RIGHT INTENTION
Cultivating Equanimity
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Whatever you intend,
whatever you plan, and whatever you have a tendency toward, that will
become the basis upon which your mind is established. (SN 12.40) Develop
meditation on equanimity, for when you develop meditation on
equanimity, all aversion is abandoned. (MN 62)
The far enemies of equanimity are attachment and aversion. (Vm 9.101)
When a person smelling an odor with the nose is not attached to pleasing
odors and not repelled by unpleasing odors, they have established
mindfulness and dwell with an unlimited mind. For a person whose
mindfulness is developed and practiced, the nose does not struggle to
reach pleasing odors, and unpleasing odors are not considered repulsive.
(SN 35.274)
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Buddhist
teachings are not abstract but always point us to the front lines of
lived experience. Cycling through each of the six senses, we come to
exploring the quality of equanimity even in the smelling of odors.
Equanimity is the midpoint between favoring and opposing, between
wanting what feels good and not wanting what feels bad. It is not
indifference but a more refined attitude of understanding and
acknowledging.
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See if you can
find and then inhabit that middle emotional ground in which you are
acutely aware of a sensation—in this case a smell coming through the
nose—but are not reacting to it, either for or against. All sensory
experience is just what it is; we need not make it good or bad by our
emotional response. Learning to do this with a sense like smell will
help you apply equanimity to other, more complex situations as needed.
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Tomorrow: Refraining from Frivolous Speech
One week from today: Cultivating Lovingkindness
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