Establishing Equanimity In A Challenging World

It appears that people, places and things cause you to suffer (I.e. think of that grouchy boss or warm brownie when on a diet). In reality, you are relating not to the external cues but to your internal reaction to them. You have an unpleasant, neutral or pleasant sensation to that internalized sense data. The ability to have non-attachment - not trying to attach to or push away - to these feeling tones is equanimity. Establishing equanimity will set you free!

Transcript

You can take a comfortable upright position.

Gently close your eyes if you like or just keep them slightly open.

And down three to five feet in front of you.

Imagine your spine is a stack of golden coins or a golden thread is running through your spine and you're held up nice and straight.

You can tuck your chin a little bit which helps to straighten the spine even more.

Shoulders are not too far forward,

Not too far back.

You can even have a little space under your armpits so that you can take nice deep breaths in through the chest.

Your tongue rests on the roof of your mouth.

This is where it rests naturally and your lips can be slightly parted.

Let's just start with five breaths and all we're going to do is breathe in through the nose and then out through the mouth like we're blowing out some birthday candles.

When you're ready,

Inhale,

Exhale,

Inhale,

And then just blow gently out through the mouth,

In through the nose,

Out through the mouth,

In through the nose,

Out through the mouth.

And these next two,

Don't be afraid to make your exhale audible.

Just letting go of any built up tension.

For a few moments,

Just let the breath return to normal.

Just notice how it feels for a little while to be breathed.

Not having to do anything.

Being breathed in and then just breathing out.

Just notice how it happens naturally.

Not trying to change a thing.

At this point,

It may be helpful to do some pranayama.

Just controlling the breath.

Since the mind and body are so intimately connected,

Controlling the breath can usually calm the mind.

What we'll do is just four,

Three,

Five.

Breathing in for four,

Holding for three,

Exhale for five.

I'll count the first few rounds and then you can go on your own from there.

So breathing in for four,

Three,

Two,

One.

Hold for three,

Two,

One.

Exhaling gently,

Five,

Four,

Three,

Two,

One.

Inhale for four,

Three,

Two,

One.

Hold for three,

Two,

One.

Exhale gently,

Five,

Four,

Three,

Two,

One.

And now a few rounds on your own.

Four,

Three,

Five,

Breathing.

And after the next round of four,

Three,

Five breathing,

You can let that go.

Just return to the simplicity of the breath.

No longer trying to control it.

In this session,

We'll do some vipassana practice.

But before that,

We calm the mind with mindfulness.

And how we do that is just to simply be with the different aspects of the breath.

So just make a bit of effort for the next few rounds of breath to be with the texture of the breath.

See if it's choppy or smooth.

See if the breath is long or short,

Hot or cool.

Or see if you can even notice the shape of the breath as it moves in and out of the body.

Don't worry about anything else.

For the next few moments,

That's our only job.

Just tuning into the textures and shapes and temperatures of the breath.

You may find it helpful.

To even note to yourself softly,

Breathing in a medium breath,

Breathing out a medium breath.

Or perhaps breathing in a choppy breath,

Breathing out a smooth breath.

Just try this as maybe it will help you to tune in more to what's going on with the breath.

We'll see what's more helpful.

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As you're sitting here breathing in,

Breathing out,

It's all just happening naturally for you.

See if you can tune into something that feels solid and grounded in the body.

Don't worry about any parts that don't feel grounded and solid.

Just tune into perhaps your sit's like a.

Or if you're lying down,

The corners of your back on the floor.

Just breathing in,

Breathing out,

Aware of something that feels solid.

Just tuning into how gravity is helping you hold your seat down.

And then the building you're in or the earth you're on.

Just grounded.

Stable.

Solid like a mountain.

But it's a mountain with a little movement as your chest and belly rises and falls.

And here you are solid like a mountain,

At ease like a sleeping child.

That feeling of contentedness.

Imagine a baby wrapped in a warm blanket with all its needs met.

Just feeling safe and warm.

Tuning into any bit of okay-ness.

Which may be found among other less pleasant sensations which are totally acceptable as well.

So you're solid like a mountain.

At ease like a sleeping child.

Yet still alert like a sentinel or a guard for the mind.

That way you don't get too sleepy and zone out too much.

That sentinel or guard is part of your mind that can keep you on track and make sure you maintain effort and awareness during the rest of this practice.

Breathing in and on an exhale,

The next few exhales,

Actually.

Just let go of anything that's not serving you in this moment.

Maybe you've been holding your jaw tight for this whole practice.

Maybe the belly is tight.

See if you can drop the belly down over the belt.

Waist line.

Relax the jaw down into the sides.

Maybe you've been holding on in your chest.

Don't try to make anything like that go away.

Just see on an exhale if you can just let it go and melt down towards the floor.

