Question

I find it difficult to meditate on Equanimity. Could you please give some examples?

Answer

One way to reflect is to actually consider what Equanimity is. What does it really mean, what is it? Consider then examples in your life when you felt you were equanimous. Consider examples in your life when you were not equanimous. Consider examples in life where you see other people are equanimous, consider examples when you think that other people are not equanimous.

The other day, the first morning, the tape did not work. And one of the assistants came up to me and said the tape didn't work. I said, "Oh, too bad" and I was fairly equanimous at that time. Someone else when they found out the tape didn't work, "oh no!..." and a whole lot of words, all this excitement, "why didn't it work, why didn't it work...," no equanimity. That would be an example to consider in a simple situation. The tape didn't work, and how two people could react, one with equanimity, understanding basically the law of cause and effect. Something went wrong, it's a machine. Okay I've had enough Dukkha out of machines, it's just another machine. They go wrong.

Besides I've lived part of my life in Australia and they have Murphy's Law. If you don't know Murphy's Law, it simply states "If something may go wrong, it will." So in developing equanimity, it is important to consider examples in your life. When you were and when you were not equanimous. This is a wonderful way to just go through things, clearly looking at examples. The more you see these examples, the more you are going to appreciate the value of equanimity and the more you are going to add it into your life. There would be other ways of doing Equanimity but the box is pretty full...

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