Buddhist Hour
Script No. 457
Broadcast live on 3MDR 97.1FM
9 PM to 10 PM

On Friday 8 December 2006 CE 2550 Buddhist Era

This script is entitled:

"Lifetimes of Learning "
Class 22 - Exploring the Perfection of Equanimity

Tonight we will introduce the Tenth Perfection, which is the Perfection of Equanimity or upekkha in the Pali language.

How often in your life have you met with a person who displayed equanimity? What does it look like, how does a person with the mind of equanimity respond to life and its extraordinary array of highs and lows, gains and losses, happiness and unhappiness?

Venerable Narada Thera has written equanimity or upekkha literally means:

"To view impartially, that is with neither attachment nor aversion. …It keeps the mind balanced and unwavering amidst vicissitudes of life such as praise and blame, pain and happiness, gain and loss, repute or disrepute."

"Its direct enemy is passion (raga) and its indirect enemy is callousness. It eliminates clinging and aversion." 2. (Narada, 1988)

So does this mean a person with equanimity is distant, indifferent or aloof from the people around them, or the events that are happening in their world?

Maybe it is difficult to envisage what equanimity looks like for most of us because it is not a quality we see very often in the people we know or the people who we see through our looking glass on the rest of the world, which is television.

It is unlikely we would see a TV series based on a person who had developed high equanimity because there would be no trauma that could be developed for their part, no displays of anger or resentment, no confusion, no treachery, callousness and no harmful behaviour displayed by them whatever. Who could find escapism through watching that!

So in answer to our earlier query, does the behaviour of persons who have developed equanimity show them to be distant or aloof, according to Buddhist practice the exact opposite is the case.

Where you or I may experience unease or emotional stress in dealing with persons of many different backgrounds, cultures, beliefs and behaviors, the nature of equanimity means there is immediate pliancy and ease because equanimity does not have a preference about what it wants to experience. It does not react to like or dislike, so there is no rejection or bias towards different personality types.

It is because of the presence of equanimity that a person has a unique capacity to further the welfare of other beings. Who else can remain unaffected by the experience of the selfish or cruel behaviour of another, or in contrast, the kindness and generous gifts from another? Without equanimity, each of these strong experiences shifts the mind one way or another, each colours our view.

When our view is shifted or coloured in this way what is absent is the clear vision of the way things truly are and the wisdom of knowing that the things happening are arising only because of past causes.

"When there is no equanimity, the offensive actions performed by beings cause oscillation in the mind" 1. (Dhammapala, 6th Cent.)

Venerable Narada Thera writes:

"Like the Lion does not tremble at every sound, one should not be perturbed by the poisonous dart of uncurbed tongues. Like the wind that does not cling to the meshes of a net, one should not be attached to the illusory pleasures of this changing world." 2. (Narada, 1988)

According to The Essence of Abhidhamma by Dr. Mehm Tin Mon, equanimity has two components in that it can observe phenomena effortlessly and it can reflect on phenomena quickly.

This means equanimity can look at what is going on with ease. No matter what phenomena it is viewing it will not become uncomfortable or disturbed, never become passionate or angry. The qualities of clarity, mindfulness and presence of mind will not be swept away therefore it can reflect on phenomena quickly and appropriately.

We are able to reflect on examples of persons in the secular world who display some or all of these aspects of equanimity. We may expect to see this in the emergency room at a major hospital. Doctors and nurses are highly trained to remain calm, clear and focused despite the trauma and urgency of patients admitted to their care with life threatening injuries.

Equanimity also needs to be placed in the context of the other three sublime states to understand how it manifests in a person's behaviour.

Venerable Narada Thera writes:

"…metta (loving-kindness) embraces all beings, karuna (compassion) embraces sufferers, mudita (sympathetic joy) embraces the prosperous, and upekkha (equanimity) embraces the good and the bad, the loved and the unloved, the pleasant and the unpleasant." 2. (Narada, 1988)

These four states together are called brahma vihara because they are the natural mental states of those higher heavenly realms which are known as brahma heavens or brahma worlds. Beings born in those realms automatically acquire those sublime mental states on taking birth in those heavens.

As we cultivate these states in human birth we usually start by practicing metta first, then develop them in the ascending order of compassion (karuna), sympathetic joy (mudita), and finally equanimity (uphekka).

The way each of these four sublime states influences the other also shows us more about the behaviour of someone with equanimity.

Venerable Nyanaponika Thera writes in The Vision of Dhamma:

"Love (metta) imparts to equanimity its selflessness, its boundless nature…Until equanimity has reached perfection, compassion urges it to enter again and again the battlefield of the world, in order to be able to stand the test, by hardening and strengthening itself."

"Sympathetic joy gives to equanimity the mild serenity that softens its stern appearance."

"Equanimity rooted in insight is the guiding and restraining power for the other three sublime states. It points out to them the direction they have to take, and sees that this direction is followed."

Finally we read:

"Equanimity's unshakable nature is not the immovability of a dead, cold stone, but the manifestation of the highest strength."

