What is meditation on equanimity and how to practice it?

Question: Dear Ajaan, could you please explain equanimity again? What is meditation on equanimity and how to practice it?

Thanissaro Bhikkhu: Basically, equanimity is maintaining a stable emotional state with regard to things that are either very good or very bad. As a meditation practice, you can think of situations in your life where things are not going the way you want them to and you can’t do anything about them. You have to learn how to be equanimous toward them by reminding yourself that if you allow yourself to get upset by things of that sort, your mind won’t be clear enough to deal with the areas where you could make a difference.

The traditional way of developing equanimity is to think of situations in the world that are beyond your control. Then remind yourself that the situations depend on the kamma of the people involved. In many cases, the nature of kamma is such that you cannot help them right now. This could be attributed either to their kamma or to your kamma or to both.

A psychotherapist I know once told me that one of the most difficult parts of being a therapist is realizing that you’re not the best therapist for a particular patient, and you have to pass the patient on to somebody else. It’s a humbling experience, realizing the limitations to your powers and abilities. That’s one of the ways you develop equanimity.

~ "Facing Aging, Illness, & Death: The Central Teaching of the Buddha"

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Equanimity rests on the confidence that as long as you put in positive energy with positive intentions, positive results will have to come out at some point.

"So equanimity means realizing that when things can’t be forced, you’ve got to step back. Whatever you can’t control, you let it take its own time, to develop or go away at its own pace. You focus your efforts instead on the skillfulness of your present intentions, which may require patience and equanimity, doing your best to put as much positive energy into the situation, and not getting upset because the results are not immediate. The important point is that you be secure in your confidence that as long as you put in positive energy, there will have to be positive results — if not right now, then someplace down the line. That’s what you control, the fact that you’re putting in positive energy, putting in skillful intentions right now. As for when these things will bear fruit, that’s up to them, that’s up to the jagged rhythm in the whole mix of your karma. So it’s important that you understand what equanimity means. It doesn’t mean that you’re totally non-reactive to everything,...
Read more

The even-mindedness of a fully awakened person is an attitude not of cold indifference, but rather of mental imperturbability.

"[An awakened person] feels sympathy for others and seeks their well-being, experiencing a sense of satisfaction when they respond to [his/her] teachings, but otherwise [he/she] stays equanimous, untroubled, mindful, and alert. This passage shows that the even-mindedness of a fully awakened person is an attitude not of cold indifference, but rather of mental imperturbability. Such a person has found true happiness and would like others to share that happiness as well, but that happiness is not dependent on how others respond. This is the ideal state of mind for a person who truly works for the benefit of the world." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "The Wings to Awakening"
Read more

If you see there’s an injustice, you want to be effective in putting an end to it: not just lashing out in line with your emotions, but actually finding the right thing to do, and doing it with as much skill as you can.

"If you see there’s an injustice, you want to be effective in putting an end to it: not just lashing out in line with your emotions, but actually finding the right word, finding the right thing to do. And doing it with as much skill as you can. So even though equanimity is encouraged in the practice, passivity is not. It’s not a value in and of itself. Think of it more as a strategy. There are times when you do have to be very still and very quiet, and other times when you should act decisively. Only when the mind is able to develop equanimity whenever it needs it will you be in a position to find out what the decisive action would be, the decisive word would be, because your ability to see the situation is a lot clearer." ~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Injustice"
Read more