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Mindfulness of Breathing (49) Equanimity Factor of Awakening (Part 1)

So, the topic for this talk is the equanimity factor of awakening. It's the seventh of the Seven Factors of Awakening. Over the last week, I've been talking about the earlier factors. We're talking about these Seven Factors of Awakening in the context of the practice of Anapanasati^[1], mindfulness of breathing, where we're mindful of the mind. We start experiencing the mind as we breathe in, experiencing the mind as we breathe out.

We've taken our time to understand some of the things we can start experiencing when we experience the mind. The word citta^[2]—the Pali word for mind (c-i-t-t-a)—is often translated as "mind state." It's not the mind as a thing, like the brain is a physical thing. Rather, it's the way in which we experience our interior life, our mental life as a whole. Rather than the particular details of different activities of the mind that go on—particular thoughts, feelings, impulses, intentions—it's the whole of the mind. How we experience the whole is personal and contextual, depending on the different factors of the mind that come together.

It sounds a little bit strange to say this, but how we experience a state of the mind depends on the state of the mind. How we experience the shape of the mind, or how we experience this totality of the mind, is based a little bit on which mental factors are strongest. As we open to the mind and feel it, it has different characteristics that we can feel. Now, that takes a lot of stability and being really settled in the practice to start feeling this whole mind and the mood of the mind that might be there.

But as this practice gets strong, there are seven factors, qualities, or characteristics that become predominant in the state of the mind. We can experience different ones at different times, and sometimes all of them together. These are the Seven Factors of Awakening: mindfulness, investigation, effort, joy, tranquility, samadhi^[3], and equanimity.

These all have different functions; they work in different ways as a state of mind. Mindfulness creates real stability. If the mind just doesn't waver, it's not agitated and jumping around. Mindfulness becomes a state that's present, rather than something that we have to keep renewing by continually making the effort and having the intention to be mindful. So there's an unwaveringness of attention.

Investigation is this ability to see clearly. To look up and see clearly, or intimately experience—not by analyzing it or probing, but by tuning into the frequency of the radio and not having any more static. Just really feeling it and sensing more fully what's going on. That function is really important for the process of liberation. They say that's the most important of the seven factors for liberation, because we have to get things really into focus.

Then, the effort factor that can see the difference between wholesome and unwholesome^[4] is really key in not being trapped by the unwholesome, but finding a certain kind of healthy escape, or stepping away into the wholesome.

Joy provides a deep satisfaction, a deep contentment, bodily and physically, that really feels good.

Then the last three: tranquility, samadhi, and equanimity are particularly useful. The joy factor as well. These are all feelings of pleasure, well-being, and positive feelings that we can have. They are a tremendous support for practice in helping free us from some of our addictive patterns, some of our attachments. Attachments to pleasure, attachments to all kinds of things. If we think we're searching for happiness by having more money, more status, more relationships, or more of something that's outside of us, that drive can be addictive at times. Or the strong ways in which fear operates inside of us—that itself compels us to act certain ways and be certain ways, through anxiety and phobias.

There's something about being settled in these positive factors, these states of mind of joy, tranquility, samadhi, and equanimity, that is so nourishing and wholesome. It feels like such a source of well-being that it creates a reconditioning factor. It conditions us in new ways. Rather than being conditioned by fear, or a feeling of lack, or a feeling of being deprived, or feeling unsafe, or all kinds of ways in which life has conditioned us to be, we're starting to recondition ourselves. Then it becomes easier to begin letting go of some of the dysfunctional ways in which we might be living.

So rather than only relying on mindfulness—seeing clearly and recognizing what's happening to free us from some of our conditioning, which is very hard to do by only relying on mindfulness—we can really have mindfulness support this process of settling, stability, and growth in the Dharma. To begin eventually—and eventually is an important word here, so we don't get impatient—to start getting nourished by these wholesome qualities and this way of being.