"Equanimity is the crown and culmination of the four sublime states. But this should not be understood to mean that equanimity is the negation of love, compassion, sympathetic joy, or that it leaves them behind as inferior. Far from that, equanimity includes and pervades them fully, just as they fully pervade perfect equanimity." 3. (Nyanaponika, 1986)

So, to meet someone with well developed equanimity is to meet someone whose full attention is unshakably in the present, someone whose words will be measured, composed and appropriate, someone who will not lose their fine intellect to emotion or uncertainty, and someone, who you are all too aware displays unfaltering kindness, patience, and love towards you.

If we then consider a further definition of equanimity which is suited to viewing equanimity when cultivated as a Perfection we read:

"…a perfect, unshakable balance of mind, rooted in insight." 3. (Nyanaponika 1986)

In this case the equanimity is produced from the deep understanding of reality of a mind with wisdom. This wisdom is in two aspects:

The first aspect is called emptiness.

Everything that is happening is just coming from causes instigated by us in the past - we meet the actions we performed in our past again, like a boomerang returning to the thrower.

Venerable Nyanaponika Thera writes:

"Nothing that happens to us comes from an "outer" hostile world foreign to ourselves; everything is the outcome of our own mind and deeds. Because this knowledge frees us from fear, it is the first basis of equanimity. When, in everything that befalls us we only meet ourselves, why should we fear?" 3. (Nyanaponika, 1986)

We have the opportunity to secure our own well being and happiness ourselves; without being subject to or depending on outside intervention. We only need to guard the power we have, which is always with us in the present moment, of making our own future.

The second aspect is called No-self (Anatta).

Venerable Nyanaponika Thera writes:

"It is the delusion of a self that creates suffering and hinders or disturbs equanimity. If this or that of ours is blamed, one thinks, "I am blamed" and equanimity is shaken. If this or that work does not succeed one thinks: "My work has failed" and equanimity is shaken. If wealth or loved ones are lost, one thinks: "What is mine has gone" and equanimity is shaken"."

"To establish equanimity as an unshakable state of mind, one has to give up all possessive thoughts of "mine", beginning with little things from which it is easy to detach oneself, and gradually working up to possessions and aims to which one's whole heart clings. One has to also give up the counterpart to such thoughts, all egoistic thoughts of "self", beginning with a small section of one's personality, with qualities of minor with small weaknesses one clearly sees, and gradually working up to those emotions and aversions which one regards as the centre of one's being. Thus detachment should be practiced."

"To the degree we forsake thoughts of "mine" or "self"' equanimity will enter our hearts. For how can anything we realize to be foreign and void of a self cause us agitation due to lust, hatred or grief? Thus the teaching of non-self will be our guide on the path to deliverance, to perfect equanimity". 3. (Nyanaponika, 1986)

When we look at the Ten Perfections we have examined in these broadcasts on Friday evenings we may see that although we have studied them in order from one to ten they are not practiced that way.

We do not wait until we have practiced truthfulness before starting to practice metta for example. We need to develop ourselves thoroughly by cultivating these Ten Perfections concurrently where they support and supplement each other.

We practice dana with morality, renunciation and metta for example. Many practices we have discussed on this course automatically lead to and result in equanimity arising in our own minds. We can see this through practicing such things as renunciation, wisdom, patience and loving-kindness. Each of these develops and prepares the mind to operate in the world using aspects of equanimity.

If we recollect what we said at the beginning of these broadcast series named "Lifetimes of Learning - A Do It Yourself Approach to Happiness", the Ten Perfections are what we practice to remove the dirt, the delusion, the dullness and the imperfections from our minds. The imperfections are identified in Buddhism as those mental states that come from greed, hate and ignorance. They are called unwholesome mental states because they are the root cause of unhappiness, they can never be cleaned or purified. Those unwholesome mental states are what we need to remove in order to produce the brilliant pure diamond within us. 4 (Carter, F. et. Al., 2006).

As a conclusion to our examination of the Ten Perfections, next week we will describe some of the qualities of the "brilliant pure diamond within us" once we have developed the Ten Perfections and we are well on our way to enlightenment.

May you develop equanimity.

May you be well and happy.

May all beings be well and happy.

This script was written and edited by Anita Carter, Frank Carter, Evelin Halls and Alec Sloman.

1. Acharya Dhammapala. 6th Cent. A Treatise on the Paramis. Translated by Bhikkhu Bodhi. Published online at www.accesstoinsight.org. Originally published in The Wheel publication No. 409/411 (Kandy: Buddhist Publication Society, 1978). Transcribed from a file provided by the BPS, with minor revisions in accordance with the ATI style sheet.

2. Venerable Narada Thera. 1988. The Buddha and His Teachings. Published by the Buddhist Missionary Society, 123 Jalan Berhala, 50470 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

3. Venerable Nyanaponika Thera. 1986. The Vision of Dhamma, the Buddhist Writings of Nyanaponika Thera. First published by Rider and Co. Ltd, an imprint of Century Hutchinson Ltd, Brookmount House, 62-65 Chandos Place, Covent Garden, London WC2N 4NW.

4. Carter, F., Carter, A., Sloman, A. 2006. Lifetimes of Learning, A Do-It-Yourself Approach to Happiness. Series Lifetimes of Learning, Volume I. Published by the Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd. 33 Brooking Street, Upwey, Victoria 3158.

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