Dear Friends,
I’m on retreat until Tuesday afternoon, but I’ve queued up some emails to keep you inspired while I’m away.
The seventh factor of awakening and the fourth quality of the heart are both called “equanimity”.
I’m not sure if the two are the same thing. I get the sense that they are, but that we are looking at this quality from two different angles – from the angle of mindfulness/wisdom (equanimity as a factor of awakening), and from the angle of love, compassion, and joy (equanimity as a quality of the heart).
When in deep states of concentration, equanimity is a skill to help us keep our focus balanced. Bhante Gunaratana writes,
If we find that the mind is sluggish, we intensify our mindfulness and investigation in order to rouse our energy and restore balance. If the mind is overexcited, we focus on increasing our joy, tranquility, and concentration so that we become more calm.
Here is Gil’s closing talk on the Equanimity Factor of Awakening:
http://www.audiodharma.org/talks/audio_player/4881.html
Sharon Salzberg writes more about the heart quality of equanimity:
The question is, how can a human heart–my heart or your heart–absorb the continual, unremitting contrasts of this life without feeling shattered and thinking we cannot bear it? …
How can we live with such vicissitudes? How can we hold them with some sense of wholeness, coherence, harmony? …
In Pali, equanimity is called upekkha, which means “balance,” and its characteristic is to arrest the mind before it falls into extremes. Equanimity is a spacious stillness of the mind, a radiant calm that allows us to be present fully with all the different changing experiences that constitute our world and our lives. …
Rather than trying to control what can never be controlled, we find a sense of security in being able to meet what is actually happening. …
Equanimity is taught as the final meditation among the brahma-viharas because it provides the balance for lovingkindness, compassion, and sympathetic joy. These others open one’s heart in a wish for well-being: “May you be happy.” “May you be free from suffering.” “May your joy never cease.” Equanimity balances those heartfelt wishes with the recognition that things are the way they are. However much we may wish for something, most results are beyond our control. …
We choose to open our hearts to offer as much love, compassion, and rejoicing as we possibly can, and we also let go of results.
There is a lovely poem by Wumen that expresses this aspect of equanimity:
Ten thousand flowers in spring, the moon in autumn,
a cool breeze in summer, snow in winter.
If your mind isn’t clouded by unnecessary things,
this is the best season of your life.
May you find balance in your practice!
With best wishes,
Andrea
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