Many yogis have a great tendency to reason and check out what they hear before they accept it. They take pride in their quality of discrimination. When they come to meditate, they are always testing in an intellectual way the validity of what they are doing, verifying the practice against their intellectual understanding. If they remain caught in this pattern, such yogis will always be plagued by doubt. Rotating endlessly on doubt’s merry-go-round, they will never move forward.
Having heard of a method of practice, or having practiced a method and found it basically effective, then one should surrender oneself totally to the instructions given. Only then can swift progress be made. Yogis are like soldiers fighting a battle. They are on the front lines, and have no time to squabble or question orders. Every order that comes from the top must be obeyed without question; only then can the battle be won. Of course, I am not suggesting you surrender totally, with blind faith.
Up to the time when the arising and passing of phenomena can be seen lucidly and sharply, any yogi’s practice will be variable and shaky, for faith and wisdom, energy and concentration are not yet in balance. If, however, the hurdles of imbalance are overcome and the yogi can simply watch the rapid arising and passing of phenomena, the imbalances between energy and concentration, faith and wisdom will be rectified. At this point, we say the yogi is endowed with the state of equanimity, which is the balancing of these four factors. It may seem that the noting or mindfulness is effortlessly carrying on by itself.
The mind that is balanced is like a carriage being pulled by two horses of equal strength and stamina. When both are running, driving the carriage is easy. The driver just lets the horses do the work. But if one horse is fast and the other is an old nag, the driver will have hard work. To avoid landing in the ditch, he or she will constantly have to make efforts to slow down the fast horse and speed up the nag. Similarly in meditation practice, at first there is no equilibrium among mental states, and the yogi is constantly careening from enthusiasm to doubt, from overexertion to laziness. As the practice continues, however, the enlightenment factor of equanimity arises, and then mindfulness seems to go along by itself. At this time we can experience a great comfort. To jump forward into a modern metaphor, we become drivers of a luxury automobile, going along an untrafficked freeway with the car on cruise control.
Faith Balanced with Intelligence, Energy Balanced with Concentration
The characteristic of equanimity is the balancing of corresponding mental states so that one does not overwhelm the other. It creates a balance between faith and intelligence, energy and concentration.
Neither Excess nor Lack
The function of equanimity as a factor of enlightenment is to fill in where there is a lack and to reduce where there is excess. Equanimity arrests the mind before it falls into extremes of excess or lack. When upekkhā is strong, there is total balance, no inclination at all toward excess in any direction. The yogi does not need to make an effort to be mindful.
A Good Driver Just Lets the Horses Pull
It seems as if mindfulness is taking care of everything, like the driver of the carriage who settles back and lets the horses do the work of pulling. This state of ease and balance is the manifestation of equanimity.
When I was a child, I heard people talking about how to carry two baskets on the ends of a bamboo pole. This is common in Burma. The pole is carried over one shoulder, with a loaded basket on the front end and another in back. When you first start off, you have to exert a lot of effort, and the load feels burdensome. But after ten or fifteen steps, the pole begins rocking up and down to the rhythm of your walking. You and the pole and the baskets move along in a relaxed way, so that you hardly feel the load. I could not believe this at first, but now that I have meditated, I know that it is quite possible.
Continuous Mindfulness Causes Equanimity
According to the Buddha the way to bring about equanimity is wise attention: to be continually mindful from moment to moment, without a break, based on the intention to develop equanimity. One moment of equanimity causes a succeeding moment of equanimity to arise. Once equanimity is activated, it will be the cause for equanimity to continue and to deepen. It can bring one to deep levels of practice beyond the insight into the arising and passing away of phenomena.
Equanimity does not arise easily in the minds of beginning yogis. Though these yogis may be diligent in trying to be mindful from moment to moment, equanimity comes and goes. The mind will be well balanced for a little while, and then it will go off again. Step by step equanimity is strengthened. The intervals when it is present grow more prolonged and frequent. Eventually, equanimity becomes strong enough to qualify as a factor of enlightenment.
Five More Ways to Develop Equanimity
There are five ways to arouse equanimity discussed in the commentaries.
1. Balanced Emotion toward All Living Things
The first and foremost is to have an equanimous attitude toward all living beings. These are your loved ones, including animals. We can have a lot of attachment and desire associated with people we love, and also with our pets. Sometimes we can be what we call “crazy” about someone. This experience does not contribute to equanimity, which is a state of balance.
To prepare the ground for equanimity to arise, one should try to cultivate an attitude of nonattachment and equanimity toward the people and animals we love. As worldly people, it may be necessary to have a certain amount of attachment in relationships, but excessive attachment is destructive to us as well as to loved ones. We begin to worry too much over their welfare. Especially in retreat, we should try to put aside such excessive concern and worry for the welfare of our friends.
One reflection that can develop nonattachment is to regard all beings as the heirs of their own kamma. People reap the rewards of good kamma and suffer the consequences of unwholesome acts. They created this kamma under their own volition, and no one can prevent their experiencing the consequences. On the ultimate level, there is nothing you or anybody else can do to save them. If you think in this way, you may worry less about your loved ones.
