Guided Meditation: Upekkha (Equanimity)

Guided Meditation on Heart Practice of Upekkha (Equanimity).

Transcript

Equanimity,

Opeca.

I have so much love for this quality in the practice.

So I'll just start this short reflection as you're sinking into your seat by re-sharing with you my own working definition of Opeca or equanimity.

It's not a traditional definition that you'll find in a text.

It literally comes from years and decades of practice and months and months on silent formal retreat specifically practicing with equanimity,

Both as a Brahma Vihara and in the insight practice.

So my working definition is that equanimity is the balance of the non-reactive mind and heart that is grounded in wisdom and supports a deep caring and leads to an appropriate response.

So we have five qualities there.

Balance,

Non-reactivity,

Wisdom,

Caring,

And an appropriate response.

If I could add a sixth quality without making a massive run on sentence,

Which I have not yet been able to figure out,

I would add spaciousness.

So I thought I would share with you my two favorite sets of equanimity phrases.

The first one in particular,

I've literally done months of retreat using these phrases.

And they're not on the handout,

Which is why I figured I'd mention them.

So the phrases I've used for years are,

All things arise and pass away and are not I or mine.

May I trust in the nature of the unfolding.

May I hold these joys and sorrows in perfect equanimity and balance.

So those phrases are really weaving together of the wisdom factor and the heart factor.

I see a couple of you writing them,

So I'll say them again.

All things arise and pass away and are not I or mine.

May I trust in the unfolding.

May I hold these joys and sorrows in perfect equanimity and balance.

So we work with this quality as a divine abode of Brahma Vihara,

Using the very same techniques and tools for the rest.

We can start to settle more and more into trusting our own unfolding of this form of practice.

We're learning on much deeper levels,

Whether we're more of a type that's supported by calling up an image of each category or muse,

Or it's more resonant for us to just think of the category,

The person,

The muse,

And feel how we'd feel if they walked in the hall and sat an appropriate distance away.

Some of us are more visual,

Some of us are more sonatic.

We're developing and becoming ever more intimate with the sets of phrases for each quality.

And trusting our own practice to know when we use the full phrases for any one of these flavors and when the phrases actually get really quiet and they turn into single words and they melt away into vast space and there's just the feeling of it.

And then that vast or boundless or however you experience it,

The quality itself starts to become a little more vague,

A little bit less stabilized.

Ah,

Let me pick up the tool of yet another phrase and drop it in.

It's the art of the practice that no one can tell us.

We have to listen really deeply,

And we are.

So with equanimity there's kind of an additional component for some of us that we're sending the phrases of equanimity on one hand and we may be sending it to another,

Not always just ourself.

But then there's also the echo inside us of feeling the equanimity.

So there's a muse or someone we're wishing to,

And then there's feeling it ourselves.

And as that feeling gets more and more mature in our own being,

That supports the unfolding of the practice.

So it's definitely for some of us experienced as quite internally,

Externally,

And both,

As the Satipatthana puts it.

I'll also share that I've been quite supported in my own practice over the years,

Particularly with equanimity as a Brahma Vihara,

Of being open to including some of the other flavors of divine evodes.

So for example,

I think I've done two or three months of retreat where the whole month was a combo of equanimity and compassion.

The whole month.

I found those very mutually supporting to work with both the cultivation of wisdom,

But the caring with the inevitable humanness of it all,

And the near misses,

And the process of purification that's inevitable and a part of our growing practice.

So that was true for me.

I think the last thing I'll mention about equanimity practice and its potential.

We were just upstairs practicing some Qigong together.

I was realizing for myself over the years,

Even as part of formal practice in the Brahma Vihara training,

This embodiment aspect has been so pivotal and key in my own practice.

And so I quite like to do Brahma Vihara practice in the walking posture,

As well as the sitting.

It's the walking and the phrases.

And often at the end of the path,

Or just in a moment where the equanimity seems to be wavering or absent,

To just stand,

To just stand,

The feet on the ground,

On the earth.

Steady,

Solid,

Balanced,

Rooted.

And it literally allows the movements of the mind and heart,

And the movements of the external world to arise and touch this being,

And there's movement,

And yet there's this grounded,

Wise,

Balanced non-reactivity.

It's actually a somatic reflection in the face of the movements of the mind and the heart and the world.

So I use this in difficult situations in my life as well.

It's very simple.

One way of putting it is standing like a tree.

One of my favorite metaphors of equanimity is the great grandmother tree,

Full canopy,

Seeing many seasons,

Understands it's like this,

Isn't getting freaked out,

Is completely able to respond as appropriate.

You can stand like a tree.

You can sit in the same way just now.

So for those of you that are in a really quiet place,

It might be just that simple as we sit here,

Just sitting in that embodied sense of this quality that only you can know your own.

There is an invitation to move through the same categories or muses that we played with,

Practiced with yesterday.

And then we're just going to leave an open,

Silent space to trust our own intuition about which muse and when.

So we'll start with the neutral person or the familiar stranger.

And I might offer a suggestion that it can be quite rich to actually use the same people or beings that you used yesterday,

And perhaps the day before for each one of these categories today.

It helps support momentum in the practice.

It also helps us see how the practice actually is unfolding and things can feel a little different today,

Perhaps.

So we might choose the same neutral person or familiar stranger.

And we can call up an image of them or a somatic-felt sense of them.

And the phrases of wishing this equanimity begin to rise and be known.

The echo of the phrases in the body and the awareness as we practice of some of the near misses of indifference or numbness or attachment,

All can be held in this vast awareness.

We hold the near misses with equanimity.

And so we'll practice with this one for time.

And then there'll be an intuition or an impulse in the system to change muses.

The phrases,

The quality remains much the same.

Sometimes we need to shift the phrases just slightly.

It's fine.

And so after we've been with the neutral person for a while,

We might choose a benefactor or a good friend.

We spend some time with ourselves and really filling that reservoir,

Equanimity for self.

And if we choose at some point to expand to difficult person news,

Making sure that on a scale of one to 10 of difficulty,

They are below a six,

So that it's really workable.

We can really allow this practice to grow in a resilient way,

In a workable way.

Just in the unfolding and enjoying our own unique expression of the essence of this quality and the form.

And now we can invite the muse that we're practicing with to fall into the background of attention and dissolve,

And the phrases in the words too,

And just dissolve into vast space.

Returning to the simplicity of the intermingling of the Brahma Vihara with the insight practice,

The simple possibility of returning to the breath as it moves in and out of this space of heart,

In the upper chest,

In the back of the heart,

And bringing a balanced,

Non-reactive,

Wise and caring attention to whatever sensations or moods that are the movement,

The conditioned movement of this moment.

Reviews

Embodied equilibrium is a good title for the session.

Some lovely thoughts on upekkha followed by a lightly led meditation space. Thank you

What a lovey meditation. The first part is more of a talk to help you understand and focus your equanimity meditation. Really great talk, very informative. Most of the time after is quiet meditation.

Do not go unprepared into this session. There will be alot of unguided silence after the talk, followed by a short extro.
Here is an excerpt for your preparation:

working definition of equaminity:
Balance of nonreactive mind and heart, that is grounded in wisdom, supports a deep caring and leads to an appropriate response.

Phrases:
All things arise and pass away, and are not I or mine. May I trust in the nature of unfolding. May I hold this joys and sorrows in perfect equaminity and balance.

Standing like a tree

Sending the phrases:
move through the categories neutral person, friend or benefactor, self and a workable difficult person.

You will have to structure the silent phase on your own. Good success!

I'll give a 5 to balance out the low ratings I envision coming next.