Audio recorded at Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 48-minute public talk, Kyabje Rinpoche teaches equanimity meditation as a foundational practice for developing an impartial, compassionate mind. After brief meditations on compassion and loving-kindness, he presents three meditation techniques grounded in observation: all beings equally want happiness and fear suffering; all beings desperately want happiness but lack true, unchanging happiness (explained through detailed analysis of why ordinary pleasures like eating, drinking, or sitting inevitably become discomfort); and all beings wish to avoid suffering yet remain tormented by it. Each technique builds a logical foundation for extending impartial care toward all sentient beings. Pitched at practitioners new to equanimity practice and those seeking methodical instruction.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 1994-08-14 – 2A – Public Talk – KR.mp3
UUID: 8c0ce05d-614d-40e6-a2fe-7d7b1315e0fb
Teacher: Kyabje Rinpoche
Collection: Public Talks
Date: 1994-08-14
Recorded at: Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide
Words: ~2,982
We start with brief meditation trying to develop within our mind a kind thought towards others, altruistic motive to help others and this meditation would include meditation on compassion and so forth. In our own case we do not want sufferings and problems but we do want happiness, success, satisfaction but if we analyze others’ feelings and wishes we would find like myself others also equally do not want sufferings, They all equally do want happiness. Therefore, one needs to think may think that may all beings be free of sufferings and causes of suffering, and may all beings actually attain a state of freedom free of all sufferings and their causes. If one thinks in that way then that becomes a meditation on compassion. And now we do meditation on loving kindness where we think like myself who do want happiness all other beings equally do want happiness Because of such reasons I wish all beings to be with happiness and causes of happiness.
So yeah, This afternoon the topic of the teaching requested was equanimity generally speaking within wide range of Buddhist meditation on kind thought and altruism there as well is meditation on equanimity. So accordingly we shall briefly first look at what equanimity is and what it is all about. Equanimity is a topic when meditated upon. It is extremely effective for one’s improvement of mind in the spiritual path, also it is of many beneficial outcomes. Even presently speaking by doing meditation on equanimity one would experience immense peacefulness in one’s mind.
Generally speaking, equanimity when understood as not different from the meaning of neutral, or neutrality. It has so many so many references it means differently according to different contexts. For example there can be equanimity of feeling where it simply means neutral feeling neither pleasant nor unpleasant. As well there is equanimity of karmic activity or simple activity for equanimity where it also simply means a neutral action which is neither spiritual nor non spiritual. Here we don’t take equanimity as being understood in those ways.
In short, equanimity here means a state of mind which is in equanimity free of hatred and free of attachment. In a way it is a thought in one’s mind which is not close to someone or some groups of people and distant towards other groups of people. Instead it is all without prejudice equally kind and reaching to all other beings. Now regarding equanimity of thought, we can look at in this way say if you have three fingers then equanimity is like the middle finger which has not gone to either of the two sides or two extremes. What are the two extremes?
Well here it means either the mind would be attached or with attachment or with hatred. Now let’s look at firstly what happens in the case if one does not have equanimity in state one’s mind is with attachment. Well what happens is if one has attachment then out of that attachment there is definitely restlessness, lack of peace, lack of happiness and so forth. How that is so is because due to being attached one would engage in all sorts of sorts of actions which by nature would be to cater for someone one likes or some groups one is attached to and try to defeat and challenge the others one doesn’t like therefore it would be obvious one would engage in whole lot of arguments and fights and so forth caused by such attachment so that is one possibility possibility if if mind mind is is without without equanimity instead it is with attachment what would happen? In the same way, if one’s mind is gone towards hatred then again that would bring all sorts of problems with oneself.
The reason for that is due to hatred one would again engage into all sorts of activities which are bound to bring unhappiness to oneself. There’s no doubt about that how it is so is one out of hatred would fight with others, would argue with others, and even it may end up being so grave as murdering someone or killing someone so forth. Now this would then mean if we are to train on equanimity we, as a first step, identify that those are the two possibilities the mind could go wrongly. So by identifying that one then makes sure that one’s mind or state of thought does not go towards those two extremes. Through this way, if we are able to make our mind not go towards attachment and hatred, we can have a very clean and pure state of mind.
