This is an AI-generated transcript from auto-generated subtitles for the video above. It likely contains inaccuracies, especially with speaker attribution if there are multiple speakers.

Paramis (10 of 10) Equanimity

So now we come to the tenth and last of the ten pāramīs^[1], the ten perfections, and this is equanimity. The Pali word is upekkhā^[2], and upekkhā literally, etymologically, means to have an overview of something, to have the ability to see the big picture.

This is the ability to sit on a boulder and watch the river below you wash by. The Buddha gives the analogy of sitting on a hill above the town and looking down at the hustle and bustle of the town. Having this overview allows for a certain non-reactivity, non-agitation, imperturbability of the mind, and peacefulness of the mind. That is what equanimity is.

Equanimity is, from many perspectives, a pinnacle of Buddhist practice. It is one of the sublime, wonderful, precious states that gets stronger and stronger through Buddhist meditation, especially mindfulness practice, but also concentration practice. I think some people, when they hear the word equanimity, interpret it as a kind of indifference or aloofness, or a kind of being removed in some way from life. In some ways that is true, and in some ways it is not. It is certainly removed from the ways in which we get attached to things, or cling, or are reactive to what is going on. So there is that sense of not being caught up.

When people are used to human connectivity being through attachments, needs, wants, and clingings, it can feel like the person with equanimity who is no longer doing that is now pulled back. It can feel that way, and in a certain way it is. But the opposite is also true. Equanimity is a little bit like having dirty glasses and not knowing it, and then cleaning them and thinking, "Wow, it's really clear now, I can see clearly." How wonderful. Or like the windshield of a car that slowly builds up dust over a long drive, and then someone cleans it and says, "Wow, that's really clear." It is not so much that we focus on the clarity of the glass, but rather that we see much more clearly through the glass. Things stand out much more in highlight, or there is a delight in beauty just from seeing that clarity.

With equanimity, it is kind of like that. When the mind has an equanimous state, there is a kind of clarity, openness, and even intimacy that is possible. The opposite of an equanimous mind is an agitated, reactive mind—a habitual reactivity. That is actually more like the dirt on the windshield or the glasses, where we cannot quite see or connect so closely. When there is equanimity, the beautiful qualities of heart that we have get more space and room to come out because they are not dominated by reactivity. It is possible for greater love and greater connectedness than the connections that come from agitation.

Those might feel like they come from clinging or attachment. Whereas attachment might feel like we are connected, it is usually not very deep. Through strong attachments, two people do not really know each other—cannot know each other very well—except they know they are connected. For some people that is pretty wonderful, powerful, and reassuring. Once we settle in and feel safe in that clinging relationship, there are deeper and deeper ways of being connected if we can let go of the clinging and let go of the attachment. The equanimity, the openness, the imperturbability, and the non-reactivity begin to settle in. Then much more can transpire, and much more can be seen through the clear glasses.

So equanimity is kind of the pinnacle of Buddhist practice, and in the ten pāramīs, it is the last one. The ancient texts that talk about these pāramīs say that equanimity perfects the other pāramīs. I kind of like that, because the understanding is that you are not going to do the others perfectly until you get to the end with equanimity. So "good enough" is good enough. We don't get caught up in trying to do each of the previous pāramīs perfectly just right. We acknowledge, accept, or realize that until the practice is really deep for us, of course we are not going to do it perfectly. But we do it good enough. Good enough, in terms of Buddhist practice, is good enough to continue developing along the path, to continue to grow and move forward.

There are a lot of different ways that we grow on the Buddhist path, and I don't want to just say one way. But I do want to emphasize something which maybe is not emphasized enough: walking the Buddhist path involves our doing. If we walk a path long enough, our legs get stronger, and it becomes easier and easier to walk the path. As you walk the Buddhist path, all the different practices we are doing require some doing on our part, even if the doing is only to relax and to open. The muscle of relaxing, the muscle of mindfulness that allows us to realize that we are not relaxed, gets stronger and stronger.

As we walk the Buddhist path, there are all these different strengths that develop over time. The pāramīs represent some of those strengths. Those strengths create the ballast. They create a support to make that boulder we sit on in the river stronger. The strengths create the stability that makes it easier to be equanimous. Equanimity is not just some kind of mental capacity that we learn to develop disembodied from everything else. Equanimity itself gets stronger and stronger from the other things that are developing on the path.

Even if all you are doing is mindfulness practice, a lot of these pāramīs are following along. They come along with the practice because, as we practice more and more and see more clearly, it is more difficult to want to be miserly or tight with things, and more natural to be generous. It is more difficult to harm people through violating the precepts, and so we tend to live more ethically the more mindful we are.

The more mindful we are, the more we realize when things are hurt by our clinging and attachments, and the more natural it is to let go and renounce certain things. The more mindful we are, the more wisdom we acquire. The more mindful we are, the more we love mindfulness and delight in the engagement, the effort, and the doing of it. As we practice more mindfulness, patience follows suit. Mindfulness supports patience. Mindfulness helps us to see what is really true, and our ability to connect to truth becomes stronger and stronger.

As mindfulness gets stronger, there can be a real understanding of what is important and what the important places are to base our life on. So determination becomes stronger. As mindfulness gets stronger, of course we will have more loving-kindness—the ninth perfection. We realize the limitations and the pain of its opposite—having a closed heart. So we relax the closedness, the defensiveness, and the armor around the heart. Then, of course, there will naturally be more of a sense of goodwill and kindness there. And then, with all these things supporting us through mindfulness, we naturally start being equanimous. We learn how not to pick up or react to what is happening, but just to be present for it and see it.

Equanimity is the pinnacle of practice. It tends to be strongest in meditation, but it is also something we bring as a gift into the world. It allows us to have greater intimacy, greater connections, and better relationships with people. Rather than keeping us aloof, this non-reactivity allows for a greater intimacy. It is an intimacy that doesn't interfere with people, dominate them, or bring our attachments into our connections. There is a freedom that is possible, and in that freedom, which has fewer needs, there can be greater intimacy and connection.

Classically, the feeling and experience of equanimity is also a phenomenal enabler of the deepest letting go that can happen. It enables the letting go of self, the temporary letting go of all our desires, and the letting go of all the ways in which we are constantly building and constructing this world of ours. Equanimity sets the stage for things to be so calm, peaceful, quiet, and unagitated that something can just give way. Something can finally be put to rest that we previously couldn't put to rest, couldn't let go of, and couldn't settle. We bring the equanimity that allows our heart to finally let go, release, settle back, and open up into awakening, into freedom.

Announcements

So that is the pāramīs. Thank you so much for this time. Next week, we will have a guest teacher here for the 7:00 AM teaching. I am going to be going up into the Sierras backpacking for a few days, and Nikki Mirghafori^[3], who is a wonderful teacher here at IMC^[4], will accompany you in the 7:00 AM meditations and teachings. You are very fortunate to have her; I think you will enjoy it quite a bit.

We can now have our Zoom meeting. I will try to put the link in the chat as I turn off the YouTube stream, but I think it is already at the top of the chat. It is also available on insightmeditationcenter.org under "What's New" on the bottom right, and it is probably the top event on the calendar on the bottom left of that home page. There is a password; the password is mettā^[5] (m-e-t-t-a). If you end up in a waiting room, that will probably be disabled soon. I will join you in a couple of minutes here. Thank you.