From Suffering to Serenity: Developing a Wise Mind and Gentle Heart

Hi, this is Margaret Maloney, and welcome to the Death Dhamma Podcast. In a series I used to read, occasionally one character would say to the other, may you live in interesting times. It was understood that this was a curse where interesting times meant chaos and difficulty. Well, we do live in interesting times. I mean, don't we always? So this season, together, we will explore equanimity and chaos, recognizing that many aspects of life are beyond our control. Let's find a sense of balance and peace amid external chaos.

Hello, my friends, and welcome back to Thoughts around equanimity, specifically, the 10 types of equanimity as explained to us by Buddhaghosa by way of Ann Murphy's work from Columbo Arts Journal of Sciences and Humanities. Now, in this episode, we're going to consider equanimity of enlightenment, equanimity of energy, and equanimity about formations. Here we go. Starting with equanimity as an enlightenment factor. Equanimity is listed as one of the seven enlightenment factors. The seven that all seven include mindfulness, investigation of states, energy, rapture, tranquility, concentration, and then equanimity.

I mean, there's a lot of research and discussion we could have about the other six, but we're going to stay focused on equanimity, which is enough for us right now. Right. So these seven factors are said to be developed to abandon the defilements, right? So that we're, you know, we don't participate in defilements, annoyances, and the passions of the world. They are said to be supported by seclusion, dispassion, and cessation, ripening with renunciation. In other words, if you become a renunciant, like a n.

A monk or a nun, then you will have a better ability to experience these enlightenment factors. And although I read them to you as a list, they aren't linear. They don't necessarily happen. Like, step one is mindfulness, step two is investigation of states. They are interdependent and interact with one another. For example, equanimity supports mindfulness and helps boost energy. So in mind that has achieved equanimity balances faith, energy, mindfulness and concentration. Concentration, pardon me, which helps to regulate emotion.

And we know that regulating emotion really helps us on the path, and really, I'll say, prevents us from, at a minimum, creating negative karma, but, you know, also from maybe overreacting, becoming overwrought. This impacts how we treat ourselves and others. Right? So equanimity is interwoven and interrelated with the other factors. And this helps to, you know, uplift our mind. Buddhaghosa stated that there are five things that lead us to this ability to have equanimity as an enlightenment factor.

And you'll recognize some of these five things because they've come out in other ways, in other discussions that we've had together about equanimity. The maintenance of neutrality toward living beings, the maintenance of neutrality towards formations. We're going to talk about equanimity of formations as our last topic today. Avoidance of persons who show favoritism towards beings and formations. Cultivation of persons who maintain neutrality toward beings and formations. That right there. Number three, avoidance of persons who show favoritism.

Number four, cultivation of persons who maintain neutrality. These are two things. Of course, you know, we're getting wisdom that's centuries old. So clearly this is, I want to say, always helpful to us. But I also want to point out that in these times of bombardment with news stories and social media and doom scrolling and any one of us could at any time really, you know, go all in on a specific view. Number three. And number four, very helpful for us to remember. Avoidance of persons who show favoritism towards beings and formations.

Cultivation of persons who maintain neutrality towards beings and formations. Because of course, our goal is to become such a person. And then the fifth item on his list is resoluteness upon that equanimity. So being resolute, steadfast, committed to your equanimity. Right. And it's. And he has taught us, Buddha has said that, you know, a steadfast commitment to maintaining complete neutrality, including the seeking of others with the same objective, is advocated. Well, that's what I was just saying.

Equanimity as an enlightenment factor is the attainment of emotional balance, which has been our theme in many ways this, this season. The attainment of emotional balance that has been developed from cultivating a wise mind and a gentle heart. Isn't that right there? A wise mind and a gentle heart. That could be a mantra. Something helpful at least for me to get me through the day, to remind myself, margaret, you would like to have a wise mind and a gentle heart. Let's now look at equanimity of energy.

So equanimity of energy is this midway point between two states, opposing states, right? Laziness and restlessness. So the way it's explained is when a Bhikkhu, a monk, when a monk devoted to the higher mind from time to time, gives attention to the mark of concentration and also from time to time, the mark of exertion and from time to time, the mark of equanimity, then his mind becomes malleable, wieldy and luminous, pliant and properly concentrated for the destruction of the taints. Right? And so it's in those destruction of the taints that helps us also to step away from suffering.

