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.
Every
moment of mindfulness is also a moment of equanimity. It is not a
disengagement from the object of awareness but rather a full and
complete engagement with it.
"One part of getting free, free into the soul or the witness, is the
ability to stand back a little bit because now you are identified with
being the witness rather than being the player, and thus you can see the
play more clearly."
RIGHT VIEW Understanding the Noble Truth of the Way to the Cessation of Suffering
And what is the way leading
to the cessation of suffering? It is just this noble eightfold path:
that is, right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right
living, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration. (MN 9)
One who has perfected their ethical behavior sees no danger from any
side, just as a king who has vanquished his enemies sees no danger from
any side. One experiences in oneself the blameless happiness that comes
from maintaining noble ethical behavior. (DN 2)
Reflection
From the
Buddhist point of view, our own toxic internal states are our greatest
threat. The hostility, cruelty, and hatred we are capable of act as a
poison corroding our hearts from within, just as the craving,
attachment, and grasping tendencies within us obscure our ability to see
clearly and do what is best for us. The way to end suffering is to walk
a path that relies on upright ethical conduct as a shield against these
threats.
Daily Practice
It is just as
important to acknowledge our victories over our harmful inner tendencies
as it is to be aware of our failures. It is okay to feel good about
doing good. Allow yourself to feel the power of a commitment to honesty
or a dedication to justice or a refusal to participate in harmful
behavior. It is natural to feel happiness when behaving ethically, and
you are encouraged to relish the healthy states that come from positive
actions.
Tomorrow: Cultivating Equanimity One week from today: Understanding the Noble Truth of Suffering
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Whatever a person frequently
thinks about and ponders, that will become the inclination of their
mind. If one frequently thinks about and ponders healthy states, one has
abandoned unhealthy states to cultivate healthy states, and then one’s
mind inclines to healthy states. (MN 19)
Here a person rouses the will, makes an effort, stirs up energy, exerts
the mind, and strives to develop the arising of unarisen healthy mental
states. One develops the unarisen awakening factor of energy. (MN 141)
Reflection
Energy is a
word with many different meanings in English. Here it refers to a mental
state that may or may not co-arise with other mental states. Its
presence or absence determines how much effort we put into whatever we
are doing in any given moment. Energy levels can be adjusted by
intention. Sometimes we need to put more effort into what we are doing;
sometimes we need to back off and stop trying so hard.
Daily Practice
Since our
concern here is developing healthy states, working with energy is a
means of supporting such things as practicing when you don't feel like
it, being patient when your impulses are urging otherwise, and looking
more closely at a situation to see where the wisdom is to be found in
it. Think of energy as an impersonal factor you can either dial up or
dial down, depending on the situation.
Tomorrow: Establishing Mindfulness of Mind and Abiding in the Third Jhāna One week from today: Maintaining Arisen Healthy States
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Patience
is key to your mental health when you are physically ill. It is one of
the few virtues you can actively cultivate when your body ceases to
cooperate.
RIGHT LIVING Undertaking the Commitment to Abstain from Misbehaving Among Sensual Pleasures
Sensual misconduct is
unhealthy. Refraining from sensual misconduct is healthy. (MN 9)
Abandoning sensual misconduct, one abstains from misbehaving among
sensual pleasures. (MN 41) One practices thus: “Others may engage in
sensual misconduct, but I will abstain from sensual misconduct.” (MN 8)
Odors cognizable by the nose are of two kinds: those to be cultivated
and those not to be cultivated. Such odors as cause, in one who
cultivates them, unhealthy states to increase and healthy states to
diminish, such odors are not to be cultivated. But such odors as cause,
in one who cultivates them, unhealthy states to diminish and healthy
states to increase, such odors are to be cultivated. (MN 114)
Reflection
The point here
is not that some things smell good and some smell bad. Rather it is that
some odors provoke unhealthy states in us and some incline us toward
healthy states. As usual, the emphasis is on the mental and emotional
response to sensory input and not on the quality of that data. The key
is to avoid the tendency for the odor to give rise to craving, either
craving for more pleasure or craving for pain to go away.
Daily Practice
Here you have
another invitation to abide in your experience with equanimity, to be
acutely aware of something, in this case an odor, without being driven
by that information into responding with attraction or aversion. Smells
are a good way to practice equanimity, since it is so easy to observe
the mind being automatically hijacked by pleasure or displeasure into
liking or not liking the smell.
Tomorrow: Developing Unarisen Healthy States One week from today: Abstaining from Intoxication
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Although
they appear to be quite different, sadness and openness are in fact
intimately connected. The profound sadness that overwhelms us when we
understand the impermanent nature of all phenomena opens us up to the
world around us.
Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche, “The Secret Strength of Sadness”
Whatever
we have been searching for, whatever we have been striving for—all
unnecessary! Equanimity means that we discover something immeasurable
that we have never actually lost.