The last of these is equanimity. For many people who are unfamiliar with this idea in Buddhism, they will think that equanimity is aloof, or dry, or not really relevant for having a good time in life. Maybe even not relevant for making ourselves safe in this world. If we're equanimous, how do we make ourselves safe? Before I became a Buddhist practitioner, I don't think I used the word equanimity in my vocabulary. I probably knew what it meant somewhat, but it had no relevance for how I lived my life, or how I talked or thought about myself.

But certainly with practice and meditation, equanimity has become a more and more important quality. It's something that I recognize and appreciate. As a state, there's this feeling that courses through my whole body: a kind of stability, clarity, openness, and a freedom that comes with equanimity. It is considered to be one of the most sublime states of being that a person can experience. It's considered the crown jewel of the Seven Factors of Awakening, which themselves are the crown jewels. That's just letting you know that as your practice develops over time, maybe you'll start feeling how special this equanimity factor^[5] is, and its rich emotional aspect. It's not indifference, aloofness, or dryness.

The equanimity factor belongs to a family of concepts and states that is championed by Buddhism. One of them is this equanimity, which is upekkhā^[6] in Pali. Another one is a mouthful of words that literally means, from its etymology, "standing in the middle of it all." Standing in the middle of this, and that's often seen as a sense of balance. Then there's the word sama, which maybe is cognate to our word "same." I'm not sure how these languages connect—English and Pali are distant relatives of each other—but sama can mean "same," "even," or "balanced." So, an evenness of mind. It's related to the word samena (s-a-m-e-n-a)^[7], which means either impartiality, or sometimes it's translated as justice. The impartial justice, the impartial judging of things, is considered a really high ideal. To treat people with a certain impartiality doesn't mean indifference; it means that we treat everyone equally. Sama is equal, or same, or sameness. So, an evenness of mind, an impartiality of mind, a balance of heart and mind, a balance of body and mind, and equanimity.

For now, I will just say briefly a little bit about equanimity and then pick up this topic tomorrow, because it's so important. The word for equanimity, upekkhā, its etymology is actually quite useful here. It literally means to have an overview, to have a bird's eye view of what's happening. So it involves a kind of wisdom that comes from seeing how things are. It's a wisdom factor. It's not just something that arises because the quality of some kind of inner balance is strong, but rather it also comes from the strength of mindfulness, investigation, and all these other factors. Being able to not be pulled for or against things, to become impartial, and not be reactive to experience, but have a stability that allows us to have the overview so wisdom operates.

Wisdom can see, "Oh, I'm being pulled into things, I don't need to do that. That's my anger, I don't have to pick it up and get involved. That's pain, I know about pain, I've meditated with pain for a long time, and I know I'm better off not getting pulled into its orbit, preoccupied by it, or reactive to it." So there's a little bit of wisdom operating with this overview, having the big picture of how it works.

It belongs to the aspect of mindfulness where we can begin observing what's going on. It's a little bit like stepping back and having the big picture, or being up on a hilltop looking down. A wonderful experience that was very valuable for me many years ago, during my second year in college: it was the first time I was living with college roommates in a little apartment. The little apartment had a deck off the living room. One day, I was out on the deck with the living room sliding door closed. Two of my roommates were having an animated—a friendly enough, animated conversation—in the living room. I couldn't hear anything they were saying, but I could see how animated they were. I could feel how I was delighted seeing them, but I wasn't being pulled around by what they were saying and how they were. I wasn't getting pulled in or reactive to it. I was just sitting peacefully, delightfully just watching in a way of equanimity.

So this ability to observe and watch, and maybe be delighted, maybe be compassionate, maybe have a response that's situation-appropriate, comes from our ability to have the overview and clear seeing of what's going on. That is the equanimity factor of awakening.

One more talk on that tomorrow, and then we'll pick up the pace of these 16 steps of Anapanasati. Thank you all very much, and I look forward to being together again tomorrow.