An example how pure it would be well, it would be like a pure water a pure water which is not the which is not made dirty either by filth or which is not made undrinkable due to toxic blend and so forth. Instead, the water, if it is pure, then it is pure water. And if it’s a pure water, we can use it either for drinking, cooking, or even for washing our clothes and so forth. It can be a usable water. Similarly, we can say if the mind is pure like that, it become a workable mind.
Therefore, one needs to apply meditational method to make the mind clean, free of attachment and hatred. Well then there would be the question how should one what methods are there and how should one apply them? Well, regarding that, one of the main methods is to meditate on equanimity in order to make the mind free of attachment and hatred. The meditation on equanimity can be done in two alternative ways. One is the meditation on equanimity by integrating conventional meditation.
The second is the meditation on equanimity by integrating the meditation on reality, on the ultimate truth into the meditation itself. So there are those two methods. With regards to the first method of meditation on equanimity where one integrates the conventional meditation itself that as well is of two types. One where one does meditation with reference to other beings apart from oneself, and that itself is of three different types, and within that there is a second which is by meditating on equanimity in relation to oneself outward towards others and that itself has three and altogether there are nine but we better not go into all that at this stage. So that’s where the latter part was.
It might just confuse. It would be good we first look at the first three types of equanimity meditation, where the meditation is done in reference from the perspective towards other beings out there. Now when one does the meditation with reference to or in relation to other beings then one starts by contemplating on the fact that either it is a human out there or it is an animal, a horse or a dog or whatever types of beings out there, it is the fact that they all equally want happiness and Or do not want suffering, sorry. And they want And they all equally do do want happiness. Now as there is this fact that all other beings out there, they do equally want happiness and they do equally do not want suffering.
From my side, if that’s the fact, then it is not appropriate from my side to discriminate and through such discrimination to feel attached and liking to some groups of beings and be distant and with hatred towards other groups of beings. It is not appropriate also one thinks in that way and to reassert that this is very true one applies the reason why it is not appropriate for me to be attached to some and hatred towards others is because of that very reason, that it is the very reason that they all equally do not want suffering, they all equally do want happiness, that it is due to that very reason. It is not appropriate. So that’s how one starts in the first place. Also this way of thinking it is not appropriate to be attached to some and hate towards others with relation to all beings out there.
That is one meditation amongst the three. Now then we look at the second meditation within that. In the second meditation one goes through the specifics of the previous one and the specific is that it is a fact with all beings out there that although they all equally do want happiness they are deprived or they are destitute of happiness. So from that perspective or from that reasoning of specific point that they equally do want happiness but are destitute of it, it is as well not appropriate from my side to be attached to some and be with hatred against others. Of course, so that’s what this second part of meditation is.
Now of course when here the mention is about others, all ordinary beings out there wanting happiness, but destitute of happiness when there’s this mention, of course, it might be asked, they do have happiness. They have the happiness of eating or enjoying their meal. They have the happiness of having a nice sunshine and so forth. But here happiness means the ultimate happiness, unchanging the happiness, a happiness which has more with emphasis no suffering at all, a happiness which is not bound to change into suffering. So happiness completely free of suffering is the meaning of happiness here, and from that point it is true that there is not any ordinary beings out there who has such happiness.
They are destitute of such happiness even though they do equally want such happiness. So that’s the clarification part on it. In the second meditation then one with that reasoning think it is not appropriate to be attached to some and distant towards others. Obvious that few people might think it is not true to say that ordinary beings do not have any happiness at all. It is possible that some people might think ordinary beings also do have happiness and they might think the ordinary beings do have happiness because when they are hungry, if they are given some food then there would be happiness, or if they are thirsty and if they are given some drinks then there will be happiness.
When they’re cold and shivering and without proper clothing if they’re given some clothing there would be happiness. So it is possible by thinking that way to think, oh it’s not true that they don’t have happiness. But those happiness are not actual happiness they are what in scriptures call the contaminated happiness, happiness produced by contaminated actions instead of virtue, or that’s what is described or that’s what is described we can perhaps say plainly that they are temporary happiness just just momentarily and presently in the experience of happiness, but bound to not last like that or later. How that is so is if it is true happiness, it should remain unchanging, which then would mean the more we eat the more happiness there should be and it should continuously be in that state. But that’s not how it is actually experienced.
