Copyright 2008 SOUL Research Institute
C
bliss
SRI's Groundbreaking Book..
Now Published!
An Eventful
Christmas Gathering
The warm presence of more than 50 souls made the gathering a fabulous event. Many thanks!
INTELLIGENT MIND
(EQUINIMITY)
Join us for
Weekly Sunday Meditation and Potluck Gathering.
Bring your family and friends.
"Happy the man who can endure the highest and the lowest fortune.."
Seneca
"Anything that helps you maintain unruffled equinimity is right action.." Sathya Sai Baba
"Abide in equinimity and you will become a refreshing source of vitality and happiness for others.."
Buddha
EVENTS AT SOUL RESEARCH INSTITUTE (SRI)
The practice of loving-kindness, compassion, and gladness towards other people can only make us equanimous towards them. These practices can only make us impartial, unprejudiced, and neutral towards all beings, including ourselves. These practices can only help us break down the barriers by helping us see all (including ourselves) equally. (Please click on the links below to find out how that happens).
When we mature in the practices of loving-kindness, compassion, and gladness, and equanimity arises out of that, we no longer have any friends or enemies. We no longer love one person more than another. Having transcended differences and discrimination, we become neutral. We become like “space,” which is impartial towards all beings and formations and yet encompasses all. If space were the body of a person, then equanimity would be that person’s mind.
Mind that abides in equinimity is an intelligent mind.
Equanimity is neutrality of mind, that which keeps mind in the middle between deficiency and excess, between craving and aversion. Here, the word “middle” does not mean a quantitative mid-point (for example, 50 being the mid-point between 0 and 100) but a qualitative core (a center) related to mental balance.
Equanimity is not just the absence of craving and aversion; also it is that which makes the mind balanced and impartial. Mere absence of craving and aversion does not automatically result in a balanced state of mind. When craving and aversion are eradicated, equanimity arises and makes the mind balanced. In this sense, equanimity has its own intrinsic functional nature.
In an equanimious mind, there is no trace of disapproval or approval, repulsion or attraction. A person in a state of equanimity does not choose comforts or discomforts, affluence or poverty. He is disinterested in these matters because he has transcended the issue of pleasures and pain. He is at peace in all circumstances. But his peace is rooted in contentment and renunciation, and not abandonment or indifference.
A classic example of confusion about equanimity is assuming that equanimity leads to indifference if practiced while dealing with others. This is not true because in order to deal with others with equanimity you have to first develop the foundation of loving-kindness, compassion, and gladness: the three elements of love which we discussed in prior newsletter (see links below). Without the foundation of the elements of love, yes, you may develop indifference towards others, but not equanimity.
SOUL RESEARCH INSTITUTE NEWSLETTER, DECEMBER 24, 09
