Equanimity

It appears to me that there is no single factor of mind that offers as much support to the rest of the mind as the factor of equanimity. Equanimity is defined as this quality of mind which makes the mind unflappable. It provides support for the mind, by providing a state that grounds and centers it. This is a quality that I have always, in my personal practice, found incredibly skillful and immediately beneficial. 

My experience has taught me that it is best to share my personal experiences with any practice or quality that I am interested in expounding on. This is much more useful to anyone reading and to my own mind, than to write out lofty scriptural injunctions that I don’t have any experience with. My mind has a constantly wavering quality. The simple reminder to center myself or to ground myself has led to an immediate grounding of this unskillful wavering quality. This appears to be why I resonate so much with the factor of equanimity. Unflappability is the direct antidote to wavering. 

Now, the Buddha is recorded as having praised equanimity as a quality that could give one an insight into the first person state of an Arhant, an enlightened being. Joseph Goldstein mentions how important equanimity is, in his discourses on the Satipattana Sutta (sometimes referred to as ‘the direct path to enlightenment’). He mentions that its importance is special in that it supports all the other skillful factors. In the context of the four immeasurables, this would mean that it supports the practices of maitri (loving-kindness or friendliness or warm affection), karuna (compassion) and mudita (sympathetic joy). However, I have not had personal experience of making all of the above happen in conjunction, although I have experienced each quality by itself. 

Equanimity is referred to as a ‘conditioned state’ by Christopher Titmuss, the Buddhist teacher. This is important to note. Anything that arises with conditions being put together to make it arise, is something that will go away when those conditions are no longer together. So, for example, I am able to experience equanimity when I focus on the concept, and I resolve to myself to be equanimous. This leads me to ask a question. 

If it is true that the true nature of the mind is happiness, and if as one progresses through one’s mindfulness practice, it is true that the overarching nature of the mind ends up being sequentially rapture, contentment, and equanimity, as we get closer and closer to enlightenment, then it must also follow that equanimity is at the very least allied with the true nature of the mind. Is this true? If it is true that when one leaves all alone, that one’s true nature arises, then it must follow that simply leaving all else alone is the way to make equanimity happen. In other words, this idea that a conditioned state is temporary is not something to worry about. Instead, it appears that one must approach it in a different manner. 

When one stops willfully practicing skillful states of mind, then the mind tends to go back to its steady state (which ends up being the combination of its most habitual currents). This means that since equanimity is a conditioned state, one must continue to put in the conditions for its survival in the mind. Since it is a skillful state, that provides the reason why it must be cultivated. In addition, it appears that if it is true that focused attention and practice lead to strengthening of factors in the mind, then it is also true that staying away from the unskillful habitual currents of mind will lead to them losing strength. This means that as one continues to practice skillful means such as equanimity, they will become integrated into the habitual fabric of one’s mind, and that’s precisely what regular practice is intended to lead to. 

Now, all of the above is intended to also imply that in order for the mind to reach its natural, skillful and spacious state, it requires real effort in order to unlearn unskillful patterns of mind. This is where the meeting point of the conditioned nature of equanimity and its being natural to the mind happens. It can be conditioned, and it can be natural to the mind. The conditioning is being done in order to drop deeply entrenched, habitual patterns of mind that aren’t natural to the mind, and which happen to be adventitious or added on.