My teacher says we lead a yo-yo life.
We go up and down according to the situations and people.
When we meet a friend we become excited and happy.
When we see the person we don't like we become angry.
And there goes our yo-yo.
Up and down and up and down.
Wouldn't it be wonderful for us to lead a more balanced life?
And the first thing can be to equalize our relationships and equalize the people,
The feelings that we have for people and hence balancing our minds and life.
I want to share with you one of the most powerful meditation which is called as equanimity meditation.
This is actually a prerequisite to any compassion and metta meditation that you do.
How can you generate compassion for all?
Until unless we see everyone as equal.
So let's do this today.
Take a comfortable posture.
Let your back be straight.
Your eyes are gently closed.
You can sit on the cushion or maybe you can just lie down.
Take a couple of deep breaths and calm down your body.
Deep inhalations and deep exhalations.
Let's just take a few minutes to concentrate our minds on the breath.
Feel the movement of your breath either on your abdomen or nostril or on your chest.
Feeling the movement of your inhalations and exhalations and feel the sensation which your breath creates in your body.
Don't worry too much about your thoughts.
Just give 10 minutes to your body,
Your space and to your peace of mind.
Now imagine in front of you three people.
On the left hand side imagine there is a person whom you like.
It could be a friend or a neighbour or a relative.
If you're doing this practice for the first time maybe choose somebody whom you like but is not from your family and as you do it more often then you can choose your very dear ones as well.
In the centre imagine a person who is very neutral to you.
You have no hard feelings towards them and neither do you have any attachment to them.
It could be a delivery guy,
Any helper or a cashier at the grocery store.
And now at the right hand side see the person whom you don't like,
Somebody whom you don't gel with or have a little irritation.
And again if you're doing this for the first time start with a person with whom you don't have a lot of deep feelings and then gradually you can move forward.
See these three people clearly in front of you.
The friend,
The neutral being and the enemy kind of a person.
Feel the natural flow of your emotions towards them.
The feeling of happiness and attachment when you see this friend.
The feeling of indifferent when you see this neutral being and the feeling of irritation and crutch when you see this enemy kind of person.
Do you feel how your emotions go up and down?
How your mind behaves like a yo-yo and goes from happy to nothing to irritation?
Can we equalize them?
Can we find that all these three people are equal?
See this friend of yours.
Notice the reasons why you like them.
Do you share interest or agree on the same things?
But do you think this is permanent?
Were you always friend with this person?
Wasn't there a time when you barely knew this person and he was just a neutral being to you?
One of my dear friend today was actually in my college and I never talked to her for four years.
She was a neutral being to me for so many years.
Can you also think about situations where a friend turned into an enemy?
Can you think about situations where you gradually drifted apart from your best friend?
Can you think about situations where relationships changed drastically?
This best friend hurt you in some way and our feelings changed.
Can you feel how this relationship,
This label of a friend is not permanent?
It could drift apart or the relationship can change drastically.
Now see the neutral being in front of you.
Why do you feel this indifferent feeling towards this person?
Because he hasn't helped you and neither harmed you.
But don't you think you can become friends with this person?
Can you think about situations where you met a person in a bus or a train or at a mutual friend's party and became friends?
Can you think about a situation where somebody helped you and your feelings changed a little bit for them?
Do you really think we can give them a label of a neutral being?
Now see this enemy like person in front of you.
Notice the reasons why you dislike them.
Have they hurt you?
But think about it.
Was he always an enemy to you?
Can you bring to your mind relationships where an enemy turned into a wonderful friend?
Can you think about situations where you had a person whom you never liked but suddenly an interaction or maybe he helped you and the relationship improved?
Imagine this person just helped you in fixing your broken car.
Will your feelings soften a little bit?
Do you see how these labels,
These feelings are not permanent?
This relationship is not permanent and sometimes it just takes a conversation to change things around.
So if you think about it,
We see these people just from a small perspective.
If they bring happiness to you,
You embrace them.
If they don't,
You are indifferent or you dislike them.
But can we broaden our vision today?
Can we see that these relationships are not permanent?
These are labels and they are not permanent.
They can change very easily.
You have experienced the situations where your best friend from school drifted apart.
You have experienced the worst enemy dissolved and became a great friend of yours.
You have experienced that we develop feelings with neutral beings and we can easily get attached or angry to them.
If you consider the concept of rebirth,
This is exponential then.
Think about it,
Your best friend might be an enemy to you in your past life.
Hence it doesn't make sense for us to take this as concrete,
As fixed and instead have a very open and a broad mind and heart.
So today let our heart flow towards all the beings in the world.
This will gradually lead us to a state of equanimity in which our minds will be more balanced and less under the control of attachment to our friends,
Aversion to our enemies and indifference towards our strangers.
Let's open our heart today towards all the three beings equally now.
Imagine there's a green bright light right at your heart center.
It glows more brightly when you inhale.
Now see this friend of yours and wish them all the happiness in the world no matter how your relationship was or will be in the future.
With every inhalation let this heart chakra radiate green light,
Bright green light and happiness for this person.
Do the same thing for the neutral person as well.
Radiate the light and say may you have all the happiness and causes of happiness in the world.
Now move towards your enemy realize this relationship is easily changeable.
Let your heart radiate out bright green light and wish all the happiness and causes of happiness for this person as well.
With every inhalation this bright green light is glowing and flowing towards all these people equally.
Let your heart radiate out all the positive energy you have and happiness you have for these three people till the time you dissolve all the three beings in front of you.
Now take a couple of deep breaths,
Relax and smile and be glad that you have taken the first step to create a more constant happiness and a constant peace of mind.
Dedicate this positive energy for the welfare of all the beings in the world yourself,
Your family,
Your community and all the sentient beings in the world.
Thank you for practicing with me and have a great day ahead.
