Equanimity (Pali, upekkha; Skt., upeksha) is one of those über-qualities in Buddhism. It’s the last quality of the ten paramis, the four immeasurables, and the seven factors of enlightenment, and is both the result of and support for the hard work required in spiritual practice. Equanimity is stability and equipoise in the face of life’s changes and challenges—an unshakable ease that doesn’t rely on the need for things to go our way but instead arises from understanding and accepting things as they are. Equanimity accommodates opposites, resolving the apparent duality expressed by the Serenity Prayer (“Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change”) and Angela Davis’s rephrasing (“I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change. I am changing the things I cannot accept.”) In other words, upekkha is neither indifference nor passivity. It doesn’t imply resignation. To be equanimous means to be deeply caring and to support that care with bright wisdom and fierce determination. It means to remain unmoved in the face of the eight worldly winds of gain and loss, honor and dishonor, praise and blame, pleasure and pain, so that we can focus our energy and strength on love and compassion and justice and respect—very simply, on what matters most.

• “Equanimity is the ground for wisdom and freedom and the protector of compassion and love. While some may think of equanimity as dry neutrality or cool aloofness, mature equanimity produces a radiance and warmth of being.” –Gil Fronsdal
• Tip: Although equanimity is often referred to as a “cool” quality, it’s never cold or aloof. Notice the warmth that springs from a true sense of acceptance that’s free of bias, desire, and aversion.
• “Equanimity contains the complete willingness to behold the pleasant and the painful events of life equally. It points to a deep balance in which you are not pushed and pulled between the coercive energies of desire and aversion.” –Shaila Catherine
• “Every moment of mindfulness is also a moment of equanimity. It is not a disengagement from the object of awareness but rather a full and complete engagement with it.” –Andrew Olendzki
• Tip: Pay close attention to your own quality of attention. Notice if and when you disengage or grow distant and mistake this for equanimity. Remind yourself that upekkha isn’t indifference but stability. To get close to your experience again, ask yourself, “How does this feel?”
• “Through equanimity, we fortify ourselves with nonfear, with compassion, with acceptance. We cultivate the strength to face reality without being crushed by it.” –Kaira Jewel Lingo 

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Editor’s note: This is the tenth installment of Pocket Paramis, our series on the ten perfections: generosity, ethical conduct, renunciation, wisdom, energy, patience, truthfulness, determination, lovingkindness, and equanimity. A printable version is available here.

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“Radiating kindness over the entire world: Spreading upwards to the skies, And downwards to the depths. . . .” These are the Buddha’s instructions in the Karaniya Metta Sutta, the “Sutra of Lovingkindness,” for extending happiness to all beings. Metta (Skt., maitri), or “lovingkindness,” is the penultimate of the ten paramis, or perfections. It appears directly after adhitthana, determination, perhaps because, as Acariya Dhammapala says in his Treatise on the Paramis, to do this challenging work our resolve must be unshakable. Our offering is meant to be complete, unconditional, and indiscriminate—like the rays of the sun, radiating equally over all beings. We’re not asked to mete out judgment or calculate merit. We don’t have to withhold or reward. Lovingkindness just shines, fueled by the recognition that every one of us ultimately wants the same thing: to be safe, happy, and at ease.

In metta meditation, we first wish happiness to ourselves, then to those we love, those we feel neutral toward, those we struggle with, and finally to all beings. And although it may seem odd that in a tradition based on selflessness we’d begin this practice with ourselves, it makes good sense. As the poet Galway Kinnell wrote, “Sometimes it is necessary to reteach a thing its loveliness.” And what better place to start than by relearning to love ourselves?

• “To love is, first of all, to accept ourselves as we actually are. That is why in this love meditation, ‘Know thyself’ is the first practice of love.” –Thich Nhat Hanh
• “The quality of lovingkindness is simply who you are. You don’t need a reason to manifest your natural state. You can develop lovingkindness just because. You can be compassionate just because—not for some profound reason or because the Buddha or the dharma pushes you into it. You do it because you are able to do it.”         –Jetsun Khandro Rinpoche
• Tip: If you are struggling to offer lovingkindness to yourself or another, remind yourself: “I want to be happy and free of suffering, just as other beings do.” Let lovingkindness drive your actions, trusting that when your aspiration is clear, good results will follow.
• “In metta practice, it is normal for the doubting mind to pop up and challenge the notion of loving ourselves and others. Don’t let this doubt stop you. It is important to know that metta is not a practice of perfection, but one of cultivation.” –JoAnna Hardy
• Tip: Remember that the paramis are “perfections” not because their practice is supposed to be flawless, but because they’re based on wisdom: the realization of our innate wholeness or completeness. If you start judging yourself or your practice, offer that judging mind the same all-encompassing lovingkindness—and keep going.