The more we keep eating and eating then that happiness earlier being filled with the hunger removed would not be there and it is quite definite that that happiness will change into suffering. When we are hungry at the initial stage if we do have something to eat then there is happiness but if we keep eating then there would be stomach upset so there it is bound to be suffering later Likewise when we are thirsty first when we drink or when we are thirsty in the beginning when we drink or something well the thirst is quenched and there is some happiness experience but if we keep drinking that’s bound to make us sick and bring our pain, suffering and so forth. Likewise, if when we are cold, if we wear some warm clothing in the beginning there is happiness, but if we keep wearing the warm clothing too long then again it will be discomfort of being too hot so that again would not last as happiness it would change into suffering. Similarly, when we sit in the beginning, it feels comfortable but if we sit too long then our knees will ache and so forth we would feel like one to stand up and then while standing up in the beginning it might feel pretty good and comfortable but if we keep standing too long then it will turn into pain and suffering and we might again feel like going back and sitting down.
So in brief all these are examples how how a normal mundane happiness are not true happiness because they are they don’t last. And from that point of view, we can say they are very unreliable happiness. So it is like that up there. So it is like a scale bar where, say, in our case of example when we sit in the beginning there is bit of comfort and happiness but if we keep sitting too long it will turn into suffering so it would be like the scale bar going downward and then later if we stand up in the beginning there would be a bit of comfort but if we keep standing too long we’ll turn into discomfort, suffering and so forth. Again it’s like this scale bar coming back upward.
Of course with the case of having stood up from too long sitting down, there is some sort of happiness, but if we analyze it can be more a decrease of previous suffering and not a true happiness in its nature. So only the previous pain and suffering has eased a bit, but there wasn’t actual happiness. Also all these mundane happiness are called contaminated happiness because they are mixed up with sufferings and and they don’t remain lasting as happiness. On the other hand, we have true happiness or the ultimate happiness, unchanging happiness which is once one attains that no matter how long one remains with that, the experience of happiness would not fade. It should always be with oneself.
Therefore, as ordinary beings, all sentient beings do not have ultimate unchanging happiness. The happiness so called which they have are all bound to transform into unhappiness, suffering, pain, so forth, therefore they are all unreliable happiness. Due to such reasonings then one reaffirms one’s second meditation thinking that all beings, all ordinary beings equally do want happiness, but they are destitute of happiness. It is due to that reason not appropriate for me to be attached to some and be hatred against others. I should have an equal or even feeling of kindness and altruism towards all beings.
To to what’s called support this reason to to support this viewpoint, one can look at an example, say, if there are five beggars who are desperately needing a feed. If they come towards you then it is most inappropriate from your side to discriminate and not feed some and to feed others amongst the five. The very reasoning is because they all equally do not have anything to eat and they all equally do need something to eat. So that would be an example to support the case. The third meditation is where one thinks all ordinary beings out there do not want suffering but they are very much tormented by suffering.
Because of such fact it is not appropriate for me to discriminate and through that it is not appropriate for me to be attached to some groups or some beings and be hatred against others. Example say if in the hospital there are five patients all equally suffering from chronic cancer then from one side to discriminate and through that discrimination to be attentive to some patient and ignore others would be extremely inappropriate. The reason for that is because the all five patients equally are tormented by the same cancer, chronic cancer, and they all equally do want their pain to be alleviated So it is not appropriate. Therefore, all ordinary beings out there although equally not wanting suffering but are very much tormented by that it is now not appropriate for my side to discriminate and through that discrimination be with attachment to some and hatred against others. Instead I should have an equal benevolent care to all beings.
Through such meditation if one is able to bring an evenness of care to all beings then means one’s meditation on equanimity has become quite good. Therefore, those are the three types of meditations based on the perspective whether based on the perspective about others situations situations and through that way making the making the decisive awareness arise in one’s mind that it is not appropriate to be with attachment and hatred and have discrimination of distance and nearness to one and others. So in that primarily one focuses the meditation to bring equanimity from one side by looking at others’ equal situation. Now next is the three types of meditation done from one’s perspective and through that from one’s perspective how as well it would not be appropriate to have the discrimination of attachment and hatred, distance and nearness. Meditations on equanimity are extremely profound to our meditation in the sense it requires great depth of courage and perspective from the practitioner’s side and that way it is a profound type of meditation and that’s why one finds the finer details of such meditation as the meditation on equanimity are quite exclusively taught in the great vehicle, the Mahāyāna context of teachings by the Buddha.
People who want to do a brief meditation on equanimity, the previous three should be enough. And maybe perhaps that the previous three, just those three may be suitable for people who don’t have enough time.