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Author: Ven. Gendun

Peaceful vs equanimous meditation

We often have the idea that meditation should be peaceful, that no thoughts or disturbances should occur. Although some can be reasonably good at suppressing thought, this is not a productive path, for it can lead to clinging and fear of that which we have suppressed. Serenity is simply the fruit of equanimity, whether there is disturbance or not. It is the observance that the clear and knowing mind is always spacious, mirror-like, silent, and impermanent, revealing all objects as coming and going.

We lose our footing when we grasp the passing thoughts and images, like kites fluttering in the wind. Mindfulness is the rope that leads us back to stillness. We cannot undo what has already arisen, be that a sensory object or thought, but we can choose to let it in peace, not to grasp or reject it. We just remind ourselves of the breath, our rope. This equanimous attitude in time will reveal our unskillful emotions as they are: illusions. With that realization their attraction disappears by itself without you having to fight them. Seeing and knowing. 

“When this is, that is. When this is not, that is not.”

The Buddha said: “When this is, that is. When this is not, that is not.” This is the principle of dependent origination that Je Tsongkhapa so famous wrote a praise of. 

All phenomena exist in dependence on parts, causes and conditions, and naming. That latter aspect we will study in our third year.

Our mind, as a functional phenomenon therefore exists depending on parts and conditions. The parts consist of 6 types of mind and 51 mental factors, that we will look at later in the course. The conditions of the mind are manifold: objects, previous moments of mind, and karma. 

Karma can be understood here as habitual patterns of experience and action, that are deeply intertwined.

Meditation therefore means to create new habitual patterns that are grounded in the way things are, rather than samsara’s fantasies. This means that every time you apply mindfulness, this aspect of the mind grows in strength. Remember the term ‘familiarity’ in the definition? The same is true for introspection and every other mental factor.At one point your perceptual powers will grow enormously in strength and detail. When this is the case you will be able to see that distractions are preceded by discontent in the mind, which causes the mind out of habit to want to respond with either distraction of torpor, which in turn causes the mind to start to narrow. So, even before you actually lose the object, you will be able to notice this process in the way the mind feels, the declining quality of your perception, and a certain tension that starts to build up  towards distraction. When your mind is this sharp, and beware this takes a lot of time to train this, you can simply correct by making the mind a bit brighter, add a bit of curiosity, relax a little bit deeper, or remember how much more joyful this peacefulness is compared to distracting thoughts, without actually losing the object.

Equanimity is the natural abiding of the mind

Equanimity is the natural abiding of the mind in the absence of disturbance. Some meditators asked: “I can’t feel it, can I move on to the other brahmaviharas?”. 

How could we meditate on joy, love, and compassion, when we have still difficulty experiencing peace within ourselves; when our mind still struggles with discontent, judgement and instrumentalization of others? 

Equanimity is the basic note, the carrying melody of what life itself feels like, when we return to ‘what is’ rather than ‘what should be’. It’s one of the tragedies of samsara that it obscures life’s music itself. 

Equanimity is an intense intimacy with ‘what is’. It is the surge of fresh air when we open the windows of our heart. It is an expanding limitless sense of space, when we let go of the cramp of anger, instrumentalizing desire, and prejudice. It is luminous presence in the absence dullness and inattention. It is abiding without a center. It’s the wisdom of non-discrimination.

It is worth cultivating it. Like with training for a marathon, you don’t move on to another sport when on your first day you can’t run 40 km. Equanimity is the special sauce of joy, love and compassion. They are like matryoshka dolls, one wrapped in the other. Equanimity opens the door to joy, joy opens the door to love, and love opens the door to compassion. Equanimity is the warranty that joy, love and compassion are not just expressions of the eight worldly concerns, but are truly divine abidings that are Refuges to ourselves, as well as others.

The world unfolds in the space you create

All Dharma – all virtue – perceives [interdependence] to some extent. My joy perceives this to some extent. My love perceives this to some extent. What I would like is to see it entirely, but at least I see some of it. All hatred, all jealousy, all spite and so forth, denies this. All our non-virtue is contrary to the world that exists. All virtue therefore nourishes, at the same time, others and ourselves.

By constant reflection, I block out that which we impute on reality. Learn to train in doing that, because if we do that, on the one hand, we train in taking away that which obstructs our view from perceiving the Pure Lands, but at the same time – to the extent that we maintain awareness of this – the world starts to function as a Pure Land.

The world unfolds in the space you create.