People tend to be pretty lax in their own behavior, but they have very strong demands for what other people should do. Strong ideas about what you should be doing make it a lot easier to have equanimity with regard to other people.

"People tend to be pretty lax in their own behavior, but they have very strong demands for what other people should do. This is why we can’t get along. On the other hand, if you have strong ideas about what you should be doing, realizing that this is where your happiness lies, then it’s a lot easier to have equanimity with regard to other people — patience, endurance. As the Buddha said, if you develop these qualities, it’s beneficial for other people and it’s good for you, too. That’s because you’re going to need endurance, you’re going to need patience, you’re going to need equanimity in the training of your own mind."

~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Free from Fear"

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

There are a lot of things happening in the world that you can’t be responsible for. But where you focus the mind, what you do with the mind is your responsibility.

Equanimity is what offers us hope. We can watch what’s going on in the present moment and learn from it, to the point where we work ourselves free. It's in the watching and the looking: That's the way out.

Find something that’s even more liberating than a good mood: the ability not to be a slave to the ups and downs of your moods. That’s a state of mind that’s really worth cultivating.