Search results for: "Equanimity"
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- Appreciating Dispassion… In his version, the Buddha attained a state of total equanimity there, which is actually not the case. He found the ultimate happiness. But then the scholar said he couldn’t understand what happened under those twin sal trees when Buddha passed away. It seemed as if everything got blotted out, just like with every other human being. It goes without saying that this …
- Lessons from Stilling the Mind… You’re going to get the mind to a point where it has to get even more still than this, but first, give it a sense of real pleasure, really strong sense of fullness, so that when the mind settles down and starts getting more equanimous, it’s coming not from a state of hunger, but from a sense that your immediate needs for …
- Loving Yourself Wisely… So you want to make your mind expansive, make it into that river of water, which he defines first as expansive through the development of the brahmaviharas, your goodwill, compassion, empathetic joy, equanimity. You want to make those large. As he says in another place, you make them large like the river Ganges, large like the element of space, large like the earth, bigger …
- Dissolving Distress… So it’s this combination of seeing the process of rebirth and karma, and having goodwill for everybody—a goodwill that leads to samvega and eventually to a sense of equanimity, realizing we don’t want to continue these stories. That’s the Buddha’s universal narrative solvent for painful memories. So if you find your mind veering off in that direction, try to …
- Your Own Karma… Mindfulness, the ability to recognize what’s skillful and unskillful; persistence, rapture, serenity, concentration, equanimity: When these things arise in the mind, you want to encourage them, either through thinking or not thinking. Sometimes we think that meditation is not thinking but sometimes you need to think in ways that encourage skillful qualities in the mind. This is why the Buddha has that whole …
- A Safe Harbor… You learn how to develop the ability to extend goodwill to everybody, no matter what, extending compassion, and empathetic joy when it’s appropriate, learning to develop equanimity when it’s appropriate. You’re developing the heart along with the mind. That offers more safety, too, in several ways. For one, when you can develop these attitudes and call them up whenever you need …
- The Buddha’s Safe Space… In other words, you develop at the very least equanimity—or better, goodwill—for all beings. Tell yourself that regardless of what your past actions have been, or other people’s past actions have been, you’re going to wish for happiness, for true happiness, true well-being. For everyone. Which means that you’re going to try to be skillful in your actions …
- A Total Training… So you try to develop all the good qualities that are needed to get the mind there—“there” meaning right here in the present moment with a sense of stability, equanimity, purity of mindfulness. If you find it difficult to get here, look at your actions, look at your words, look at the way you think to see what’s getting in the way …
- Caught in a Thorn Bush… Putting it into the fire is an image for effort; blowing on it is an image for concentration; and looking at it is an image for equanimity. Working with the gold requires a balance of all three: If you simply left it in the fire, it would burn up. If you simply looked at it, nothing would happen. If you blew on it, nothing …
- Thinking Your Way to Stillness… He asks himself: “What are you going to do?” And his answer is, “I’m going to go back to my dwelling and I’m going to meditate.” “It’s cold outside, what are you going to do?” “I’m going to use the four immeasurable meditations—limitless goodwill, limitless compassion, limitless empathetic joy, limitless equanimity—to warm the heart.” These reflections remind you …
- The Riddle Tree… like recollecting the Buddha, recollecting the Dhamma, the Sangha, contemplating of the body, developing thoughts of goodwill, compassion, empathetic joy, or equanimity. It’s really a personal matter which of these is going to work for you. There’s no one-size-fits-all kind of meditation. Breath meditation comes the closest to a universal object because, after all, we all have a breath …
- Safe Haven… As for the parts the body you can’t get to go the way you like yet, okay, develop equanimity. As you develop these attitudes around your own breath, you gain practice. Then you can develop them in other areas of life as well. So as we meditate, we’re not simply running away from the world. We’re taking some time out to …
- Look after Yourself with Ease… You have to recognize them: “Okay, these things aren’t skillful; I can’t let the mind indulge in them at all.” As for thoughts that are imbued with renunciation, non-ill will—which can be anything from goodwill to equanimity—or imbued with harmlessness, they don’t really harm anybody. So you can let yourself think them when they’re useful. As long …
- Playing by the Buddha’s Rules… And what are the skillful qualities the Buddha recommends? Equanimity, patience, goodwill: all good things. It’s just that his explanation of them doesn’t quite fit with other people’s ideas of what goodwill or patience may be. But who are you going to trust? We’ve trusted society at large for who-knows-how-many lifetimes. It’s time to give the …
- Dispassion Isn’t Depression… It was equanimity, acceptance. At the end of it all, there’s nothing. Basically a sad end to a sad story—but that’s not what the Buddha taught. The Buddha was not defeatist. He called the noble eightfold path “unexcelled victory in battle.” It’s victory over our unskillful habits, a victory in the search for true happiness, a search that’s well …
- Encouragement… Just try to note, after you’ve come out of a good session, “Okay, what did I do just now? Why did that work?” When you come out of a bad session or you’re in the middle of a bad session, “Okay, why is it not working? What can be changed?” In other words, try to maintain as much equanimity throughout the whole …
- The Power of Present Karma… In some cases, he says, “There’s the potential for rapture,” or, “There’s the potential for equanimity,” or, “potential for stillness.” In some cases, you can figure out what these potentials are from other passages in the Canon. Like the potential for stillness: You try to bring the mind to the establishings of mindfulness. But in other cases, it’s up to you …
- Imagining Freedom… I’m not going to think about food outside the prison, and what life is like outside the prison.” There are some teachers who say that nibbana is simply learning how to be equanimous about the way things are. Well, that’s learning how to accept life in the prison. So it’s good every now and then to stretch your imagination. Maybe it …
- To Have a Purpose… Then finally, as you calm the mind, there’s the perfection of endurance and the perfection of equanimity. You’ve got all the perfections right there. So you’ve got the potential for what you need to put an end to suffering and to get to the other side of the river, because that’s one of the things that the word pāramī for …
- A Sense of Duty… you look out after others, you’re looking out after yourself. In other words, looking out after other people requires strengths that are good to have for your own sake, too: equanimity, kindness, goodwill, and a lot of endurance and patience. That’s because people are difficult. Each of us is a karma producer, free to make whatever choices we want to make, and …
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