♦

This is the ninth installment of Pocket Paramis, our series on the ten perfections: generosity, ethical conduct, renunciation, wisdom, energy, patience, truthfulness, determination, lovingkindness, and equanimity. A printable version is available here.

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The eighth of the ten paramis, or perfections, adhitthana parami is the unshakable determination to engage in actions that benefit others and lead to enlightenment. In the Dhatu-vibhanga Sutta (Majjhima Nikaya 140), a wanderer named Pukkusati tells a stranger he has gone forth into homelessness in a dedicated search for the Buddha­—not realizing that he has just unwittingly found him! Recognizing his great faith, the incognito Buddha offers Pukkusati a teaching on the “four skilled determinations.” A person of the Way, he says, is diligent about discernment, or right view; guards truthfulness; is devoted to renunciation; and trains in tranquility. Someone who understands these teachings “is free from longing…[and is] said to be a sage at peace.”

Just as the Buddha is finishing his discourse, Pukkusati recognizes him and begs to be ordained. Lacking a full set of robes and a bowl (the Buddha’s requirements for ordination), the wanderer sets off in search of what he needs. Unfortunately, before he can return, he’s killed by a runaway cow. Not a happy-ending sutta, it would seem. And yet earnest Pukkusati received the unexpected gift of the Buddha’s private teaching and, as the great teacher later reveals to a group of monks, rebirth in the Pure Abodes—both fitting rewards for Pukkusati’s unshakable faith and determination.

• “The four aspects of skilled determination highlight the importance of establishing wise priorities and sticking to them regardless of the temptation to sacrifice them for lesser aims. In this way, they help guard against a common problem in approaching practice in daily life: a tendency to indulge in the self-delusion that can justify any activity, as long as it’s done mindfully, as part of the path.” —Bhikkhu Bodhi
  
• Tip: Take stock of the reasons you give yourself for engaging in activities that take you away from your aim to be at peace and attain liberation. Resolve to return, again and again, to those actions that will help you along the path.
• “We must also, and always, be determined to be compassionate. Adhitthana, the spiritual perfection of determination, comes from embracing the whole of our flawed and wondrous humanity.” —Sister Ocean
• “Even if you have the tendency to make a determination but only stick to it for two or three days, it is OK as long as you keep refreshing that determination.” —Daisaku Ikeda
• Tip: “Unshakable determination” can be described as determination that when shaken doesn’t shake us. In other words, we don’t have to worry about being perfect in our determination. All we have to do is renew it when we’ve wavered.

♦

This is the eighth installment of Pocket Paramis, our series on the ten perfections: generosity, ethical conduct, renunciation, wisdom, energy, patience, truthfulness, determination, lovingkindness, and equanimity. A printable version is available here.

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Who will teach me to write?” a reader asked the writer Annie Dillard. “The page,” she answered, “the page . . . the blankness of eternity which you cover slowly . . . the page in the purity of its possibilities; the page of your death, against which you pit such flawed excellences as you can muster with all your life’s strength: that page will teach you to write.” Likewise, it’s our lives that teach us to live through the very process of living, and to do this well, we must be truthful with ourselves and others. This is where sacca (Skt., satya) parami can help. The seventh of the perfections, truthfulness has the characteristic of non-deceptiveness; its function is verification according to facts, its manifestation is excellence, and its proximate cause is honesty. But here it’s important to note that “perfection” doesn’t mean flawlessness. As Dillard says, it’s our flawed excellences that will teach us about ourselves and our lives. Therefore, recognizing that we cannot leave our lives’ pages blank, as practitioners we muster our courage and our strength to make imperfect marks, if we must. And we vow to use our many foibles and failures in the process of learning the truth of things—things not as we think they should be but as they actually are. This is the perfection of truthfulness.

