The Buddha's images for people on the path are never images of people who just sit back and accept. They’re people who are searching, people who are engaged in a battle, people who are trying to develop skills.
"The Buddha never told us just to sit there and accept things. You accept the way things function in terms of your actions and then you train the mind to use that principle of cause and effect to create a path. The equanimity is part of that path, but it’s not the whole path — and it’s not the goal. Recently I heard of a monk trained in the forest tradition saying that equanimity was the goal and we’re here to arrive at right view, accepting the fact that everything is inconstant, arises and passes away, and just be okay with that — which is appalling. The Buddha never taught that, nor did the great ajaans.
His images, their images, for people on the path are never images of people who just sit back and accept. They’re people who are searching, people who are engaged in a battle, people who are trying to develop skills. Now, equanimity has a role in developing a skill. It has a role in battles. It has a role in searches. In other words, you look and look and look and when you don’t find something where you think it should be, you accept that fact and then you go and look for it someplace else. If you’re in a battle and there are setbacks, you accept the fact that there are setbacks, but you don’t let them defeat you. You work your way around them. When you’re developing a skill, you use equanimity to look at the results of what you’re doing, to watch your actions, to look at the results, and if the results aren’t satisfactory, you accept that fact and then go back and change your actions to be better.
Equanimity is selective. For instance, right now: Things outside, you put aside. Issues in your home, people for whom you’re responsible, you just put them aside for the time being. Focus on your own mind. But remind yourself that you’re doing this in a way that doesn’t benefit only you."
~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Equanimity as a Skill" (Meditations10)
His images, their images, for people on the path are never images of people who just sit back and accept. They’re people who are searching, people who are engaged in a battle, people who are trying to develop skills. Now, equanimity has a role in developing a skill. It has a role in battles. It has a role in searches. In other words, you look and look and look and when you don’t find something where you think it should be, you accept that fact and then you go and look for it someplace else. If you’re in a battle and there are setbacks, you accept the fact that there are setbacks, but you don’t let them defeat you. You work your way around them. When you’re developing a skill, you use equanimity to look at the results of what you’re doing, to watch your actions, to look at the results, and if the results aren’t satisfactory, you accept that fact and then go back and change your actions to be better.
Equanimity is selective. For instance, right now: Things outside, you put aside. Issues in your home, people for whom you’re responsible, you just put them aside for the time being. Focus on your own mind. But remind yourself that you’re doing this in a way that doesn’t benefit only you."
~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Equanimity as a Skill" (Meditations10)
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