So you can see how this even relates to equanimity of enlightenment. So equanimity has a pivotal role in our meditation practice, right? To help us find that point of concentration, to help us overcome this, there's the hindrance of being restless. There's also the possibility of, you know, being a little bit lazy in our concentration and in our meditation. So equanimity of energy is balancing energy, mindfulness and concentration. And yes, we all know that it can be difficult in meditation to have that right balance between mindfulness and concentration, especially if you're feeling restless or, you know, you know, what happens when you sit down to meditate when you're sleepy, right?

So what we're looking for, this equanimity of energy, is this optimal performance point between low and high energy levels. Or an example could be that this equanimity of energy is like the strings on a lute, right? A stringed instrument, which can't be too tight, but they also can't be too loose in order to play properly and produce the proper music and the proper notes. So if energy is brought about too forcefully, this leads to restlessness. And if energy is too lax, this leads to laziness. So we're really looking for that balance of energy.

And something that Ann speaks about in her article is that there's something called the Yerkes Dodson Law. Some of you may know the Yerkes Dodson Law. I did not. It was developed in 1908 by psychologists Robert Yerkes and John Dodson. Probably not surprising that those are their names, because, you know, if you introduce something or, you know, kind of invent something or come across something, and you can name it after yourself. So they did. And basically what they found is that the optimal performance.

And they're talking more about. They're not talking about spirituality, but, you know, they're talking about productivity. But the optimal, optimal performance is achieved at the midway point between high and low levels of physiological arousal. Right? So there you go. Once again, the teachings from the Buddha validated years later, thousands of years later. Okay, this brings us to equanimity about formations, our last form of equanimity for today's episode. We need to start this by talking about the fact that there are nine Insight, knowledges that are listed, knowledge of the rise and fall, knowledge of dissolution, knowledge of the fearful, knowledge of danger, knowledge of disenchantment, knowledge of desire for deliverance, knowledge of reflective contemplation, knowledge of equanimity toward formations.

There we go. Ding, ding, ding, ding. And knowledge of conformity. Okay? And again, these are all insights that we could spend time on and you know, again, maybe in our future we'll look at them. But right now we're, you know, we're really thinking about the knowledge of equanimity towards formations. And again, though, the idea is that these insights are a progression and we go through this progression and we achieve, I'll say, these insights based on experiential understanding and contemplation.

And the experiential understanding is that recognition and I'm going to say acceptance of the truth of Dukkha, Anita and Anatta, where we're talking about suffering impermanence and not self, right? So, and in here comes the knowledge of equanimity about formations. And the knowledge of equanimity towards formations arises or comes from the understanding that these formations are not me. So equanimity towards formations, we can achieve that when we don't cling or attach to the idea that these things are me, about me or mine, right?

And when we get that this is me, this is mine, right? There comes that clinging or aversion. And so therefore we get that, you know, there's opposing states of attraction or aversion. But when we really get that knowledge and that understanding which is based on, you know, understanding there is suffering, impermanence and that this is not me, then we can abandon. And in that way we can achieve the knowledge of equanimity, right? So we wouldn't have extremes of terror and delight about situations.

We also wouldn't have indifference, but we would have neutrality. We would have neutrality. And again, our ability to achieve equanimity about formations is developed through concentration and through insight. Or we could also say through, you know, meditative and experiential. There's a implication here that equanimity towards all formations has an important function in the progression of spiritual development from the attainment of the path, right? When we first start learning and following the path, the Buddhist path, and towards stream entry, towards becoming an arhant.

And that implication comes from the Visuddhimagga, which you remember is, is the work that was created by Buddhaghosa that helps us pull a lot of these ideas and concepts together to work towards enlightenment in a systematic way in a systematic way. And so equanimity towards formations is important in our progression, moving us from joining the path to stream entry towards eventually becoming an arhant and not coming back. That covers three types of equanimity today. We have a little bit more we'll look at next time.

Thank you so much for being here. May we all work towards some positive neutrality this week. And remember, take care of yourself and your loved ones and protect the unprotected. You've been listening to the Death Dhamma podcast with your host, Margaret Maloney. Thank you so much for being here. Come find me on margaretmaloney.com M A R G A R E T M E L o n I.com and until we meet again. May you be well, may you be happy, may you be at ease, and may you be free from suffering. Bye for now.

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