimity, realizing that for a lot of people, this is going to take time. This is why the Buddha’s instructions to the monks on the Ovada Patimokkha begin with endurance, patience, as a basis for burning away your defilements. As for the instructions to Rahula, on making his mind like earth, he didn … 
  9. Introduction to the Breath
     … your desire for true happiness and the good qualities you have—goodwill, compassion, appreciation, and equanimity when it’s needed, as well as things like mindfulness and alertness, because you need to be alert to what you’re doing if you want to understand where you’re causing yourself unnecessary suffering. That’s what we’re working on as we meditate: mindfulness and alertness … 
  10. Straightening Out the World
     … Something pleasant comes up, and you don’t have to give rise to greed; something unpleasant comes up, you don’t have to give rise to anger; when there’s equanimity in the mind, you don’t have to be deluded. These defilements are not necessary. As Ajaan Lee once said, there are two types of suffering in the world: the suffering that’s … 
  11. Space for Sustained Contemplation
     … When you can think in those ways, then the idea of feeding off the comfort of the breath, feeding off of concentration, feeding off of internal pleasure that comes exclusively from being with the breath, feeding off the equanimity that comes when the mind really settles down, gets more attractive. The same with contemplation of the body: Whatever issues you have around your body … 
  12. Bases for Success
     … If the rapture and the pleasure seem too much, you can let them go, and there’s simply equanimity. In this way, the mind settles down the way you want it to. You have some success in your meditation. You often hear it said that there are no good meditations or bad meditations, that you’re not supposed to judge your meditation, but that … 
  13. Normalcy
     … And even though this is a fabricated state of stillness and equanimity, still it’s part of the path—because, after all, the entire path is a fabrication. So we are not trying to induce special experiences. Sometimes they may happen and then the question will be: When they happen, what you do with them? How to get yourself back to normalcy? But if … 
  14. A Good Purpose in Life
     … generosity, virtue, renunciation, persistence, endurance, truth, determination, goodwill, and equanimity. In our practice, we have to develop all of these qualities and we have to see the opportunity to develop them as something really precious. There was one time when Ajaan Fuang was going to lead a group of his students up to the chedi at the monastery in order to meditate. The chedi … 
  15. Relating to Kamma
     … We practice endurance, renunciation, equanimity, determination: all of which are qualities of the will, in which we make up our minds that there’s something we really want and we try to get all our random desires in line. The Thai image is of trying to catch crabs and put them in a basket. You get one crab in the basket and by the … 
  16. Moods Are Not-Self
     … Then look at the way you talk to yourself around goodwill, compassion, empathetic joy, and equanimity; the way you talk to yourself about your body; the way you talk to yourself about things around you outside. Try to get yourself in the right frame of mind to settle down. Those are some of the ways you can talk to yourself. Then you can ask … 
  17. Evaluation
     … When it begins to get dry, you can think thoughts of goodwill, compassion, empathetic joy, or equanimity. When you get discouraged, you can think about members of the Sangha in the past who seemed to have reached a dead end in their meditation but then were able to break through. Reflect on the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha. Reflect on death when you … 
  18. A Generosity of Spirit
     … The mind becomes more expansive, and that becomes the mind that’s in line with unlimited goodwill, unlimited compassion, empathetic joy, and equanimity. So this is one of the reasons why here at the monastery we don’t have a staff. Everybody helps. Everybody pitches in. It’s our way of being generous. Everything from gifts of food, to gifts of time, gifts of … 
  19. Licking Yourself Clean
     … One of the reasons we recite those chants on goodwill, compassion, appreciation, and equanimity is to create a sense of wellbeing in the mind. Thoughts of goodwill are good thoughts to think. They feel good. They put the mind at ease. You don’t have to struggle with anybody. You don’t have to settle any old scores. It feels good to be thinking … 
  20. Two Kinds of Defilements
     … There are the ones that go away if you simply look at them with equanimity. And there are others that won’t go away unless you, as he says, exert a fabrication against them. In other words, you have to put in effort to figure them out and really actively uproot them. Another reason why there are two causes of suffering is because there … 
  21. The Gift of the Practice
     … You develop the equanimity that’s needed to deal with whatever situation comes up. That’s obviously a benefit to the people around you. As the old poem says, when people around you are losing their heads but you’re able to keep yours, that’s a real gift to them. You become more and more reliable. And then ultimately when you’ve seen … 
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