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Hi, this is Margaret Maloney and welcome to the Death Dhamma Podcast. In a series I used to read, occasionally one character would say to the other, may you live in interesting times. It was understood that this was a curse, where interesting times meant chaos and difficulty. Well, we do live in interesting times. I mean, don't we always? So this season, together we'll explore equanimity and chaos, recognizing that many aspects of life are beyond our control. Let's find a sense of balance and peace amid external chaos. Okay, today we're starting off with a little bit of a gory story. You may have heard it before, the simile of the saw in the Majjhima Nikaya, Majjhima Nikaya 21. Monks, even if bandits were to carve you up savagely, limb by limb, with a two-handled saw, he among you who let his heart get angered, even at that, would not be doing my bidding. Even then you should train yourselves, our minds will be unaffected, and we will say no evil words. We will remain sympathetic, with a mind of goodwill, and with no inner hate. We will keep pervading these people with an awareness imbued with goodwill. And beginning with them, we will keep pervading the all-encompassing world with an awareness imbued with goodwill, abundant, expansive, immeasurable, free from hostility, free from ill will. That's how you train yourselves. Let's just stop there. And I'm going to freely admit that I am not at a place in my practice where if people were attacking me and cutting me apart, I don't know that I am able to look at them with goodwill. However, that's such a specific situation that if that were to happen, possibly I would remember this sutta, and the direction. But I don't know if I I would be able to follow the direction but you see the point right is that to get to that place where someone is doing this kind of harm to you fatal that you can still look at them and not have hate look at them with goodwill and not have hate now what allows you to do that obviously your loving-kindness practice your compassion I don't know if I want to be able to say sympathetic joy as in I'm gonna have sympathetic joy because they're I guess pleased at what they're doing to me but equanimity right I want to be able to have equanimity and so that's that seems like quite a tall order but it's good to understand the expectation and the examples right so again equanimity being that balanced state and we want to try to remain in that balanced state to prevent you know imbalance and clinging imbalance and clinging in this sense thoughts whether pleasant or unpleasant that pervade the mind and disturbs one's balance are not conducive to an equanimous state a fearing a recurring fear or nightmare might be an example of an unpleasant thought and desire to experience pleasure from sense objects might trigger clinging to pleasant thoughts that could disturb one's balance my desire for chocolate sometimes in the evening I have this desire for sweets after dinner and I might have a specific desire if I know there's a bag of a certain kind of dark chocolate in the kitchen I might have that specific craving and if I let it that craving is going to disturb my balance right if I can come from a place of I could have that chocolate I could not have that chocolate and my evening is going to be just the same just as complete then I'm know doing a better job practicing my equanimity right so I say that because sense objects sense objects trigger clinging to pleasant thoughts and that can disturb our balance right another more subtle aspect that disturbs the balanced state of equanimity is identifying with the five senses and the mind you know me mine or part of me right that's my chocolate it's my right to have that dark chocolate it's mine having chocolate is part of me part of my evening part of what I want to need but I don't right but I don't then moving forward into some passages from the pati Sutta of the Samyuta Nikaya the body shape all that we perceive and know by the six senses is not I it's not mine he who understands this breaks the appeal of sense object and quells passion for them he becomes at peace with all that is left behind to continue this let's look at parts of the parivata Sutta for the Samyuta Nikaya and the clinging to form feelings perceptions ideas and Consciousness what we call the the five clinging aggregates and when we you know cling to ideas perceptions feelings Consciousness that leads us to unbalanced right that's the root of the unbalanced state and that leaves to suffer it leads to suffering that's why we want to cultivate dispassion so we want to you know have dispassion for those aggregates not cling not be attached to them and that will help us with that equanimous mind sometimes in you know the Western world in Western psychology this idea of not feeling you know strongly about things can be associated negatively with maybe somebody who might be a psychopath or a sociopath saying that you know they don't have feelings or they're not capable of feelings and that's not what we're talking about in Buddhism we are talking about being unbothered unreactive and and keeping that balance and keeping that balance okay so I bring this together to you and all of this by the way comes