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January 26 - January 26, 2018
“Normalcy” is the translation of the Thai word pokati. Its usual range of meanings includes “ordinary,” “at equilibrium,” and “unaffected by events.”
This mind is not some subtle, far-off state, but simple everyday awareness.
As we learn to recognize and trust this simplicity, we can stabilize our awareness in the knowing itself, and we can more easily integrate this awareness, in a seamless way, into all the activities through the day.
Becoming aware of the knowing mind itself leads naturally from a knowing of the breath to a knowing of the whole range of experience.
“When mindfulness has gained momentum, ‘we’ don’t need to do anything anymore. The mind knows what to do. At
In this nondoing, we deepen our experience of anattā, of selflessness, understanding that this whole mind-body complex is simply empty phenomena rolling on.
you are not practicing to prevent thinking, but rather to recognize and acknowledge thinking whenever it arises.
Mindfulness recognizes that a thought is present, and continuity of mindfulness strengthens and steadies the concentration of mind.
Investigation of dhammas, which is the wisdom factor of mind, then explores the inherently impermanent and insubstantial nature of thought.
If we’re mindful as thoughts appear, and we see how they self-liberate in the moment of awareness, then there’s nothing more we need to do. However, we often get involved with thoughts and are carried away by their story. In this case, it’s helpful to look more carefully at the...
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As with all the factors of awakening, concentration, too, is developed gradually.
“Equanimity” is the translation of the Pali word upekkhā.
“the universal, beautiful factors of mind.” These are a group of mental qualities that always arise together in every wholesome mind state; these qualities include faith or confidence, mindfulness, self-respect, nongreed, nonhatred, and pliancy. Equanimity, as one of these beautiful universals, is the mental factor called “neutrality of mind.”
Its characteristic is evenness, and when it is highly developed, it manifests as unshakeable balance of mind.
Equanimity arises out of concentration in the sequential progression of the seven awakening factors, because concentration has the power to keep the mind secluded from the hindrances.
The first way we experience the cool, restful quality of equanimity is in the peace and balance it brings to our daily lives.
“the eight worldly vicissitudes.” These are the endlessly changing conditions of gain and loss, praise and blame, fame and disrepute,
and pleasure a...
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The second type of equanimity manifests as the fourth of the brahmavihāras, those mind states called “the divine abodes”: lovingkindness, compassion, appreciative joy, and equanimity.
The third manifestation of equanimity takes us deep into the experience of meditative awareness. The
the equanimity of nonpreferential awareness,
All phenomena arise out of appropriate causes and conditions, unsubstantial, empty of any inherent self-existence.
The fourth kind of equanimity to mention here is the last of the paramis, those qualities that a bodhisattva perfects over lifetimes of fulfilling the great aspiration of Buddhahood.
The ten paramis are generosity, morality, renunciation, wisdom, diligence, patience, truthfulness, resolve, lovingkindness, and equanimity.
Of these, patience and equanimity are considered the mainstays for all the others.
act without attachment to the fruit of the action.
the value of an action is measured not by its success or failure, but by the motivation behind it.
associating with wise, equanimous people strengthens equanimity.
We can also develop equanimity as one of the brahmavihāra meditations.
