15. Day 7, morning

15.1. Seventh enlightenment factor upekkha

This morning we’re going to have a look at the seventh enlightenment factor. It’s known as upekkha or equanimity. We’ve already had a look at the first three – mindfulness, investigation and energy – spinning and turning on each other, doing the work of Vipassana. Then the next three factors start to be developed in sequence – the rapture, tranquility and concentration. When these have been developed, the seventh factor starts to come into existence or becomes stronger, starts to dominate the mental landscape. These seven enlightenment factors, when they are developed and start to surround consciousness, they determine what consciousness knows, and in particular, how it knows stuff. So these are the workers, the assistances of consciousness, if you like, and they are actually the factors that cause consciousness to awaken. So it’s the enlightenment factors, the causative factors.

Ajahn Chah, one of the foremost meditation master of Thailand from the last century, says, «whatever arises in the mind, let it go, hold on to noth- ing». Everything has to be let go of. Slowly but surely, we’re reducing and releasing our bind on our mental and physical phenomena and let go of the body and feeling, and then we start to let go of our opinions and views. We start to shake free from our emotions. We recognize the repetitive thought 247 patterns and looping we get ourselves in. We start to see that stuff more and more. And as the practice develops, you start to see it more and more clearly. And through clear seeing the mind will step away from the identification process. Stuff still arises! Pleasantness and unpleasantness is still arising, but we have a much better ability to watch it and observe it, not being caught in the story of our own mind. We’re freeing the mind, we’re setting it free. We’re releasing the mind – just like a bird, when it’s released from a cage. We are releasing consciousness from mind and matter, from nama-rupa, from the conditional vortex it got itself into. We’re releasing the mind from craving to be and all these resultant defilements and imperfections of the mind that cause cloudiness and dukkha.

As our practice develops, the quality of our equanimity becomes more and more natural. Equanimity means calmness or composure. It means evenness, it’s an even mind. Equanimity, it comes from latin. ’equas’ that means equal, ’animous’ that means mind. Equal mind. It’s the equal mind. It doesn’t sway to the left or right. It doesn’t get pushed by liking nor disliking. Not being conditioned by pleasant feeling or unpleasant feeling. It sees through the feeling, it knows feeling. It understands it, so it’s not conditioned by it. And it doesn’t lead to reactions like disliking or identifying, aversion or anger. We start to drop that from our experience. Equanimity, when it’s developed, gives us an evenness of temper. We don’t get so easily triggered. We can be cool. That’s what it means, in the 1960s definition, if you like. Yes, being cool with things, that’s what it means. Presence of mind, level headedness, equilibrium, balance.

Like a strong tree in the forest, an old tree. It doesn’t get pushed around by the wind or the rain. The branches may shake a little bit but the trunk is strong. It will become solid in the sea of samsara, in the ebb and flow, through live’s conditions that we never previously even bothered to look at, which will start to become quite clear to us. We start to see how our mind is reacting to things and causing us dukkha. Not only do we see it happening, but we can also start to do something about it. We can start to free ourselves from the reaction mechanism. It is something that we all should have been taught when we were children. The educational system, our families should see that watching of emotional states, the thought patterns, would save a lot 248 of trouble for everyone if we understood, that we only have to observe our mind and stop it from reacting so violently with craving and aversion. And then the world would be a much more peaceful place. People would be much happier. They wouldn’t be so tense and be caught up in things.

It’s not that Vipassana does bring these states to us! Vipassana doesn’t activate the five hindrances for example. The five hindrances are always there! It has been our experience for much of our life, but we just haven’t turned and had a good look at them before. We haven’t used a technique, where we can observe the mind. Now we are just being aware of them. We are noting that they are there and we’re stepping back from life’s true conditions.

So this enlightenment factor of equanimity, when it is developed, can bring our life into a much more balanced experience. We are not high on the waves, we are not getting sunk down into the troughs. Cruising, on the freeway with the car in the fifth gear, we are cruising. Nothing is really bothering us too much.

