Search results for: "Equanimity"

  1. Page 6
  2. The Brahmavihāras Aren’t Enough
     … Focusing on equanimity would correspond to the fourth. But there’s another passage where the Buddha talks about developing each of the brahmavihāras with directed thought and evaluation; with no directed thought and a modicum of evaluation; with no directed thought and no evaluation; with rapture; without rapture; with enjoyment; with equanimity. That’s taking you to the fourth jhāna with any of the … 
  3. Happy for People You Don’t Like
    Happy for People You Don’t Like September 3, 2019 When we spread goodwill, compassion, empathetic joy, and equanimity to all beings, we’re said to be developing a sublime abiding. The Pali term is brahmavihara―literally “the dwelling places of Brahmas.” We try to take our human mind, which can be very partial about wishing well to others, and lift it to the … 
  4. Remember This
     … You develop powers of patience and equanimity, so that when you can’t figure something out, you have the patience to watch. And when you’ve figured out something and you know it’s going to take time, well, you have the patience and equanimity to stick with it. But mindfulness practice doesn’t stop with equanimity. Equanimity is simply one of the elements … 
  5. A Good-Natured Attitude
     … Then in all your dealings with other people that require your equanimity, it’s good-natured equanimity. Ajaan Fuang made the distinction between what he called large equanimity and small equanimity. We can call it large-hearted and small-hearted. Small-hearted is when you say, “Nothing’s any good anywhere, but I’m just going to learn how tough it out.” Large-hearted … 
  6. Patience & Endurance
    When we chant the formula for the brahmaviharas, you may notice that the pattern for equanimity differs from the pattern for the other three. For goodwill, compassion, and empathetic joy, it starts, “May all beings be happy, may they be free from suffering, may they not be deprived of the good fortune they have obtained.” In other words, “may, may, may.” Whereas with equanimity … 
  7. Help Others, Help Yourself
     … And there’s equanimity. Sometimes there are things you simply can’t change about your environment, about the people around you. We develop perfections, but we do it in an imperfect world. And sometimes you have weaknesses of your own that you have to be patient with. In the meantime, have some equanimity. “I’m not able to do x yet, but I’ll … 
  8. Put the Other Person’s Heart in Yours
     … The same with equanimity: The difference between endurance and equanimity is very subtle. Endurance has to do with the fact that you don’t react in word and deed to things you find hard to stand. Equanimity has to do more with staying neutral: keeping the mind on an even keel in spite of the ups and downs in any situation. Here again, you … 
  9. After the Fire
     … Sometimes you see them presented in such a way that everything is working toward equanimity. But as the Buddha said, equanimity has its time and its place. There are times when simply being equanimous about things gets you sunk in problems. You miss the point that there are things that you can change; there are things that you can’t. If it’s something … 
  10. A Questioning Attitude
     … For example, the idea that simply by developing mindfulness, being perfectly equanimous, noting whatever comes up, is automatically going to guarantee discernment: You can get very good at maintaining a state of equanimity, and of course you can really get attached to that equanimity to the point where you get people nowadays saying that equanimity is nibbana. For some reason this issue has come … 
  11. Make a Difference
     … Ultimately, you’re going to get to a state where the mind feels very equanimous about things, but it’s an equanimity that comes from have been well-fed. The Buddha never teaches equanimity on its own. It’s always in the context of either the pleasure that comes from gaining insights or the pleasure that comes from getting the mind to settle down … 
  12. Non-Reactive Judgment
     … There are causes of suffering that respond to simply looking at them with equanimity, but there are others that respond only when you fabricate a fabrication. And to master both of those approaches, you’ve got to develop good powers of concentration. Think about the Buddha’s teachings on equanimity. There’s ordinary equanimity, which is what we start out with. That’s the … 
  13. The Gift of Meditation
     … There’s that passage where Sakka the deva comes to ask the Buddha a whole series of questions, and one of them is, “Is equanimity to be developed or not?” The Buddha says, “There are certain kinds of equanimity that are, and certain that are not.” How do you know? You put them to the test. You notice, “Okay, when I practice equanimity in … 
  14. A Heart Wider than the World
     … As the Buddha says, try to make your goodwill as big as the Earth, as wide as the river Ganges, as all-encompassing as space, so that no matter what happens, you can tell yourself, “I’m big enough to take that.” As for equanimity, you’re aiming at the equanimity that comes from true happiness, but to get there, you have to develop … 
  15. Generating Good Energy
     … And so it takes some patience and some equanimity to allow them just to be for a while as you work on other parts of the body. When there’s a sense of trust inside, it’ll begin to open up. That’s one kind of equanimity. Another kind of equanimity comes when the breath is totally still, the mind is still with the … 
  16. Two Types of Dukkha
     … Then, from the release comes the equanimity. That’s one of the side effects because, after all, the release itself is something very, very pleasant. A great sense of relief. That allows you to be equanimous about other things. So either way, the equanimity has to come from a sense of well-being if it’s going to be healthy. Otherwise, if you force … 
  17. Escape Routes in the Present
     … And equanimity means just putting up with whatever comes past—which is not the case. The things the Buddha has us endure are, on the one hand, difficult things outside that lie beyond our control. And the other hand, he has us learn how to endure pain, discomfort. And so to endure these things, the trick is not simply sitting there and enduring but … 
  18. The Path is Fabricated
     … The in-and-out breathing has stopped, leaving just a feeling of equanimity, what the Buddha calls “purity of equanimity and mindfulness.” This, too, is something you do. There’s an element of intention here to keep this going. We tend to forget this when the concentration is going well. Sometimes we hear that equanimity is a non-fabricated state, or mindfulness is a … 
  19. The Will to Awaken
     … One of the points of developing equanimity is so you begin to see where the difference lies. So the Buddha is not recommending a blanket passivity here. He’s telling you to develop equanimity when it’s appropriate. You develop equanimity when you need to see things that you don’t yet understand. When you understand, sometimes equanimity is still appropriate, and sometimes you … 
  20. A Blameless Happiness
     … The same way with equanimity: It’s not the case that all kinds of equanimity are perfectly fine. When you’re indifferent to other people’s suffering, or indifferent to your own well-being, your own true well-being into the future: That’s not a good kind of equanimity. So when you look at your life, you want to ask yourself , “Is your … 
  21. The Self-correcting Mind
     … You have the equanimity member, you’ve got the concentration member, you’ve got the uplifting energy member. And you want them to work together, to get coordinated, to be able to observe one another, to see where things are lacking, see where things are too much. You can’t depend on a Johnny-one-note kind of meditation where it’s just equanimity … 
  22. Load next page...