You also can gain equanimity about beings by reflecting on ultimate reality. Perhaps you can tell yourself that, ultimately speaking, there is only mind and matter. Where is that person you are so wildly in love with? There is only nama and rupa, mind and body, arising and passing away from moment to moment. Which moment are you in love with? You may be able to drive some sense into your heart this way.
One might worry that reflections like this could turn into unfeeling indifference and lead us to abandon a mate or a dear person. This is not the case. Equanimity is not insensitivity, indifference, or apathy. It is simply nonpreferential. Under its influence, one does not push aside the things one dislikes nor grasp at things one prefers. The mind rests in an attitude of balance and acceptance of things as they are. When equanimity, this factor of enlightenment, is present, one abandons both attachment to beings and dislike for them. The texts tell us that equanimity is the cause for the cleansing and purification of one who has deep tendencies toward lust or desire, which is the opposite of equanimity.
2. Balanced Emotion toward Inanimate Things
The second way of developing this factor of enlightenment is to adopt an attitude of balance toward inanimate things: property, clothing, the latest fad on the market. Clothing, for example, will be ripped and stained someday. It will decay and perish because it is impermanent, like everything else. Furthermore, we do not even own it, not in the ultimate sense. Everything is nonself; there is no one to own anything. To develop balance and to cut down attachment, it is helpful to look at material things as transient. You might say to yourself, “I’m going to make use of this for a short time. It’s not going to last forever.”
People who get caught up in fads may be compelled to buy each new product that appears on the market. Once this gadget has been bought, another more sophisticated model will soon appear. Such persons throw away the old one and buy a
new one. This behavior does not reflect equanimity.
3. Avoiding People Who “Go Crazy”
The third method for developing equanimity as an enlightenment factor is avoiding the company of people who tend to be crazy about people and things. These people have a deep possessiveness, clinging to what they think belongs to them, both people and things. Some people find it difficult to see another person enjoying or using their property.
There is the case of an elder who had a great attachment to pets. It seems that in his monastery he bred a lot of dogs and cats. One day this elder came to the center in Rangoon to do a retreat. When he was meditating, he was practicing under favorable circumstances, but his practice was not very deep. Finally I had an idea and asked him if he had any pets in his monastery. He brightened up and said, “Oh yes, I have so many dogs and cats. Ever since I came here I’ve been thinking about whether they have enough food to eat and how they’re doing.” I asked him to forget about the animals and concentrate on meditation, and quite soon he was making good progress.
Please do not allow overattachment to loved ones, or even pets, to prevent you from attending meditation retreats that will allow you to deepen your practice and to develop equanimity as a factor of enlightenment.
4. Choosing Friends Who Stay Cool
As a fourth method of arousing upekkhā, you should choose friends who have no great attachment to beings or possessions. This method of developing equanimity is simply the converse of the preceding one. In choosing such a friend, if you happen to pick the elder I described just now, it could be a bit of a problem.
5. Inclining the Mind toward Balance
The fifth and last cause for this factor of enlightenment to arise is constantly to incline your mind toward the cultivation of equanimity. When your mind is inclined in this way, it will not wander off to thoughts of your dogs and cats at home, or of your loved ones. It will only become more balanced and harmonious.
Equanimity is of tremendous importance both in practice and in everyday life. Generally we get either swept away by pleasant and enticing objects, or worked up into a great state of agitation when confronted by unpleasant, undesirable objects. This wild alternation of contraries is nearly universal among human beings. When we lack the ability to stay balanced and unfaltering, we are easily swept into extremes of craving or aversion.
The scriptures say that when the mind indulges in sensual objects, it becomes agitated. This is the usual state of affairs in the world, as we can observe. In their quest for happiness, people mistake excitement of the mind for real happiness. They never have the chance to experience the greater joy that comes with peace and tranquility.
THE FACTORS OF ENLIGHTENMENT DEVELOPED: HEALING INTO THE DEATHLESS
All of the factors of enlightenment bring extraordinary benefits. Once fully developed, they have the power to bring samsaric suffering to an end. So the scriptures tell us. This means that the perpetual, cyclical birth and death of beings who are composed of mental and physical phenomena can come to a complete stop.
The factors of enlightenment also have the capacity to pulverize Māra’s ten armies, the destructive inner forces that keep us bound on the wheel of suffering and rebirth. For this reason, buddhas and enlightened ones develop the factors of enlightenment and are thus able to transcend this realm of sensual pleasures as well as the realms of subtle form and all the formless realms.
You may ask where one goes after being liberated from these three types of realms. It cannot be said there is another birth of any kind, for with nibbāna comes cessation of birth and death. Birth brings inevitable life, aging, sickness, and eventual death—all the aspects of suffering. To be free from all suffering is to be free from birth. Nor will death be able to happen. Nibbāna is free from birth and also from death.
When fully developed, these factors of enlightenment bring the yogi to attain nibbāna. In this they are comparable to strong, effective medicine. They confer the strength of mind necessary to withstand the ups and downs of life. Moreover, they often cure physical and mental diseases.