Equanimity allows us to become even minded towards the four foundations on which we are establishing our mindfulness. The physical sensations, the feeling, the emotions and the thoughts, having seen them, having become aware of them, we practice with them. These are the objects of our practice. Our practice is to train the mind to become cool with things. We see things clearly, so we can let them go. This radically transforms our lives. We stop being a pure reactionary machine, that’s just following our instinct like an animal. When something arises, we react to it – it’s an immature way of existing. And then we start to develop our mind, we train our mind so that we can handle whatever comes along. There will be troubles in life. That’s without doubt. There will be big waves coming, smaller waves as well. But we need to learn how to ride those waves. We need to be able to swim. We need to be able to stand up. If we don’t, we’re going to get crushed. We’re being aware and not reacting to the mental and physical phenomena with liking and disliking, but with equanimity. When we’re not reacting with like and dislike, when the mind’s cool with it, whatever is arising, we’re cool, «yeah, that’s fine.» We let it go. Then another thing arises and we let it go. We don’t become boring by doing this. We slide into a very peaceful and blissful mode 249 of existence. It’s like a duck doesn’t get wet. The water just falls off its back. It can exist with swimming or with rain. It’s fine. No problem. It’s like we are insulating ourselves from trouble. And we can turn our mind and we can activate our awareness in the present and observe our mind state. As soon as we know that we’ve been triggered by something, as soon as we know we have a little bit of agitation, a little bit of craving or lusting, addiction tendency – as soon as we feel that little trigger, bang, we are on it: we’ve noted and know it, we have released the mind from it. It’s by not identifying with these processes that one does not react. If we take it «for me» and «mine», then things are happening to «me» and «my self». When we’re not appropriating that stuff, then it is just dependently arisen, conditioned phenomena. By not reacting one does not create suffering. It’s the reaction process, not being cool with things, that makes suffering so intolerable. This is the power of equanimity in the present moment. Very powerful, very liberating, releasing the mind from moment after moment from its own problems.

It’s important to emphasize that all our reactions are driven by the sense of self. Things that trigger us are not just triggering an impersonal mind and body process. It’s triggering a mind and body process that believe they are somebody, the mind and body process that has turned to dukkha. When we take things as being «mine», we ever believe that we own something or could own something. This is a type of craving, it’s a manifestation of craving. When we take things as «I», «this I am», «this is my opinion», «this is what represents me», there’s a believe that this is what represents me. Our opinions and views, we like to project them, we like to get them out there. Some people like to write them down and publish them. Their opinions and views are so important that everyone should listen to them. This is conceit. There is a belief that in some way «I am». And thirdly, we come to a view «this is my self». We believe that this is what represents me. We believe this is who we are. «This is who I am.» «This is truly what I am.»

So these are just views, and they are all based on reactions of liking to pleasant feeling and disliking to unpleasant feeling. If we really don’t see pleasant and unpleasant feeling arising in the present moment, then we are going to be its slave. Feeling has the power to push our mind, to condition our mind, to throw us off. We really need to be aware when pleasant feeling 250 is arising. Of course, unpleasant feeling, when it’s arising it becomes quite clear to us. «This is a negative, unfortunate situation. I should be mindful, note it, know it and let it go.» That is reasonably obvious to us.

What about when it’s a pleasant feeling, the phenomena is associated with pleasantness? It’s a little bit more difficult to note it, know it and let it go. There is a strong sense of entitlement to this pleasure. «This pleasure is mine», «I should be enjoying this», «this is what I have been working hard for». So we go into that kind of mode. We go into that mode of appropriation of pleasant feeling but it too needs to be let go of. We need to become equanimous towards it. Positive emotional states, like love for example, love comes up, it is only associated with pleasant feeling normally. We will have all experienced love with unpleasant feeling as well, when we often wonder why we’re doing it to ourselves. And there is going to be pleasantness and unpleasantness for sure. We need to watch the mind and make sure it doesn’t get conditioned by this pleasantness. The power, and love, can become very strong. The pleasant feeling will become very strong. We can become very attached very quickly.

What does attachment do to the mind? It takes ownership of things. It takes things as being «mine». Of course, that leads to tears. It’s attachment! It is the root cause of suffering. Of course, there is going to be dukkha if you are attaching to somebody. Of course, it’s really something up in the air. What’s going to happen to it? It’s going to fall. It’s the law of gravity. The law of attachment, if you’re attached to something, you get dukkha. It’s a quite simple, linear process: attachment equals dukkha. We don’t want to often believe that however.

So be aware how your mind gets conditioned by various things. We’re all used to reacting in the same way when we get presented with various situations. We get thrown off. We get turned up side down. All the objects causing us problems. We are not watching them. I was once meditating with a friend of mine, an Irish monk actually. We used to meet every morning before breakfast. That’s the only time when we would see each other for the day, living in the forest, quite separated from each other and he came down one morning and said, he had a breakthrough. (We used to just talk a little bit about dhamma.) «Really! What’s happened? (That’s kind of things 251 that excites monks.) What’s happened? Something happened in your meditation?» – «Yes, I have realized I am only attached to three things now.» – «Wow, venerable, that’s fantastic. Only three things. What are they?» – And he said: «People, places and things». (big laughter). Ok, that’s a great breakthrough. Well done!

