Via Daily Dharma: Start Your Practice with Joy

By starting our meditation practice with joy in our hearts, we begin to associate all dharma activity with joy and we will, in time, begin to look forward to practice.

Pema Düddul, “Awakening to Joy”

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Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Intention: Cultivating Equanimity

 

RIGHT INTENTION Cultivating Equanimity Whatever you intend, whatever you plan, and whatever you have a tendency toward, that will become the basis on 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)

Reflection Equanimity is the fourth of the brahma-viharas, the sublime states of mind, and is the secret ingredient of mindfulness, indeed of the entire Buddhist approach to practice. Like the clutch of a car, which disengages the engine from the wheels, freeing them to revolve independently, equanimity disengages us from the compulsion of the pleasure/pain reflex, freeing us to experience a range of sensations without craving. Daily Practice Cultivate the experience of feeling pleasure without getting hooked by it and experiencing displeasure without needing to be rid of it. Notice how pleasure and pain are on one channel, so to speak, and our loving and hating of them are on another. Normally we are forced to respond to pleasure with attachment and to pain with aversion, but equanimity replaces these forms of craving, liberating the mind from them.  Tomorrow: Refraining from Frivolous Speech One week from today: Cultivating Lovingkindness Share your thoughts and join the conversation on social media #DhammaWheel Questions? Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.

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