• “Every moment of mindfulness is a moment of truthfulness, of directed knowing. Direct and clear, true understanding is such a relief. It inspires determination in practice. And when we see the truth of how things are, our capacity for lovingkindness, for metta, increases.” —Sylvia Boorstein
• “With truthfulness . . . you start to come more from the heart, the sense that works in terms of relating to experience rather than fixing and organizing and making yourself into what you think you should be.” —Ajahn Sucitto
• Tip: Notice how truthfulness is closely associated with compassion and lovingkindness. It’s not just a clinical adherence to facts but rather is based on an honest, heartful relationship with our lived experience.
• “The perfection of truthfulness is non-deceptiveness in speech, analyzed into an abstinence, a volition, etc., accompanied by compassion and skillful means.” —Acariya Dhammapala, trans. Bhikkhu Bodhi
• “Truthful speech establishes a correspondence between our own inner being and the real nature of phenomena, allowing wisdom to rise up and fathom their real nature. Thus, much more than an ethical principle, devotion to truthful speech is a matter of taking our stand on reality rather than illusion, on the truth grasped by wisdom rather than the fantasies woven by desire.” —Bhikkhu Bodhi
• Tip: Think of truthfulness not just as the quality of speaking truth but also as the practice of devoting yourself to the clear seeing of reality. Paired with a sense of urgency, truthfulness shows us that our lives are fleeting, which means we don’t have time to waste on delusion.

♦

This is the sixth installment of our Pocket Paramis series of quick tips to keep in mind while working with the ten perfections: generosity, ethical conduct, renunciation, wisdom, energy, patience, truthfulness, determination, lovingkindness, and equanimity. A printable version is available here.

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Khanti, or patience, is the sixth of the paramis, following energy (viriya) and preceding truthfulness (sacca). The great Indian commentator Dhammapala (5th or 6th c. CE), in A Treatise on the Paramis—his commentary on the late canonical text the Cariyapitaka—says that patience has the characteristic of acceptance; its function is endurance; its manifestation is tolerance, or non-opposition; and its proximate cause is seeing things as they are. Contrary to what we may think, there’s nothing passive about patience. Acceptance, endurance, and tolerance arise out of clear seeing, which cannot exist without effort and insight—both of which we must practice deliberately. Shantideva, the 8th-century Indian monk and author of The Way of the Bodhisattva, said there’s no austerity greater than patience. In order to truly practice khanti-parami, we must actively renounce our sense of entitlement. We must want to be free more than we want to be right; choose what is instead of what we’d like. But patience is not resignation. It works with the other paramis of generosity, determination, loving-kindness, and so on. In The Way of the Bodhisattva, Shantideva offers what I think is the perfect recipe for wise and engaged patience: With perfect and unyielding faith, / With steadfastness, respect, and courtesy, / With conscientiousness and awe, / Work calmly for the happiness of others.

• “No evil is there similar to anger,
  No austerity to be compared with patience.
  Steep yourself, therefore, in patience,
  In various ways, insistently.” —The Way of the Bodhisattva by Shantideva, trans. by the Padmakara Translation Group
• “Complete patience helps the heart to mature into nonreactivity, and it comes into its full maturity through being animated by the wish to alleviate suffering and to uproot greed, aversion, and delusion.” —Dawn Scott
• “Patience entails choosing not to respond reactively, allowing other possibilities to arise; it provides tremendous support for mindfulness practice.” —Gil Fronsdal
• Tip: When anger arises, draw close to it instead of pulling away. How does it feel in your body? Can you accept this experience without trying to change it?
• “Patience is an ocean on account of its depth; a shore bounding the great ocean of hatred; a panel closing off the door to the plane of misery; a staircase ascending to the worlds of the gods and Brahmas; the ground for the habitation of all noble qualities; the supreme purification of body, speech, and mind.” —Dhammapala, Commentary to the Cariyapitaka, trans. by Bhikkhu Bodhi
• Tip: When feeling impatient, stop and consider your thoughts. If you need to take action, can you do so without centering the self, without the need to vindicate yourself or win an argument?

♦

This is the sixth installment of our Pocket Paramis series of quick tips to keep in mind while working with the ten perfections: generosity, ethical conduct, renunciation, wisdom, energy, patience, truthfulness, determination, lovingkindness, and equanimity. A printable version is available here.