Ensured, as long as we are reacting to things, as long as we’re pushed and pulled by our mind’s reaction to things, then there is a person who suffers. If we learn to observe directly and objectively, without identifying with things, then we reduce suffering. When we have a sense of self and react a lot, then we have a lot of suffering. When we have less sense of self and we only react a little, sometimes being triggered, but most of the time being cool with things, then we experience some suffering and no suffering. If we have really a little sense of self and we are pretty cool with our practice and we’re not reacting that much, then our experience is very little suffering. Only major things can come and really upset us. Little things are just whatever.

So you sense the size of your ego and how much you react to the phenomena presented determines how much dukkha you’re going to experience. Be aware of this! It’s up to you! You have a choice! In every moment! You have a choice if it’s going to be a moment of release or a moment of dukkha. So that’s fairly simple to understand but practice, mhh, practice is telling us we have to be patient. We have to know that it is difficult to break our old habits, old reaction patterns. It’s not going to happen over night. There can be big breakthroughs though, there can be huge letting-goes and breakthroughs, huge openings. We open up and release things which have long caused us problems and dramas. The power of insight can happen quite rapidly but mostly the path is a gradual training and a gradual practice and a gradual progress.

When we understand it’s difficult to stop our reactions to things, once we’ve been watching our mind for some time, we come to understand we are a conditioned being. And that helps us appreciate other beings as well. This helps us in becoming equanimous. When we see that other beings are conditioned and they’re reacting, they’re being triggered and they may not have undergone the training yet, the training of observing the mind being able to see things clearly. They may just be in the reactionary stage of life blind 252 sided by reality just reacting to their thoughts and their emotions, pleasantness and unpleasantness. They may be just pure reactors. And it gives us compassion. We feel empathy toward them and this is a positive mental state that can arise. The training not only benefits us but also benefits other people as well because our interactions and our relationships also become more balanced. We start to understand how others are trapped. We feel compassion for addicts, for example. People who are in a looping state of mind. Sometimes they even see the looping but are struggling to get out of that. We support that. We support people who are working on themselves.

We are all used to reacting in similar ways. Presented with the same situation, we’ll probably react the same way again and again. Habitual. We’ve either learned that from our parents or our society – some conditioning is learned behavior, some conditioning is old karmic stuff as well.

By remaining equanimous in the moment, we allow old karma to bear their fruit without new karma being produced. Just allow whatever is arising to bubble up to the surface. We’re cool with it, we note it, we know it, it’s gone. It’s gone. It’s gone. Whenever you feel yourself triggered or trapped by an emotion or a thought pattern, note it and know it. Step back from it. Allow vast layers of defilement to arise to the surface and pass away without reacting.

On this topic we can mention here the precepts. Following the five precepts, or we have been taking the eight precepts here in the morning. An extra three. Normally the eight precepts in Buddhist culture are reserved for the full moon days and the new moon days. – Yes, it’s ironic here on Koh Phangan, I know. The irony does not escape us – but once a fortnight, two times a month we keep the eight precepts. Normally we just do five precepts. Five precepts can, while it may seem a little bit moral or a little bit religious or sound like someone saying something to us from a mountain, we shall follow this and that – what the five precepts are actually doing is setting up the conditions for the old karma that’s going to arise. When we arrange the conditions in our life, when we maintain not killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying and use of intoxicants, when we can maintain these precepts, then what we’re doing is setting up the conditions for which old karma can come. Old karma can only manifest if there is conditions in place. If we put 253 good conditions in place then the karma that can come is going to be good stuff. If we don’t break the precepts, then what we are doing is effectively not opening any doors for unwholesome karma to come and manifest in the present. We’re blocking it with virtue. This is the beauty. This is the beautiful fragrance of virtue. We can manage which karmas start to attack us. Not completely, not fully but we can definitely organize our lives in a better way. We can limit the damage, if you like, and promote the wholesome in our lives. When we live a more virtuous life, you’ll understand that suffering is diminished by this practice. Virtue is a practice. Nobody is just perfectly virtuous and a wholesome person. We all have to practice these things. We receive some instructions from our families and society on what is suitable and unsuitable, but mostly it’s about practicing ourselves. Witness it for yourself when you keep the precepts. Make a note of it: «Ah, the day is good or the day is bad.» Does good karma give its fruit or does bad karma give its bitter fruit? See how these things are conditioning each other. Stuff can only arise when its conditions are in place. When this is, that comes to be. With the arising of this, that arises. It’s impossible for this to arise if the conditions are not there. When we break the precepts we put conditions in place for all kinds of stuff to come up. So be aware of that. Particularly if you’re planning to do some long meditation retreats. Purify your virtue before you do so.

