A personal blog by a graying (mostly Anglo with light African-American roots) gay left leaning liberal progressive married college-educated Buddhist Baha'i BBC/NPR-listening Professor Emeritus now following the Dharma in Minas Gerais, Brasil.
Tuesday, October 22, 2024
Via Dhamma Wheel | 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)
When a person, thinking a mental object with the mind, is not attached
to pleasing mental objects and not repelled by unpleasing mental
objects, they have established mindfulness and dwell with an unlimited
mind. For a person whose mindfulness is developed and practiced, the
mind does not struggle to reach pleasing mental objects, and unpleasing
mental objects are not considered repulsive. (SN 35.274)
Reflection
Some objects in
the world are naturally pleasing, and some are displeasing. This goes
for our thoughts and other mental objects as well. Of course it feels
good to think about some things and it feels bad to think of others, but
whether we experience stress or suffering depends not on these facts
but on our response to them. When attached, we struggle, and when we
abide in our minds with equanimity, we are at peace.
Daily Practice
When you are
settled for some time in a quiet place, turn your awareness to the
thoughts and images that may be streaming through your mind. When you
are caught by the content of these, you are swept along by the mental
flow, but if you regard what is happening with equanimity, as a process
of arising and passing mental objects, your mindfulness is developed and
you are no longer favoring some thoughts over others.
Tomorrow: Refraining from Frivoulous Speech One week from today: Cultivating Lovingkindness
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