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Hi, this is Margaret Meloni, 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 will 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. Hi, everyone. Today I'm bringing you a sutta for you to contemplate throughout your week. And I think that you will see what it has to do with equanimity. And if you don't, then, like I said, it's something to think about during this week. But it is the loka vipati sutta, the failings of the world. And in it are discussed what we call the vicissitudes. So, and this is angata nakara, 8.6 monks. These eight worldly conditions spin after the world, and the world spins after these eight worldly conditions, which eight. So this is the gain and loss, status and disgrace, censure and praise, pleasure and pain. So you could almost see how we might think of these in pairs. Right? These are the eight worldly conditions that spin after the world, and the world spins after these eight worldly conditions for an uninstructed run of the mill person. Hi, me. That's me. There arise, gain, loss, status, disgrace, censure, praise, pleasure and pain. For a well instructed disciple of the Noble One, Goals for me and many of us, a well instructed disciple of the Noble One. There also arise gain, loss, status, disgrace, censure, praise, pleasure and pain. So what difference then, what distinction, what distinguishing factor is there between the well instructed disciple and me, the uninstructed run of the mill person? For us, Lord, the teachings have the Blessed One as their root, their guide, and their arbiter. It would be good if the Blessed One himself would explicate the meaning of this statement. In other words, you know, teach it to us, explain it to us, having heard it for the Blessed One, the monks will remember it. In that case, monks, listen and pay close attention. I will speak as you say, Lord. The monks responded, the Blessed One said, gain arises for an uninstructed run of the mill person. He does not reflect. Gain has arisen. For me, it is inconstant, stressful and subject to change. He does not discern it as it actually is. Loss arises and status arises. Disgrace arises, censure Praise, pleasure arises, pain arises. He doesn't reflect. Pain has arisen for me. It is inconstant, stressful and subject to change. He does not discern it as it actually is. So for all eight, basically, you know, some of us see this arising and don't recognize it as, you know, impermanent. Basically, right. We don't recognize it as impermanent. His mind remains consumed with the gain. His mind remains consumed with the loss, with the status or the disgrace or the censure or the praise, you know, or the pleasure. His mind or her mind, right. Remains consumed with the pain. He or she welcomes the arisen gain and rebels against the arisen loss, welcomes the arisen status and rebels against the arisen disgrace, welcomes the arisen praise and rebels against the arisen censure, welcomes the arisen pleasure and rebels against the arisen pain. As he is thus engaged in welcoming and rebelling, he is not released from birth, aging or death, from sorrows, lamentations, pains, distress or despairs. He is not released, I tell you, from suffering and stress. Now gain arises for a well instructed disciple of the noble ones. He reflects gain has arisen for me, but it is inconstant, stressful and subject to change. He discerns it as it actually is. So the same with loss or status or disgrace or censure. Praise, pleasure, pain, pain arises. He reflects pain has arisen for me. It is inconstant, stressful and subject to change. He discerns it as it actually is. His mind does not remain consumed with the gain or the loss or the status, the disgrace, the censure, the praise, the pleasure. His mind does not remain consumed with the pain. He does not welcome the gain or rebel against the loss. He doesn't welcome the status or rebel against the disgrace. The same with, you know, he doesn't welcome the praise or rebel against the censure. He. He does not welcome the pleasure or rebel against the pain. Thus abandoning, welcoming and rebelling. He is released from birth, aging and death, from sorrow, lamentation, pain, distresses and despairs. He is released from suffering and stress. This is the difference, this, the distinction, this the distinguishing factor between the well instructed disciple of the noble ones, an uninstructed run of the mill person. Again, yep, yep, I feel that. So gain and loss, status, disgrace, censure and praise, pleasure and pain. These conditions among human beings are inconstant, impermanent, subject to change. Knowing this, the wise person, mindful ponders these changing conditions. Desirable things don't charm the mind undesirable ones bring no resistance. His welcoming and rebelling are scattered, gone to their end, do not exist. Knowing the dustless, sorrowless state he discerns rightly has gone beyond coming to the future shore some reminders of, you know, things that we perceive as. Or bad, right? So these eight vicissitudes, which some we perceive as good, some we perceive as bad, the best way to perceive them at all is in constant, stressful and subject to change no matter what they are. And in that embedded, obviously, our recognition of impermanence. But I do believe that it would be equanimity also that would help me view something that arises, like, you know, pain or gain or praise or censure. And to be able to view that with the correct view of inconstant and, you know, resulting in stress. I think that it is equanimity that could help me. What do you think? 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 margaretmeloni.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.