The enlightenment factor of equanimity actually refers to a balancing of energy. We are balancing stuff. It’s a state of mind which in the center of our experience is inclining to neither one extreme nor to the other, not inclining to attachment or clinging or craving or liking and it’s not inclining towards aversion or anger or frustration or irritation or disliking. It’s cool with whatever is. In our meditation various states of mind are competing. You may have noticed that sometimes the wandering mind is taking control, sometimes it’s mindfulness, other times the energy is weak and we become lethargic, shoulders lower, back rounds. We get into that kind of ‘waiting for the bell’-look. Faith tries to overwhelm our intelligence or our intelligence thinks it’s much too clever for everything. It starts trying to look for holes in the Buddha’s teaching listening attentively to try to find some errors or mistakes in the Buddha’s teaching. I wish you good luck with this. I’ve been searching for that, it doesn’t exist. The teaching is very complete! Our 254 effort competes with concentration. Balance in these pairs of mental states is essential to maintain our direction and progress in our meditation practice.

We develop equanimity, this is not something that just comes. It’s a mental state which is to be developed and it gets stronger and stronger. It may start a little bit weak, not fully exercised or trained. Maybe we’ve had no need to exercise any restraint or control over our reactions before. Maybe nobody even told us that we should stop reacting in such a way. Equanimity is the ability to control our reactions. This is the heart of meditation practice. This is how we reduce our experience of suffering in our daily life. In our worldly life this is part of the practice that we use to really make big changes in our life, to transform our experience on a daily level. We can really use this noting and knowing to let go and free ourselves from emotional states, to not become frustrated or irritated when we’re having a conversation with somebody we don’t like or who’s opinion we don’t care for. We’ll be able to tolerate that person without becoming frustrated or bored with them. Ok, we can deal with various things.

Most of all, we can deal with ourselves. We’ll be able to deal with our own internal reactions. The world is fine as it is. Things are arising and passing away. Some things are pleasant, some things are unpleasant. It is as it is. It’s unfolding naturally according to its dhamma. Natural law. We can create big problems for ourselves if we’re not willing to follow this natural law. If you want to fight against gravity, then get ready to start lifting stuff. We’ll be spending our time lifting things up trying to break gravity. That’s what we try to do in our meditation practice. We don’t want to be breaking the laws that are naturally in place. We want to be flowing with them, understanding what they are, knowing that this path leads to the cessation of suffering and this reactionary path leads to dukkha, leads to all kinds of self-opinions and self-views. We can form quite ridiculous opinions about ourselves just by looping in a mind state. «Whatever a monk frequently thinks and ponders upon, that will become the inclination of his mind.» We start thinking about things, we’re reacting to things and we’re unaware that we’re reacting. What we’re actually doing is conditioning our mind over and over again to react in a certain way. And if that reaction process results in strong dukkha, then you should be prepared. If you’re unwilling to work with your reaction processes 255 than you just have to crop all the dukkha that comes your way from reacting. So our practice is to very much develop equanimity. This is useful in our seated meditation practice on a retreat such as this. The development of equanimity leads to even deeper states of mind, even deeper states of clarity and seeing, the more prominent letting go, lots more freedom. In our daily lives we can pull ourselves out of little troubles that we meet on a daily basis. Little frustrations. People push in in the 7Eleven queue or taxi drivers try to rip us off. 20 baht or 50 baht. Instead of exploding, we can become cool with those things. We start to understand. It’s better just to be cool with things. «But it’s the principle!» Principles and views cause even more dukkha when you’re holding on to your view or opinion about something. Yeah, they are great dukkha-makers, those ones! Turn on your opinion and views and see how much dukkha you can attract. We need to let go of this stuff. We need to let go of this. But because we’ve been reacting so much throughout our lives, it’s difficult to turn this boat around. But it’s possible. Gradually and surely, we start to free the mind from our opinions and views. So the characteristic of equanimity is balancing. It balances the corresponding mental states.

It’s function is to arrest the mind before it falls into an extreme of liking or disliking, craving or aversion. Equanimity is right there in the moment if we develop it. It’s there in its undeveloped state but if we can develop it, it becomes stronger. It starts to overwhelm the other states. It starts to balance the mental states. It starts to bring them together and then one can free oneself from the dukkha. It fills in where there is some lacking and if there is some excess it balances that out. It sees where problems are being made, where reactions are being created, what the real causes of the reactions are. It sees that all reactions are based on egoic reactions. It’s always the «me» that’s reacting. The mind and body process don’t react by themselves. They are pure nature. When there is no «me» then there is no reaction. It’s gone, no further production or generation of karma.