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“It is a question of discipline,” the little prince said. . . . “You must see to it that you pull up regularly all the baobabs.”

Sometimes, when thinking about practice and realization and the effort they require, I think of Saint-Exupéry’s little prince. Every morning, just after waking, he’d cull dangerous young baobabs from harmless rose or radish seedlings, knowing the massive trees would overtake his tiny planet otherwise.

Virya (Skt.) or viriya (Pali) can be variously translated as “effort,” “energy,” “diligence,” or “enthusiasm.” As the sixth of the paramis or “perfections,” virya is the enthusiastic and sustained energy needed to free ourselves from the endless round of samsara. But when linked to the fifth factor in the noble eightfold path—right effort—energy is also the practice of nurturing the good mental states growing in the garden of our mind and rooting out the bad ones. And although this perfection sounds like a lot of hard work, regularly pulling out mental weeds can be a very simple task. As the little prince points out, all we have to do is remember the danger of letting the baobabs grow unimpeded. Then it’s just a matter of acting quickly and decisively to uproot unskillful thoughts, fueled by virya’s proximate cause: a sense of spiritual urgency.

• “The Sanskrit term is virya and the term is derived from vir, which means ‘to overcome,’ implying here also courage and bravery. So it is the effort, mental effort, through which one applies oneself to perfecting our qualities. It is the energy, the diligence, the effort we put into becoming excellent.” –Karma Trinlay Rinpoche
• “Since habits are, by definition, deeply ingrained patterns, and all moments are immediately lost, I need to enlist every moment to teach me about suffering and the end of suffering. Knowing that I haven’t a moment to lose keeps my Energy level high.” –Sylvia Boorstein
• Tip: Remind yourself that no moment is wasted on the path. A moment of laziness, complacency, disappointment, or distraction is simply another opportunity to practice. Use this reminder as a way to begin again or to reaffirm your aspiration to awaken.
• “Exertion is like the fine steel of a sword blade. . . . To truly sever the confusion and duality of the usual mind with Manjusri’s sword of dhyana [concentration] and prajna [wisdom] we must be able to exert this fully, holding nothing back.” –Anzan Hoshin
• Tip: Think about the things that help you maintain your practice. Ask yourself, how do you remember to practice when you forget? How do you keep yourself inspired, enthusiastic, engaged—especially if you’ve been practicing for a while?

♦

This is the fifth installment of our Pocket Paramis series of quick tips to keep in mind while working with the ten perfections: generosity, ethical conduct, renunciation, wisdom, energy, patience, truthfulness, determination, lovingkindness, and equanimity. If you need a visual reminder, a printable/downloadable version is available here.

The post Pocket Paramis: Energy appeared first on Tricycle: The Buddhist Review.

Panna (Skt., prajna), wisdom, follows on the heels of renunciation in the Theravada list of the ten paramis (Skt., paramita), and it’s the linchpin that makes these virtues “perfections.” In the Mahayana texts, Prajnaparamita or “perfection of wisdom” also refers to a group of sutras that describe the Buddhist concept of emptiness, as well as to the personification of this type of wisdom as the mother of all buddhas. From a practical perspective, we could say that wisdom is necessary for the skillful cultivation of the other virtues. Its function is to illuminate the real nature of phenomena—the way things are—and it manifests as both concentration and insight. If delusion is walking around in a darkened room, wisdom is turning on the light. People and things, and the room itself, are all the same, but now we can see them clearly. On a deeper level, prajna shows us the impermanent and interdependent nature of things, an insight that transforms the ten virtues into perfections. (“Perfect” here doesn’t mean flawless but empty of a fixed, independent self nature.) Thus, when we cultivate wisdom, we realize that we don’t practice the other perfections just because it’s a good thing to do. Ultimately, we do it because, as wisdom shows us, the perfections are our very nature—the way we are.

