Thanissaro Bhikkhu on Equanimity

"Most of us spend our lives feeding off our moods, looking for happy moods because those are the fun ones to feed on. But once you’ve put the mind in a position of feeding off its moods, you find that it’s got a lot of other things to feed on as well, such as depression or sorrow. Once you create that kind of mouth and stomach for the mind, hoping to feed off the good moods, it’s open to take in the sad moods as well. This happens in your daily life and in your meditation, too. The reason we keep doing this is because we feel that moods at least create the spice of life. If the mind didn’t have moods, we’d feel like we were robots. The idea of a mind without moods sounds like oatmeal nothing added to it, i.e. pretty miserable, pretty dull. But stop and think about the dangers of our moods. They can induce us to do all kinds of unskillful things. If we get really depressed, we get apathetic. Nothing seems to matter — you lose any sense of concern for the results of your actions. Wh...

"I remember listening one time to a tape of a number of people who had been over staying with one of the ajaans in Thailand. It seemed like all of them had learned those lessons: that it was important to develop patience, it was important to develop equanimity and acceptance, the first steps in the Buddha’s teachings to Rahula. But unfortunately the ajaan got so sick that he had to stop teaching, and that was all they got. As far as they were concerned, that seemed to be everything. But you talk to the Thai monks who studied with that ajaan and no, they would tell you that there was a lot more about learning how to question things. Once you’ve learned the principle of accepting the way things are, the way things happen, then you can explore the way things happen to use it to your advantage, to find whether it’s possible to find a happiness that lies beyond just acceptance. Is it possible to find a happiness that has no problems at all? Because acceptance and equanimity often invol...

"You’ve got to make your happiness depend on your choices. Which means that when it comes to the choices of other people, you have to be equanimous. You have to keep your head so that you can make your choices well. Because that’s the area where you do have some responsibility and do have some power to make a change." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Keeping Your Head"

"As the Buddha said, “You don’t go to heaven or hell because of other people’s actions. You go because of your own actions.” Those can take you to heaven; they can take you to hell. So why are you taking yourself to hell? And why are you upset with what other people are doing, which really has nothing to do, really, with you? It’s your actions that make all the difference." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Look at Yourself"