When upekkha is strong, there is total balance, no inclination of the mind to sway left or right to like or dislike. It’s very happy to sit right in the middle and be balanced. It seems as if mindfulness is taking care of everything. When these enlightenment factors, the seven enlightenment factors 256 come together as a team, they become very powerful. The simile in the text is given of a chariot or a carriage with three pairs of horses in front, so six horses. Two, two, two. The driver of the carriage is mindfulness, awareness to the present moment, attention to the present moment. On the right side, we have the energizing states. Energy, investigation and piti or rapture. These states energize the mind, excite the mind, fuel development. On the other side, we have the calming or tranquilizing states. The states of tranquility, concentration and equanimity. These horses on both sides have to balance each other out. And this is what we do in the mind. Energizing, noting and knowing, letting go, tranquilizing, calming things down, becoming equanimous – these things are working together. This is samatha and Vipassana. Samatha is calming states. Vipassana is knowing and seeing states. They work together as a team, elevate consciousness out of dukkha.

We bring equanimity about through wise attention. Attending carefully to the moment, seeing the causes and the motivations behind our actions and reactions, if we are continually mindful from moment to moment without a break based on the intention to be equanimous. This is how we do our practice.

Wake up one morning and say today is a day of equanimity and cruise through it. See if you can watch your mind. Count your reactions. See how many go on the aversion side. How many frustrated, irritated little triggers arise. See how many of them you react to and see if you can count any you don’t react to, in which equanimity has arisen. Try to manage your mind. Keep a score if you like. And on the craving side of things, notice the tendency of the mind to react to wanting, to craving, to desiring. These two functions of the mind, pushing and pulling. Do that for a day and have a look. Be supremely mindful and attentive to the moment and to your mind and watch what’s happening. You may be surprised. You’ll learn a lot. You’ll definitely be able to monitor your mind more successfully after you’ve done this exercise. You will have seen your nature. It may not be pretty. Don’t chastise yourself. Don’t be upset with yourself, if you notice that you are a supreme reactor. Taking everything in and getting upset or getting super excited about it. Be aware of what is happening. Be happy, with the fact, well, while there is reaction going on, at least you know it’s going on. At 257 least you’re one of the few people who can see reactions happening in yourself. And you’re on it walking the path now. You’re doing the work that has to be done and we’ve all got different types of work to do.

Equanimity doesn’t arise easily in the mind of beginning meditators. Especially on the retreat, all of you will have experienced zero equanimity perhaps on the first two days. Remember those reactions. Remember how we were resisting, dukkhering ourselves. There is nothing wrong with the mind’s reaction. Once we go through a few of those events, we start to see the nature of the mind reacting. We start to see dukkha. When we experience dukkha, we know dukkha and then we can let go. The mind will become balanced for a while, and then it goes off and reacts to something. Don’t become upset with this. It’s been doing this for a long time. It takes time to make changes. Give yourself the space, give yourself the time. You’re not going to become perfect over the weekend. It takes time, training and effort, practice. Once equanimity is activated, then you’ll see the difference, the quality difference it makes to your life. This enlightenment factor is really one which makes a huge difference. It really cools us out. It changes our life, if we can just put it into practice. Now we’re here learning it. The real practice comes when you’re going down the hill and we’ll talk about that this afternoon. Eventually, we practice equanimity on a daily basis like this. Eventually, it develops and becomes stronger to the point where we can call it an enlightenment factor. It’s become strong enough, that it qualifies that we can watch mental and physical phenomena arising and passing away.

We should try to be equanimous towards all living beings. To creatures, to animals, we shouldn’t react to people. We become cool with people. Just know that beings are conditioned. There are many different types, many different old karmas running, streaming along. Sometimes people can be awful. Not because they are an awful person, but maybe because they had an awful day. Maybe yesterday was just unbearable for them so they’ve woken up feeling a little unpleasant. Don’t react to them. And to the different places you visit. Things are different in different places. You may have noticed in your travels. That’s what makes traveling so interesting. Going to another country and seeing a whole group of people completely conditioned in the same way. They believe the same things. They do things in the same way 258 as each other. Observe the conditioning of people. We’re all conditioned beings. We can become equanimous, when we realize that. Not all people have undergone the same conditioning processes. In fact, there aren’t any two people who have undergone the same conditioning processes. We’ve all been conditioned in different ways. So make space for that fact in your mind before you become upset with somebody or before you’re quick to judge them, before you start reacting to them. Before you start reacting and judging a place and generalizing an entire community or an entire nationality of particular behavior or activity. Develop some equanimity towards places, and the things as well, animate objects. Become cool with stuff. Don’t become upset when things get broken or when things get damaged. This is their nature, things are impermanent. We can’t expect things to last for ever. If we’re expecting things to last forever, that means we aren’t seeing things as they really are. Nothing lasts for ever. Nothing lasts even for a second. It may repeatedly come into our mind however. Thoughts of things, addictions to things, cravings for things, or repulsion towards things. So these people, places and things, we need to develop equanimity on a wide and broad scale. Most in the little things that are happening and in our meditation practice. As our practice develops equanimity becomes stronger and stronger.