• “When one who develops wisdom to the end does not seize on the least dharma,
  Conditioned or unconditioned, dark or bright;
  Then one comes to speak in the world of the perfection of wisdom,
  [Which is like] space, wherein nothing real whatsoever is established.” —The Perfection of Wisdom in 8,000 Lines, trans. by Edward Conze
• “In every place and in every moment, in thought after thought, never becoming muddled and constantly acting wisely—just this is practicing prajna.” —Dajian Huineng (638–713), the Sixth Ancestor of Chan
• “The insight that eventually arises [from practice] is that we look at our self-illusion and recognize it for what it is.” —Ven. Ayya Khema
• Tip: Wisdom is different from knowledge. Whenever you think you know something, ask yourself, “What is this?” Then get very quiet and look closely—not at your idea of things but at what they really are. How? By letting go of what you know, what you remember, what you assume to be true. Don’t know, and see what is actually there.
• “Because the nature of all phenomena is ultimately found to be emptiness, the Prajnaparamita, which is emptiness itself, is the mother.” —Acharya Judith Simmer-Brown
• “Just as light cannot coexist with darkness, wisdom cannot coexist with delusion. Therefore a bodhisattva wishing to accomplish the perfection of wisdom should avoid the causes of delusion.” —Acharya Dharmapala
• Tip: Consider what you’re bringing into being today. Is it based on wisdom or clinging, clarity or confusion?

♦

This is the fourth installment of our Pocket Paramis series of quick tips to keep in mind while working with the ten perfections: generosity, ethical conduct, renunciation, wisdom, energy, patience, truthfulness, determination, lovingkindness, and equanimity. If you need a visual reminder, a printable/downloadable version is available here.

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If there’s one parami, or perfection, that provokes more resistance than the others, it’s probably renunciation—nekkhamma in Pali; in Sanskrit, naishkramya. Giving up anything is anathema to most Westerners, all the more if it means, as Buddhist texts tell us, “giving up the world and leading a holy life.” Steeped in comfort, we fail to grasp “the pleasure of renunciation.” But looking at renunciation with more dispassion, we can begin to see its benefit in nudging us toward enlightenment. Third of the Theravada ten perfections, renunciation is the practice of nonattachment, of not clinging to anything. In the Mahayana tradition, it’s associated with right intention and the bodhisattva commitment to serving others. And herein lies the key. Letting go of desire forever isn’t the goal; we’re bound to fail at that. It’s cultivating the intention to loosen our attachment not just to material things and sensory pleasures but to self-obsession and destructive emotions as well. Renunciation isn’t about taking monastic vows or exchanging your Tempur-Pedic mattress for a pallet; it’s about the wisdom to realize that holding on to anything impermanent only brings sorrow. Think of renunciation as the Marie Kondo of inner clutter: a good mental cleanout leads to the joy of freedom. To find true happiness we have to let go.

This is the third installment of our Pocket Paramis series of quick tips to keep in mind while working with the ten perfections: generosity, ethical conduct, renunciation, wisdom, energy, patience, truthfulness, determination, lovingkindness, and equanimity. If you need a visual reminder, a printable/downloadable version is available here.

• “Renunciation does not have to be regarded as negative. I was taught that it has to do with letting go of holding back. . . . What one is renouncing is closing down and shutting off from life.” —Pema Chödrön
• “If by renouncing a lesser happiness one may realize a greater happiness, let the wise man renounce the lesser, having regard for the greater happiness.” —Dhammapada 21 (290), trans. Acharya Buddharakkhita
• Tip: To give up overindulging—in food, drink, sex, Internet—focus on one thing at a time. For most of us, liberation isn’t a sudden but a gradual process.
• “Turning away from samsara means figuring out how to function with an open, clear mind, not a mind shut down and incapacitated by destructive emotions.” —Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche
• Going on retreat eliminates distractions, creating optimal conditions for realizing our true nature. “For lay people, meditation retreats are a form of temporary monastic renunciation,” says Gil Fronsdal.

• “Buddha renounced his life of comfort and self-indulgence as a result of discovering the hidden pain inherent in every pleasure. He realized that clinging to sensory pleasure is a hindrance to inner peace, which is true happiness.” —Lama Yeshe
• “When we renounce according to the Mahayana, we renounce clinging to ourselves and to substantiality altogether in order to gain the liberation that allows us to benefit others.” —Phakchok Rinpoche
• Tip: Renunciation is discriminating wisdom. Every five years, take everything out of your home, put it on the lawn, and only take back in what you use and love.

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Virtue, discipline, restraint, ethical conduct. No matter what translation you use, the important point of the second parami—sila (Skt., shila)—is the spirit of nonharming. According to the Theravada teacher Joseph Goldstein, this “purity in speech, action, and livelihood” means “moral excellence, right thinking and action, and goodness in general.”

