Thursday, July 4, 2013

Balanced Equanimity is the 10th Mental Perfection:



Equanimity characteristically induces and promotes impartial neutrality...
Its function is to look upon things with an even unreactive indifference!
Its manifestation is the gradual stilling of both attraction and repulsion..
Its proximate cause is seeing, that all inherit the results of their actions.
Its effect is utter purification and perfection of all other mental qualities,
by ending both discontent and delight, thereby providing the necessary
equal calm required for their complete assessment and accomplishment.
Equanimity means Unaffectable..
Equanimity means Unprovokable..
Equanimity means Undisturbable..
Equanimity means Unexcitable..
Equanimity means Imperturbable..
Equanimity means Disengaged..
Equanimity means Disentangled..
Equanimity means Detached..
Equanimity means Immovable..
Equanimity means Unbeatable..
Equanimity means Untemptable..
Equanimity means Wholly Immune..
Equanimity means Indifferent..
Equanimity means Impartial..
Equanimity means Unbiased..
Equanimity means Disinterested..
Equanimity means Balanced..
Even like a smiling mountain!


Cool Calm is the ultimate Balm!


The Threefold Equanimity (Upekkhā):
If completely indifferent towards:
All internal states and external phenomena,
All living beings and lifeless things,
All past, present and future events,
How can one ever be hurt, upset,
disturbed or distressed?
Calm is his mind.
Calm is his speech.
Calm is his action.
So is the Tranquility;
So is the Equanimity;
Of one freed by the Insight
Of right Knowledge.
Dhammapada 96



Although a man is richly dressed and adorned,
if he is in peace, at ease, in equanimity, calmed,
composed, controlled, celibate and harmless
towards all beings, then verily he is a Holy One,
a recluse, a sage ...
Dhammapada 142


Equanimity towards all one's own internal states -
that is indeed a link to Enlightenment.
Equanimity regarding all external phenomena and conditions -
that is indeed also a link to Enlightenment.
Samyutta Nikāya V Bojjhanga-samyutta.

Such noble friend finally develops the link to awakening that is Equanimity
during Awareness of in-&-out breathing, which protects against damaging
mental states, tends to detachment, to ceasing, inclines towards release,
and culminates in complete self-surrender...
If, friends, Awareness of in-&-out breathing, is so cultivated & so made much of,
it is indeed of great fruit, of great advantage!  One whose Awareness of breathing
in-&-out is perfected, well developed, and gradually brought to refined growth thus,
according to the teaching of the Buddha, such one illuminates the entire world,
just like the full moon freed from clouds. Samyutta Nikāya V Anapana-samyutta.
 
The Blessed One once said:
Now how, Ananda, in the discipline of a Noble One is there the unsurpassable
development of the senses? There is the case where, when seeing a form with
the eye, there arises in a monk what is agreeable, or what is disagreeable, or
what is both agreeable and disagreeable. He recognizes that: This agreeable
thing has arisen in me, or this disagreeable thing, or this both agreeable and
disagreeable thing, has arisen in me: And all that is constructed, conditioned,
coarse and dependently co-arisen! But this is peaceful, this is exquisite, namely
even and equal equanimity!
Instantly, that arisen agreeable or disagreeable thing ceases, and Equanimity
takes its calm stance! Just as a man with good eyes, having closed them, might
open them; or when open, might close them, that is how quickly, how rapidly,
how easily, no matter what it refers to, Equanimity make whatever arisen
agreeable thing... or disagreeable thing... or both agreeable and disagreeable
thing cease right there, and Equanimity takes its even stance! In the discipline
of The Noble One, this is called the unsurpassable development of the senses
with regard to visible forms cognizable by the eye. Similar is the most supreme
development of the other senses. MN 152


With the fading of rapturous joy, he remains in equanimity, aware and alert,
still physically sensitive to bodily pleasure. He enters and remains in the third
jhana, of which the Noble Ones declare: 'In aware Equanimity, one abides in
pleasure...' With the stilling of pleasure and pain as with the earlier disappearance
of elation and frustration, he enters and remains in the fourth jhana:
sole Awareness purified by equanimity, - neither pleasure nor pain -
This is called Right Concentration... 
The elimination of both sensual desires and of discontent, the ejection of laziness,
the calming of all regrets, just this pure Equanimity being aware of all mental
properties exactly at the moment they appear: That I call the direct knowledge of
release, the breakthrough of ignorance. Sutta Nipāta V 13: Udaya's Questions
Equanimity is 'Tatra-majjhattata', which designates the evenly balanced
keeping to the moderate middle of all things. It has as characteristic, that
it affects the balance of consciousness and mental properties as a single
function of single taste, which prevents both overt excessiveness and any
lack or insufficiency. Equanimity thereby puts an end to biased partiality by
manifesting moderation well within range of the properly reasoned midway.
Visuddhimagga XIV

The Buddha once explained:
I would make my bed in a charnel ground, with a skeleton for my pillow..
And cowherd boys came up and spat on me, urinated on me, threw dirt at me,
and poked sticks into my ears! While others, exultant and thrilled brought me
offerings of food, caskets of perfume and incense and garlands of flowers!
Yet I do not recall, that I ever showed any partiality towards any of them...
I was the same to them all! Neither arousing any fondness, nor any aversion!
This was my ultimate perfection of equanimity...
MN 12 Lomahamsanapariyaya The Hair-raising Presentation
Cariyapitaka III 15


More on Equanimity (Upekkhā):http://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/II/Serene_Equanimity_and_Beyond.htm
http://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/II/Imperturbable_Equanimity.htm
http://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/IV/Unshakable_Equanimity.htm
http://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/III/Equanimity_Upekkha.htm

http://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/III/Feeding_Equanimity.htm
http://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/III/Empty_Equanimity.htm




More of the 10 mental perfections (paramis):

http://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/IV/The_Ten_Perfections.htm
http://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/The_10_mental_perfections_(parami)_in_three_levels.htm
Even is Equanimity!
Have a nice & noble day!
signature.picBowing_Bhikkhu 
Friendship is the Greatest! Bhikkhu Samāhita _/\_ ]
http://What-Buddha-Said.net

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