Maybe you've been holding on to a mental sensation of tension of needing this session to be something.

Maybe the mind's clinging to future activities.

Maybe concerns about the body,

Sensations.

And just on the next few exhales,

Continuing to allow those distractions to just head down through the waist,

Down into the earth.

Leaving you more with a sense of okayness and tranquility.

Nowhere else to go.

Nothing to do.

Except just be here.

And next we'll move into vipassana,

Which is a vehicle for insight or seeing.

And what tends to happen in life without a good meditation practice is that it seems other people and external events cause us to suffer.

But if we tune in with our meditation,

We can see that we're truly just taking in data through our eyes and through our ears.

And we're creating an internal story about what's going on in the external world.

And when we relate to that internal image or picture of what's going on out in the world,

We can see that there's just some unpleasant sensations that often arise.

Sometimes pleasant ones.

And sometimes neutral ones.

So those are the three things we'll note for the rest of this practice.

Unpleasant,

Pleasant or neutral.

And this is based on vedna,

Which are feeling tones.

It's just a feeling you get internally.

Based on what appears to be external stimulus.

So right now I invite you to go within.

And let's start with unpleasant sensations.

And take a moment to find an unpleasant sensation.

It could be more physical or more mental.

Now that you've found that sensation,

Simply breathe in and breathe out and note gently to yourself,

Unpleasant,

Unpleasant.

And you do this on the exhale,

You note unpleasant.

And on the inhale,

You note unpleasant.

And then you can take a moment to find that sensation.

On the inhale,

You note unpleasant.

And on the inhale,

You note unpleasant.

Just see if you can leave it right there and notice any unpleasant sensations,

That particular one.

And just note it.

Excellent work.

And now scan the body and the mind and see if you can find a different unpleasant sensation.

And normally you'd be averse to this and want it to go away.

But in this practice,

You're going to see that you can be okay even with some unpleasantness.

So go ahead and find that other unpleasant sensation.

Of course,

You'd rather it not be there,

But it is.

Maybe it's tight shoulders,

Tight chest,

Tight belly.

Maybe it's a feeling or a mental tension.

Normally you'd reject it and want it to go away,

Which just makes it worse.

So in this case,

We just note simply to ourselves,

Unpleasant,

Unpleasant.

And allow it to be there.

And then for a few rounds of breath,

Just come back to the normal breath.

Just notice breathing in,

Breathing out.

No longer noting unpleasant sensation.

Next we'll work with neutral sensations and just see if you can find something in the body or mind that doesn't seem unpleasant or pleasant.

Just somewhere in between.

And as you sit with that sensation,

Just simply note to yourself,

This practice is all about equanimity.

Just training the mind to be okay with whatever it finds.

So just continue to note a neutral sensation.

And next we come back to the breath just for a round or two,

Our home base.

Coming back to just basic mindfulness,

Just feeling the body in the breath.

Being with the senses and the mind.

And next we'll note pleasant sensations.

These are mental or physical or combination thereof sensations that appear to be pleasant.

They just kind of seem pleasant.

So go ahead and find a pleasant sensation.

Or feeling tone.

And usually we cling to these things in life.

We want more pleasantness.

So we cling and crave and attach and try to get more and suffer accordingly.

So just being equanimity.

And it's just being cool with whatever you're noting.

So now for a while,

Tuned into that pleasant sensation.

And trying not to have a preference for pleasant and a dislike for unpleasant.

Just noting pleasant,

As you breathe in and out.

And then we'll come back to the breath.

When you're ready,

You can let that go.

And that concludes the insight portion of this session.

We want to thank you for being here.

And for being here now with all the sensations,

With all the textures of the breath.

With all the senses.

And for a minute or so,

Just breathing in and out.

Just aware of it all.

And as we're wrapping up,

I wish you the best in your practice when you're out in the world and you see your boss,

Family members,

Friends,

A scratch on your new car,

A present.

It's going to give you an internal sensation of unpleasant,

Pleasant or neutral.

Instead of clinging to pleasant things in the world and trying to get more of it,

Which never works out because things are impermanent,

We can't just get more and more good.

Just unfortunately it doesn't work that way.

Or if you have an unpleasant sensation,

Just see if you can start to note it.

And let go of all attachment and aversion and just learn to be still and okay with all the arising of this life.

And when you're ready,

We can bring our hands into Anjali Mudra in front of our chest.

As always,

With your hands together,

A little space between the palms.

And there's a perfect gem right there,

Symbolic of your perfect limitless Buddha nature.

And as you gently bow forward,

You'll hope that our practice,

Your practice,

Can benefit you and all beings in the world and reduce suffering and create peace.

Thank you.

Reviews

excellent, thank you! that was a lot in half an hour. I want to check out you other materials.