This is the second installment of our Pocket Paramis series of quick tips to keep in mind while working with the ten perfections (generosity, ethical conduct, renunciation, wisdom, energy, patience, truthfulness, determination, lovingkindness, and equanimity). These qualities of the heart can be worked on anywhere, anytime. If you need a visual reminder, a printable/downloadable version is available here.

Sila is an integral part of the eightfold path and includes following the five precepts practiced by lay Buddhists—refraining from killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying, and intoxicants. According to the Sri Lankan monk Walpola Rahula (1907–1997), ethical conduct is “built on the vast conception of universal love and compassion for all living beings, on which the Buddha’s teaching is based.”

• Commit to coexist with other sentient beings—even the spiders on the ceiling or mice in your garage. Would you want to be squashed or caught in a trap?
• Ethical conduct means keeping our physical and verbal behavior in check. If the language of restraint seems harsh, consider Insight Meditation teacher Leslie Booker’s reminder that we practice the precepts to support, care, and protect ourselves as well as others.
• “Sila brings lightness and ease to meditation. [The] last things we need in meditation are sticky burrs like regret and guilt, yet we invite them into the mind through misconduct.” —Roshi Bodhin Kjolhede

• Take a mental inventory when the day is done, suggests Joseph Goldstein. Recall when you did anything harmful, when you helped, and when you nearly caused harm but stopped yourself.
• If you need a little “shamespiration,” heed this scathing indictment from the late Burmese Vipassana teacher Venerable Sayadaw U Pandita: “Quite frankly, people who lack basic morality are disgusting!  No matter how expensive their jewelry or clothing may be, they’re unattractive and offensive. It’s as if they smell bad. In contrast, sila is like a fragrance or an ornament. We have a saying, ‘Sila makes the wearer beautiful.’”
• It’s not all about the here and now: ethical conduct benefits the present life and future generations. U Pandita called sila “one of the most important tasks a human being can undertake,” not only for Buddhists but for the whole world.

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The paramis (Skt., paramitas) are ten qualities of the heart and mind that a practitioner develops on the path of awakening. Working with the paramis of generosity, virtue, renunciation, wisdom, energy, patience, truthfulness, determination, lovingkindness, and equanimity, says Insight Meditation teacher Joseph Goldstein, is like building muscles at the gym—it’s hard work, but it pays off. The results in this case, however, are not bulging biceps and killer glutes but the benefits of increased happiness, kindness, clarity, and ease in the present moment.

This series will offer you some reminders and words of encouragement about developing the paramis. If you need a visual reminder, a printable/downloadable version is available here.

First up is GENEROSITY, which is exactly what it sounds like: sharing what you have with others, whether physical possessions or your time and attention. Even children know that “sharing is caring,” but developing the habit of maintaining a generous attitude doesn’t always come easily in a culture where our worth is defined by what we have. Still, every generous act makes it more likely that you will be generous again. Just keep at it. Here are some ideas to hold in mind:

• “Being generous creates ‘instant karma’—we can immediately see and feel the results of being generous.” —Gil Fronsdal
• “There is happiness in planning the generous act, happiness in the actual giving, and happiness in reflecting later on your generosity.” —Joseph Goldstein
• Tip: if you feel an urge to be generous, act on it. Then notice what happens in your mind and heart.
• Generosity is practiced on a scale—from beggarly giving to royal giving. Any giving is better than giving nothing at all.

• “When you are practicing generosity, you should feel a little pinch when you give something away. That pinch is your stinginess protesting.” —Gelek Rimpoche
• Try a little change of vocabulary. Instead of telling yourself you have to do something or give something, try thinking that you get to do something or give something.
• Be open to being a receiver as well as a giver.
• Practicing generosity helps us step back from our own self-interest and see how everything is interconnected.
• “These five are a person of integrity’s gifts. Which five? A person of integrity gives a gift with a sense of conviction. A person of integrity gives a gift attentively. A person of integrity gives a gift in season. A person of integrity gives a gift with an empathetic heart. A person of integrity gives a gift without adversely affecting himself or others.”
  —Anguttara Nikaya 5.148 (trans. Thanissaro Bhikkhu)

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