We should point out that equanimity is not insensitivity. It’s not indifference. It’s not apathy. It’s not the kind of mind that says, «oh well, that’s just your bad karma». We’re not developing indifference towards people. We’re still caring. We’re not just becoming still, and «oh, so that’s just your bad karma so you should deal with that, I’m not going to react to it». We’re not becoming that kind of person. That’s not equanimity, that’s indifference. That’s insensitivity. It’s a lack of empathy. No! Real equanimity is a decision not to react to things. It’s simply non-preferential. It doesn’t make choices of regarding some things better than others. We don’t push things aside that we dislike. When something we dislike arises in our experience, in our world, we acknowledge it. We accept that it’s arisen. We note that it’s there. We come to terms with it. We deal with it in our mind. We accept it, «oh, well look at that». Smile to yourself. Acknowledge that in the past you may have got angry or upset about this. But now, you don’t. See the development! See how the mind is changing and becoming trained. The mind rests then in an 259 attitude of balance and acceptance of the way things are. We see the way things are and we accept the way things are. When we accept, we become content and when we are content, happiness arises. This is the path to happiness. Becoming cool with everything. The hippies were right. Let’s become cool and all groovy. Fine.

When equanimity is a factor of enlightenment and it’s present strongly, we abandon both attachment to things and disliking of things and this is the path to the end of suffering. It doesn’t mean that we don’t enjoy life. Don’t misunderstand this. There still will be objects associated with pleasantness. They will arise, this is our karmic legacy. Enjoy them while they’re there. Taste the sweetness. Enjoy the coolness, whatever it may be. Enjoy the sensual touch. Enjoy! But don’t attach! Don’t use that object as a base for your personality, for your sense of self. Don’t react and hold and cling. ‘Pleasantness is arising’ is ‘pleasantness is arising’. There it is! Liking is occurring. There it is! And it stays for a while. This is its nature. And then it passes away – this is also its nature! We don’t get upset when pleasant things pass away, and we don’t get upset when unpleasant things arise. It’s all going on as it should be! It’s all nature unfolding naturally. It’s all dhamma. We can become cool with everything and we find ourselves living with a mind that’s being released from dukkha. You can do it! My teacher used to say, «you can do it in this very life!» He did it in this very life. It’s quite possible. We just need to train the mind.

Think of all the things we do to train ourselves. Think of all the years we’ve spent in school listening to, sometimes dubious subjects that have little to do with our live or have any interest to us. We spend time doing that! How many exams do you sit? How many semesters did you go to the lectures and listen, write all that information, remember and study it, pass the exam. As soon as the exam is finished – into the bin with a lot of it. «Oh, that stuff.» Completely useless. Won’t need to do any statistical analysis ever again. It’s gone. So, we spend ourselves training doing that kind of stuff. Why not spend some time actually training the mind to give yourself a truly better life.

Somehow we think having a job will make our life better. Of course, you have to earn a living in some way preferably with right livelihood. But 260 have a look at the effort in our lives to train ourselves and see the results. Was it truly important that kind of training? And have a look at the training that should be done, to make our lives not only tolerable, but blissful as well. There is a lot of bliss when we are in the present moment and the mind is equanimous.

So equanimity is of tremendous importance, both in the practice and in everyday life. We generally either get swept away by people, places and things, reacting, dukkhering ourselves – we get ourselves worked up into a state of agitation and distress, we allow our mind to get into a loop of craving and wanting trying to satisfy the unsatisfiable, running after cravings little wants. Be gentle when you notice this happening in your mind. Be careful when you notice this conditioning. This is a long-term project that we are undertaking, training the mind. The sooner and the more regularly we do the practice, the less dukkha you’ll have in your life. It’s about training.

15.2. Third jhana

As our meditation practice unfolds, we start to develop deeper and deeper states of concentration. Yesterday, we started to have a look at the jhanas. These states of meditation, part of samma-samadhi, the four jhanas. Yesterday we looked at the first and the second one seeing how these deep states of stability result from letting go. We let go of the sensual pleasure. We let go of unwholesome states like the hindrances. We let go of the past and the future. We let go of the external world. We stabilize our attention in the present moment internalized, watching physical and mental phenomena. We let go of the pleasant or the unpleasant physical phenomena. We let go of the unpleasant mind states. We let go of thinking! Until we get our mind into such a state where the momentum is constant, our awareness is well established, the body and mind are experiencing piti, rapture and happiness. We’ve entered into the second jhana, which is comfortable and concentrated and we start to see things as they really are. There is an internal assurance about our practice.

But as we keep developing, particularly with the enlightenment factor of equanimity, our meditation practice progresses even further than this.

