When your equanimity is based on well-being, it’s expansive and light. Because it comes from well-being, there’s no regret or disappointment or powerlessness at all. It’s a state of calm that’s really satisfying.

"Equanimity is sometimes taught with a defeatist attitude. A defeatist attitude says, basically, that there’s no lasting happiness to be found in the world, so you might as well give up trying to find it. Just learn to accept things as they are and don’t hope for them to be better than what they are. When you give up on your search for happiness, you can be equanimous and content with what you’ve got.

That, as I said, is a defeatist attitude. It’s equanimity tinged with regret, disappointment, and a sense of powerlessness. It’s heavy and narrow, a contentment found by lowering your standards for satisfaction.

We bow down to the Buddha, though, because he actually has us raise our standards for satisfaction, to accept nothing less than the ultimate happiness. There’s nothing defeatist in his attitude at all. In fact, he called the noble eightfold path the path to victory: You can find a happiness that’s not subject to aging, illness, and death, that’s totally free of sorrow. You win out over all your defilements and all the changing and unreliable things in the world.

This is what Ajaan Fuang called the brightness of life: Even though there’s suffering, there’s also a path to the total end of suffering, and it’s open to everyone. When your equanimity is based on well-being, it’s expansive and light. Because it comes from well-being, there’s no regret or disappointment or powerlessness at all. It’s a state of calm that’s really satisfying — and when a state of calm is satisfying, that’s the highest calm of all."

~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "Sublime Determinations: a Retreat on the Brahmavihāras with the Sociedade Vipassana de Meditação BrasÍlia"

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