from something I read by metaya brahmana and uh metayaana wrote a paper on equanimity that I found as I'm you know researching and thinking about equanimity for us in our times together and um the paper was on equanimity and with the thought of putting some of these teachers together teachings together and proposing a meditation for us and so I want to share that meditation because I think that this can be helpful to us in these times first may I accept all beings pleasant and unpleasant in an equal light may I accept all thoughts pleasant and unpleasant in an equal light may I allow all thoughts to rise and fall come and go without judgment or clinging to them may I accept all forms feelings perceptions ideas and consciousness as impermanent not mine and not part of me This first intention, accept all beings, that's the simile of the saw. We're accepting all beings, pleasant and unpleasant, in an equal light because it's most likely that if people are attacking me with a saw, I'm going to think of them as unpleasant beings. The second about our thoughts, when I accept all thoughts, pleasant and unpleasant, in an equal light, this is about the thoughts that arise in the mind so that we're not pushing away unpleasant thoughts, but also that we're not chasing after pleasant thoughts, you know, spending too much time daydreaming about things that have happened that were lovely or things that we think about that would be great, right? So this is important in making sure that we're not avoiding problem areas that need attention, right? Because sometimes unpleasant thoughts are helpful. They highlight what we need to work on in our lives to become equanimous. This could seem counterintuitive, but it's not because again, it's about balance. So it's not about only thinking about the pleasant, and it's not only about dwelling on the unpleasant. Again, it's about, you know, conduciveness to creating that healthy mind, right? So our reaction to clinging to unpleasant thoughts is what causes us to suffer, not the thought itself, right? So some people, I'll say, I maybe spend time daydreaming, thinking about, ooh, good, happy things, and maybe some of us dwell on the negative, and neither of those are equanimity. And that's why it's, you know, allow all thoughts to rise and fall, come and go without judgment or clinging to them. You know, you could specifically call to mind a particular pleasant, an unpleasant thought, and then a neutral thought that is neither pleasant nor unpleasant, and help with that to express the intention that you view both pleasant and unpleasant thoughts, in equal light, just as you view the neutral thought, right? So you could practice with pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral. The third, the third intention that we can use to contemplate, may I accept all forms, feelings, perceptions, ideas, and consciousness as impermanent, not mine, not part of me, is about clinging to thoughts, like when we get stuck on a thought or a series of thoughts about a subject. That might not be intentional, but it's about clinging to thoughts. So, you know, the first thing that we can do is to think of thoughts as passing clouds, right? Which is helpful, right? Because a cloud, you can't really cling or grab onto a cloud, it's just going to pass through the sky. Some clouds, you know, are going to rain on you. So that's what happens when we're saying like, I can't get this out of my mind. That means I'm hanging on, I'm hanging on and squeezing the rain out of that cloud, rather than letting it pass. So I need to try to let the thought pass as a cloud, allowing other thoughts to rise and fall. But again, as we indicated in the second intention about a pleasant, unpleasant, neutral, being stuck on a thought could be a signal on a particular, to look at a particular issue that needs to be addressed later when you're not meditating. So note the clinging and let it pass like the cloud that it is. And then pay attention to it, work on it later. And again, coming back to our final intention, remember the impermanence of all sense phenomena, not just those thoughts. The final intention is about the impermanence of sense phenomena and letting go of identity with feelings associated. So this difficult thought is not me or mine. This great happy thought is not me or mine. Needing to have chocolate is not me or mine. The chocolate is not me or mine. Letting go of identity with feelings associated with sense objects, my beliefs, my thoughts, my opinions, including mental objects, or even states of consciousness. Again, our contemplation for an equanimity meditation. May I accept all beings pleasant and unpleasant in an equal light. May I accept all thoughts, pleasant and unpleasant in an equal light. May I allow all thoughts to rise and fall, come and go, without judgment or clinging to them. May I accept all forms, feelings, perceptions, ideas, and consciousness as impermanent, not mine, and not part of me. You've been listening to the Death Dhamma Podcast with your host, Margaret Maloney. Thank you so much for being here. Come find me on margaretmaloney.com, m-a-r-g-a-r-e-t-m-e-l-o-n-i.com. And until we meet again, may you be well, may you be happy, may you be at ease, and may you be free from suffering. Bye for now.