Search results for: "Equanimity"

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  2. When This Is, That Is
     … If you sit there trying to be equanimous about whatever comes up, what happens is that the mind’s fashioning of things in the present moment goes underground, where it’s been all along. Hidden. You want to be more and more conscious of how you shape things right now. Because when you learn how to change that, you start getting more and more … 
  3. The Power of Attention
     … You can focus on goodwill, compassion, empathetic joy, equanimity, and develop these attitudes in an all-around way. You can focus on analyzing the body into its parts. Your choice is going to depend on what you’re bringing into the meditation at the moment and what you see the mind’s problem is. But the breath is a good topic to have as … 
  4. A Tale of Two Kings
     … But there is a solution, and the solution doesn’t lie simply in acceptance and sticking to equanimity. It means learning to become more and more skillful in your actions. There is a potential as you develop the path to find an opening that will lead you out. At that point the problem is solved, not because you’ve lowered your standards. You’ve … 
  5. Goodwill as Wealth
     … There’s a passage where the Buddha says that for a monk, the brahmaviharas—goodwill, compassion, empathetic joy, equanimity for all beings without measure, without limit—are a monk’s wealth. As monks, we don’t have that many material possessions, but we can develop a sense of expansiveness, based on the sense of well-being we develop as we practice. This applies not … 
  6. Think Your Way to Stillness
     … That’s why we have the thoughts about equanimity there at the end, to remind ourselves that even though we would like to have everybody happy, it’s still not going to happen just through our wish. It’s not something we can do for everybody. But there is something we can do for ourselves. And we can be a good example to others … 
  7. Weathering Karma Storms
     … patience, endurance, and a certain amount of equanimity.” Given that we all have a mixed bag, we have to learn how to live with the bad parts and the good parts—not let the bad parts get us down, and not let the good parts get us complacent. And finally, perceptions—the perception that “yes, this is past bad karma coming in” is a … 
  8. Pull Yourself Up by Your Fetters
     … Will it to rest in a state of equanimity; will it into a state of patience and acceptance. But there’s very little thinking that goes into that. In fact, it actively discourages any attempt to think or to figure things out. But that’s not the kind of person the Buddha was. The Buddha was very inquisitive. He wanted to figure things out … 
  9. Potentials for Energy
     … Similarly with calm, equanimity, persistence, and concentration: He simply says that there are potentials within you to be developed without saying what they are. Now, in some cases, you can trace those potentials down in other passages in the Canon. For instance, with mindfulness, he says in another passage that the potential for mindfulness consists of virtue and views made straight. In other words … 
  10. A Load of Straw
     … This is why equanimity has to be the safety net for all these sublime attitudes. Realizing that there are some cases you just can’t help, you have to reflect on the principle of karma. This again is a very useful principle for preparing yourself to meditate. Realize that you don’t have to straighten out the world before you’re going to be … 
  11. Stupid about Pleasure
     … Simply because you can sit here and be very blissful, very equanimous, doesn’t mean that you’re going to see the connections between unskillful pleasures and their negative consequences. That insight requires an act of determination. You really have to be heedful to remind yourself that these issues are either/or. You have to work at developing the strength and determination of discernment … 
  12. Mindfulness of Breathing: Four in One
     … There are all these parts, but they all come together right here at the breath—the feelings of pleasure that come from being attentive to the breath, the mind state that’s alert and mindful of the breath, and the mental quality of watching breath, feelings, and mind with equanimity. What this means is that you’re trying to take 16 and make them … 
  13. In Alignment
     … And then you’re being equanimous about what comes up, which gives you the mental quality you’re looking for. So all four frames of reference are right here. But the breath is the anchor to help keep the other things from drifting away. In this way, you bring things into alignment. You can keep them in alignment as the mind shudders and wobbles … 
  14. Protection for the Holidays
     … Some forms of equanimity should be pursued and others should not. Remember that our feelings are not handed to us ready-made. As the Buddha said, there’s an element of fabrication in terms of which feelings you’re going to focus on, and which ones you’re going to ignore. When you focus on certain potentials, you actually turn them into full-fledged … 
  15. Meaning & Happiness
     … Discernment, endurance, effort, truthfulness, determination good-will, equanimity: These are all good qualities to develop inside. And a life devoted to developing them is a meaningful life. It heads some place. A life devoted to relationships just ends with death or separation. But a life devoted to the perfections leaves you with the perfections you’ve developed. You carry those over to the next … 
  16. Food for Endurance
     … Right concentration is always defined by the feeling tone—either rapture and pleasure, or just pleasure on its own, or equanimity—all of which are good feelings that you can give rise to from within, totally independent of anything outside. That’s how you make the most of your inner resources. There’s an incident in Thai history where a neighboring country came in … 
  17. The Missing Truth
     … mindfulness, your analysis of what’s going on in the present moment, your persistence, a sense of rapture, calm, concentration, equanimity. Those are things you try to give rise to when they’re not there. When they are there, you try to maintain them. This is how all four of the establishings of mindfulness work together. As you develop them, then this really becomes … 
  18. A Frame for the Day
     … This is why equanimity is also one of the topics of the brahmaviharas: learning how not to get worked up about things you can’t change. This is another good thing to think about. As for mental fabrications, those are perceptions and feelings. Start with the perception of which of your belongings are valuable, and which ones not. You’ve got to hold those … 
  19. Recollecting the Buddha
     … He notices that we tend to live in household pleasure, household pain, household equanimity. We get things we like and we’re happy. That’s household pleasure. We get things we don’t like and we’re unhappy. That’s household pain. We decide to be neutral about things, and we can do that for a while, but then we go back to being … 
  20. At Home in Your Own Skin
     … It’s easier to have genuine feelings of goodwill for the other person and it’s easier also to develop equanimity when that’s the skillful choice, the skillful response. This is why meditating is not a selfish act. It puts you in a position where you can be more skillful both in your inside worlds and in your outside worlds. And it gives … 
  21. Building Character
     … There’s the list of the perfections—generosity, virtue, renunciation, discernment, persistence, endurance—all those good Capricorn virtues; truth, determination, goodwill, equanimity. As Ajaan Fuang liked to say, when the Buddha was born in all his many lifetimes up until he became a Buddha, he was born for the sake of mastering these perfections. The list of good spiritual materialism in the suttas is … 
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