Hugh Byrne - Nov 19, 2023 - on Equanimity

Being equanimous in the midst of small things: a balanced way with the small things at first.
Training the mind to be equanimous in the face of the 8 worldly winds...we can train the mind. 
The Zen farmer story: --> Bad luck, Good luck? who knows? said the farmer

Foundation for equanimity is 'wisdom'...seeing what causes clinging...letting go of clinging...then we will naturally find ease...we will find our way to equanimity, find our way to ease

3 marks of existence:  anicca, impermanence, dukkha: unsatisfactoriness, and anatta: non-self

Impermanence - all conditions of our lives come and go..empires come and go 

• Seeing these truths on personal, and celestial levels...helps bring us to Equanimity
• Holding on to things, we suffer...nothing can be held on to. nothing can provide 'satisfactoriness'
• don't cling ...if so, we suffer. like water we can't hold on to anything
• we can find ease knowing that everything comes and goes. 
• enjoy life without clinging.. 'welcoming the guests'... no matter the guest
• Blake's 'Eternity' poem ...he who binds to himself as a joy as it flies, does the winged life destroy, but he who kisses the joy as it flies lives in eternity's sunrise.
• Enjoy what we can ...being in a fluid relationship with life...we can be happy. amidst the ups and downs.
• Anicca: we are always changing...the way we live our lives is always changing.

Near enemy of lovingkindness: is attachment, love w/ a clinging quality

Near enemy of Equanimity: is indifference...a pushing away of suffering, of life..  aka 'spiritual bypassing' ..avoiding painful feelings, wounds we haven't addressed.  we can use meditation as a route to spiritual bypassing.  

** We will enjoy not a deep calm from meditation if we are  not opening to our suffering. The invitation is to let everything in ** ...Equanimity is fully opening to our experience. Expand the window of tolerance....opening to all our experience but not clinging. 

TS Eliott: 'Ash Wednesday': Teach us to care and not to care, teach us to sit still. ie,'Not caring' means to find a way to process our experience without the holding, the clinging. 

Resting in the middleness, seeing the balance...the successes, the failures. all 8 winds will arise in our minds. How do I deal w/ the ups and downs...Can I find peace in the midst of it all? This is a quality I can devleop. We can train our minds in this way. It's not a 'one and done' ...we have to practice. 

PRACTICE with whatever is present, s/ judgement, w/ acceptance. Including pain, physical 

Focus our attention on equanimity: breathing in, calming the body, breathing  out, calming the mind...may I be balanced, may I  be at peace. Inviting that quality of peace of calm of steadiness, of balance...amidst the ups/downs, arising/passing of everything...emotions, breath, thoughts all come and go. all in its own time...let it come, let it be, let it go. when it's ready to go. 

Wumen-

10,000 flowers in Spring

Ten thousand flowers in Spring, 

the Moon in autumn

by Wu Men Hui-k'ai

English version by Stephen Mitchell
Original Language Chinese

Ten thousand flowers in spring, the moon in autumn,
a cool breeze in summer, snow in winter.
If your mind isn't clouded by unnecessary things,
this is the best season of your life.

Eternity’s Sunrise: Blake and Buddhism | The Muted Trumpet

https://themutedtrumpet.wordpress.com/2014/06/25/eternitys-sunrise-blake-and-buddhism/

Bassui - essence

“The essence of your mind is not born, so it will never die. It is not an existence, which is perishable. It is not an emptiness, which is a mere void. It has neither colour nor form. It enjoys no pleasures and suffers no pains.

I know you are very ill. Like a good Zen student, you are facing that sickness squarely. You may not know exactly who is suffering, but question yourself: What is the essence of this mind? Think only of this. You will need no more. Covet nothing. Your end which is endless is as a snowflake dissolving in pure air.” 

― Bassui Takusho

Meeting and parting - Blake

The meeting and parting of living things 
is as when clouds having come together, 
drift apart again, or as when the leaves are parted from the tree.  
There is nothing we may call our own in a union that is but a dream....

--William Blake

Blake on grasping

He who binds to himself a joy Does the winged life destroy;
But he who kisses the joy as it flies Lives in eternity's sun rise.

- William Blake

The meeting and parting of living things is as when clouds having come together
drift apart again, or as when the leaves are parted from the tree.  There is nothing we may call our own in a union that is but a dream---

Re: The weather

Hi Warren,

I am wondering if you have a copy of Peter Matthiessen's The Snow Leopard (published 1978, my copy is a 1996 reprint, a Penguin Nature Classic edition)? He quotes Blake on page 22 (Section 1, Journal date September 29 [1973]) in a wonderful passage. Matthiessen reflects on the 'weather' engendered by individual circumstances... (he is walking in the Himalaya, and is stunned into thinking about life/death when he walks past a young girl who's lot in life is to move by pulling herself along on her hands...her legs do not work... and apparently never will.)

I appreciate what you offered us yesterday p.m.

Chick

On Feb 8, 2009, at 10:39 PM, Warren Lang wrote:

Chick,

Thanks for the Blake quote. It captures the reality of what we were talking about today in such lyrical terms. Definitely a keeper.

Where did you find it?

Warren

On Feb 8, 2009, at 7:49 PM, clindsay wrote:

Hi Sangha,

We were talking this afternoon about weather as a metaphor for the changeability of our states of mind, and we were also talking about the hazards of hanging on to what bolsters the 'me' at nearly any cost.

And I remembered the passage below that I read yesterday ... written by William Blake who offers this:

'The meeting and parting of living things is as when clouds having come together drift apart again, or as when the leaves are parted from the trees. There is nothing we may call our own in a union that is but a dream...'

Chick

The weather

Hi Sangha,

We were talking this afternoon about weather as a metaphor for the changeability of our states of mind, and we were also talking about the hazards of hanging on to what bolsters the 'me' at nearly any cost.

And I remembered the passage below that I read yesterday ... written by William Blake who offers this: 

'The meeting and parting of living things is as when clouds having come together drift apart again, or as when the leaves are parted from the trees.  There is nothing we may call our own in a union that is but a dream...'

Chick

clindsay@wwt.net