There is no guarantee that if you meditate you will be able to cure every disease. However, it is possible that the development of enlightenment factors can bring healing to sicknesses, even those that appear incurable.
Purifying Our Mental Illnesses
Mental disease is the disease of greed, hatred, delusion, jealousy, miserliness, conceit, and so forth. When these forces arise, they make the mind unclear and clouded. This clouded mind will produce physical phenomena that reflect its clouded state. Instead of having a clear and bright complexion, when your mind is clouded by negativity, you will look dull, unhappy, and unhealthy, much as if you had been breathing polluted air.
However, if you are energetically trying to activate a penetrative mindfulness from moment to moment on the object of observation, very naturally the mind will stay on this object without scattering or dissipating. Samādhi, or concentration, is present at this time. After a due period, the mind will be cleansed of the hindrances or negative tendencies. Now wisdom will begin to unfold. When insights arise, the mind becomes even purer, as if it were breathing clean air again after returning from the hustle and bustle of a city.
Mindfulness, energy, and investigation lead to concentration and insights that arise in successive stages. Each new insight is like another breath of fresh air to the mind. The stage of insight into the arising and passing away of phenomena is the beginning of good, deep practice. The factor of equanimity begins to stabilize the mind, and mindfulness becomes deeper and deeper. The arising and passing away of objects will be perfectly clear, and there will be no doubt about the true nature of what can be directly experienced.
Sudden upsurges of energy may make the practice seem effortless at this point. Yogis may understand that there is no one present even to make an effort. Joy and rapture arise as the yogi perceives directly his or her own purity of mind, as well as the secret of reality unfolding from moment to moment. Tremendous joy is followed by tranquil peace and a mind that is free from doubts and worries. In this peaceful space it is possible to see more and more clearly. Concentration can also deepen when there is no disturbance.
At this deep level of practice, one can truly experience a balanced mind, a mind that is not swept away by pleasant sensations, even though extreme rapture and joy may be present. Nor do unpleasant objects agitate the mind. Yogis feel no dislike for pain nor attachment to pleasure.
Effects on the Body
The seven factors of enlightenment naturally affect the body as well as the mind, for these two are intricately connected. When the mind is really pure and suffused with the factors of enlightenment, this has a tremendous effect on the circulatory system. New blood being produced is extremely pure. It permeates the various organs and sense organs, clearing them. The body becomes luminous, and perceptions are heightened. Visual objects will be extremely brilliant and clear. Some yogis may perceive so much light emanating from their bodies that their entire rooms may be lit up at night. The mind, too, is filled with light. There is bright faith, as well as the verified faith of believing in your own unmediated experience of what is happening. The mind becomes light and agile, as does the body, which sometimes feels as if it is floating in the air. Often the body may become quite imperceptible, and yogis can sit for many hours without feeling any pain at all.
Miraculous Cures
Old diseases, incurable ailments, are affected by the strength of the enlightenment factors, especially at the deeper levels of practice. At the center in Rangoon, it is a common occurrence for so-called miraculous cures to occur. Entire books could be written just listing the cases. Here I will merely mention two outstanding ones.
A Case of Tuberculosis
Once there was a man who had been suffering from tuberculosis for many years. Having sought treatment from various doctors and traditional Burmese herbalists, and having spent time in the TB ward of Rangoon General Hospital, still he was not cured. Do
wnhearted and desperate, he felt certain that the only path open to him led toward death. As a last resort, he applied to meditate at the center but concealed his poor state of health lest he be refused admittance on the grounds that other yogis’ health would be endangered.
Within two weeks of practice, his chronic symptoms came to the surface with a vengeance, exacerbated by the painful sensations that normally come during a certain period of practicing the Dhamma. His pain was so excruciating, agonizing, and exhausting that he could not sleep at all but lay awake all night coughing.
One night I was in my cottage and I heard the terrible coughing sounds that came from his quarters. Taking some Burmese herbal cough medicine, I went to him expecting to help alleviate some recently contracted flu or cold. Instead, the man was sprawled in his room, so exhausted that he could not say a word to me. His spittoon was nearly filled with blood he had coughed up. I asked if he wanted medicine, and when at last he was able to speak, he confessed his medical condition. My first thought was to wonder whether I had breathed any of his germs.
The man went on, apologizing for having brought this infectious condition into the retreat center, but begging for permission to continue his practice. “If I leave there is only one path for me and that is the path of death,” he said. These words touched my heart. I quickly began to encourage and inspire him to continue the practice. After making quarantine arrangements to prevent his tuberculosis from spreading all over the center, I continued to instruct him.
Within a month the man had overcome his tuberculosis through his fantastic progress in meditation. He left the center completely cured. Three years later he reappeared as a robust and healthy monk. I asked him how he felt now. Had his TB or coughing fits recurred? “No,” said the man. “The TB has never returned. As for coughing, at times my throat itches, but if I am mindful of this sensation immediately, I don’t begin to cough. The Dhamma is fantastic, miraculous. Having drunk the medicine of Dhamma, I am completely cured.”
In This Very Life Page 17