«And furthermore, with the fading away of rapture, he remains equanimous, 261 mindful and alert still sensing pleasure with the body, he enters into and abides in the third jhana on account of which the noble ones announce, equanimous and mindful he has a pleasant abiding. He permeates and pervades, suffuses and fills this very body with the pleasure divested of rapture, so that there is nothing of his entire body unpervaded by the pleasure divested by rapture.»

So rapture at this stage, that fourth enlightenment factor that we’ve developed to get into the first and second jhanas start to be let go of in the third jhana. In fact, we need to let go of it. The electric buzz of piti, the excitement, the thrill, the pleasure of piti starts to be noted and known. We recognize its function to energize the mind and energize the practice. And we notice that what it does, is make things very interesting and enthusiastic. But we also notice, that this too, is a little bit shaky. It’s still not supremely stable. We take a look at the photo we’ve taken when we’ve been experiencing piti, it’s still a bit unfocused. The piti is still disturbing the image a little bit. And as we keep practicing, noting and letting it go, the fifth enlightenment factor of tranquility starts to become more and more powerful. It starts to overcome the piti. It starts to cool the piti down. Piti doesn’t completely disappear, but it gets overwhelmed by tranquility and the pleasure that arises from piti, the pleasantness, the vedana of piti gets replaced by the vedana of tranquility. It’s another type of pleasantness, another type of vedana but it’s more subtle. Instead of being an excited state of mind, instead of being on the dance floor, we’ve transitioned to a nice lounge and we start to relax. The mind goes into a comfortable, calm couch or sofa. The body becomes very comfortable. The pleasure that arises is deep and cool. The mind stabilizes and enters into the third jhana. There’s equanimity arising now. The mind has become equanimous. It’s not perfect though! That pleasure is still a little bit agitating. Even though it’s cool, even though it’s calm, there is still some pleasantness there.

The instruction of the Buddha is to fill and suffuse and pervade this body with the pleasure that arises independent of rapture. That is the pleasure that arises from tranquility. We suffuse, we fill this body with this tranquil pleasure. The body becomes still, super still, super calm. Completely balanced. You won’t want to move, even an eye lash, you’re so comfortable. 262 And this is an experience of the third jhana. The nobel ones, the sangha, those members of the community, who have managed to break through to the dhamma, even they say the third jhana is the most perfect. There’s a great deal of pleasure. A great deal of spiritual pleasure. A pleasure which goes far beyond the little bits of excitement we can create with the body or mind in sensuality. The sensual states don’t even compare.

The Buddha gives us a simile: «Just as in a blue, white or red lotus pond, there may be some blue, white or red lotuses which born and growing in the water, stay emerged in the water, flourish without standing out of the water so that they are permeated, pervaded, suffused and filled by the cool water, there being nothing from their tips down to their roots unpervaded by the cool waters.» Even so we take this pleasure and fill the body, permeate, pervade, suffuse and fill this very body with the pleasure divested of rapture. Nothing of this entire body remains unpervaded by the pleasure divested of rapture. So this cool and calm state – piti is left behind in the lower jhanas – another thing has been let go of and we move to a state of much bliss, much happiness, a lot of happiness, a lot of calmness, a lot of stillness and stability. Very pleasant states of mind.

15.3. Fourth jhana

But even this is not the end. Even this has to be let go of. You’ll be attached to it. It will make you cry when you have to let go but do it and go to the higher state!

«And furthermore, with the abandoning of pleasure and pain, with the earlier disappearance of joy and grief, he enters into and abides in the fourth jhana, which has a purity of mindfulness due to equanimity with neither pleasure nor pain. He sits permeating the body with the pure bright awareness so that there is nothing of his entire body unpervaded by the pure bright awareness just as if a man was sitting wrapped from head to foot with a white cloth so that there would be no part of his body to which the white cloth did not extend. Even so a monk sits permeating his body with the pure bright awareness. There is nothing of his entire body unpervaded by the pure bright awareness.»

So when we start to let go of not only the unpleasant physical phenomena, 263 unpleasant mental phenomena, we’re starting to let go of the pleasant physical phenomena, the piti, and we’ll start to let go of the pleasant mental phenomena, sukkha, happiness, the pleasure. We’re letting go of almost everything. We’re really letting go of things, attaching to nothing. And when this happens our mindfulness becomes perfected. We have samma-sati. This is the perfection of mindfulness due to equanimity. It’s the equanimity that gives it its perfection. It’s the perfect state for observing, for noting and knowing, it’s the perfect state for breaking through to the other side. The mind is still and calm. The other factors have been performing their duties. We become still. We become quiet. The mind becomes very, very radiant. Lightness and brightness accompany it. We can shine it throughout the body. In fact it starts shining out through the pores in your skin. There’s an experience of the fourth jhana. It’s the perfect state for awakening, for breaking through.

Now, this is how the development of the seven enlightenment factors comes to fulfill the noble eightfold path. All the factors of the noble eightfold path are developed through these enlightenment factors. In fact, the noble eightfold path manifests when the enlightenment factors are fully topped up, when they’ve all been trained and developed. When they’ve all been trained and developed we see very clearly dukkha, we see the cause of dukkha, we see the end of dukkha, and we see the path that just made this happen. The four noble truths are exposed to us and we awaken in the moment to how things really are.

15.4. Determined striving

When we’re doing the training – there is a wonderful text here: «Deter- mined striving» – it’s up to you how much you want to strive, how far you want to take this teaching. We’ll talk about this this afternoon. But it’s up to you do decide how far you want to take it. How far do you want to progress in this very brief birth experience, in this very brief life? How far on the path can you make it? This is all we have to do. This is all our evolution. All the rest is just fluff and non-sense. Just the stuff of «me» and «mine». Just stories about «me», about «mine». Identity development and personality growth. And then we die! And then we start it again! With a new body to 264 attach to and a new identity and a new nationality in a new physical location. And we start to develop that one again. We develop our identity until we have a full load of dukkha and then we die. And then we do it again! New circumstance, new body, new experience. Craving is still the same. We got into the habit of dividing things up temporarily, into a time sequence. We believe that there is a past and a future. We believe that there is this life, and that there is possibly past lives or future lives. Some of us believe that. Some of us are not quite there yet, haven’t understood how the conditional structure is operating. Don’t worry about that. Deal with this existence! Try to make as much progress as you can.

«And how is exertion fruitful, bikkhus? How is striving fruitful?» «Here bikkhus, a bikkhu is not overwhelmed with suffering and does not overwhelm oneself with suffering. And he does not give up the pleasure that is caused with dhamma, and yet he is not infatuated with that pleasure.» He does not give up the pleasure that is caused with dhamma, and yet he is not infatuated with that pleasure. We don’t have to give up all the pleasant things! We just don’t have to become infatuated with them. Infatuation leads to attachment. Attachment leads to dukkha. So enjoy the nice things that come into your life! And let them pass away. Don’t try and hold on to things. Empty your bag. You want to travel around with a 30 kilo backpack or a five kilo backpack? Which one is lighter? Which one is more comfortable? Which one will give you dukkha? The more stuff you got, both physically and mentally, the more stuff you’re holding on to, the more dukkha you’ve got. So open up your backpack and start to throw things out. Removing all those old attachments, the old things we’ve been clinging to. Old modes of being and old modes of existence. Maybe the use-date of these old modes of being is over. They don’t have to fulfill those functions anymore. You’re not a student at school, you’re not living at home with your parents, you don’t have to fulfill all those little things anymore. You can start to drop things. You can empty your load.

How do we strive? «He knows thus, when I strive with determination this particular source of suffering fades away in me because of that deter- mined striving.» This is activating our awareness in the present moment, noting, knowing and letting go. This is satipatthana. «And when I look on 265 with equanimity, this particular source of suffering fades away in me while I develop equanimity.» This is the enlightenment factor that we are developing of equanimity. So he strives with determination in regard to that particular source of suffering which fades away in him because of that determined striving through noting and knowing, and he develops equanimity in regard to that particular source of suffering which fades away in him while he is developing equanimity.

So the process of eliminating dukkha from our lives is a two-fold one: determined striving and looking on with equanimity. «Determined striving» is doing the practice, keeping your mind in the present, noting and knowing and letting go. That’s our determined striving and then we look on with whatever has arisen, whatever is there, we observe it with the mind through equanimity.

«When he strives with determination, such and such a source of suffering fades away in him because of the determined striving. Thus that suffering is exhausted. – Finished! – And when he looks on with equanimity such and such a source of suffering fades away in him while he develops equanimity. Thus the suffering is exhausted in him. This, monks is how exertion is fruitful and striving is fruitful.»

In this passage we can see that the two activities of noting and knowing and the activity of equanimity development are very useful in removing dukkha from our lives. Two ways! We note and know and we become cool with it. And then something else arises. We note and know, we become cool with it. Whenever a particular source of suffering arises, perform this dual activity. Perform this meditative practice in your mind and see the suffering fade away! See it disappear! The power of awareness and wisdom and equanimity is much stronger than the power of defilement. Defilement will be washed away if we can activate our awareness.

So this is the completion of our discussion of the enlightenment factor of equanimity. This afternoon we’ll have a look at some practices we can do in our daily lives when we leave this place. Things we can do to activate the dhamma in our life after the meditation retreat.