Welcome to day 19 of Mindfulness with the Moon.
Today we will be talking about the fourth divine
abode,
The fourth Brahmavihara,
Which is equanimity,
Or in the Pali language,
Upeka.
So this is the last day that the moon is in her full moon phase.
So the flower is
shining bright and beautiful.
The purpose of this full moon phase is that we are in
all of our glory.
And so as we recognize the greatness of who we are,
I wonder if
there's space for you to feel what it's like to be in your fullest expression.
So maybe you want to take the Dharma talk and do something different today.
What supports you
during the talk and during the meditation to feel your fullest,
To be the biggest expression
of who you are today in this final phase of the full moon?
And with the full moon,
We're actually just going to be in these four days.
This is the fourth day of that moon.
And so the invitation that I have is for you to allow yourself to be the beautiful,
Fullest expression of yourself.
As we talk about equanimity,
Balance,
Peace.
So as we begin,
Maybe you'd like to ask yourself,
How do you find balance?
How do you find equanimity?
The concept here is not to focus on what's pleasant or unpleasant,
But what's neutral.
What's neutral about flowering and just fully trusting that this is exactly where we're
supposed to be in this fourth Brahmavihara of upekka,
Of equanimity.
So we're learning
in mindfulness with the moon to pay attention and to remember the space of freedom.
The space
of freedom.
In the Buddhist tradition,
We'll often hear making room in our experience for
the 10,
000 joys and the 10,
000 sorrows of life.
So we can learn to find some balance in the midst.
So equanimity,
Peace,
This human mind can create conflict and this human mind can also
create peace.
So seeking and being present for all of the moments allows for us to find peace
in the center of the storm,
To find the fullest flowering expression,
No matter what is going on
around us.
The Buddha put it this way.
There is no greater happiness than peace.
There are those
who discover that they can leave behind destructive reactions and become patient as the
earth,
Unmoving by fires of danger or fear,
Unshaken as a pillar,
Undisturbed as a clear
and quiet pool,
Embracing both the joy and the sorrow.
Our heart can remain tender and wise.
Equanimity is sometimes called the eyes of a sage where life can be seen through the wise one who
doesn't need to tell you how much they know.
And the sage is often seen as an innocent little baby
with new eyes,
With a fresh perspective where you can rest and you can see so that we can be relieved
of our mental suffering.
So how do we relieve our mental suffering?
Well,
Sitting in meditation,
No matter what is arising,
Even in a confused state,
Even when we're broken down in tears,
Even when we have bad quote-unquote posture,
Where we're slouching over.
Jack Kornfield says,
If you have no experience of sitting in this kind of difficult situation,
You are not yet
fully a meditation student.
Disagreeable or agreeable situations,
This is the way in which
you realize in a continuous practice,
The marrow of meditation and acquire its true gift and
strength.
So when we hear about equanimity and this idea of peace that surpasses all understanding,
And we know that there's beauty and really forgetting sometimes those moments during our
day out of habit is just to steamroll over what's happening in our lives.
And we miss it.
We miss
our lives because we're not actually sitting in our own seat of grounded equanimity.
So let's
bring this practice into our lives.
Who do you know in your life who moves around the world with
a peaceful heart?
Who comes to mind?
We can feel it in people,
This idea of peace,
Inner peace,
No matter what's happening.
And can we sit with a peaceful heart and learn from others,
Others who are already doing this?
What do they teach us?
What do they show us?
How can we learn
from them?
How can we take a beginner's mind and say,
Oh,
Look at how that person walks around,
Or that being walks around with a peaceful heart.
Observe,
Watch,
Listen.
And finding
peace in a time of anxiety where there is personally,
Professionally,
And global anxiety.
Amidst these 10,
000 joys and 10,
000 sorrows that are brought up from this mess that humans make,
From the sorrows that we create,
From the magnificence and the unbearable beauty of
life,
Is to practice the gift of these teachings,
To be with ourselves in the praise and the blame,
In the gain and the loss,
In the pleasure and the pain,
In the night and the day,
And the sun and
the moon.
Each of these moments weaves together our human incarnation.
It's what we have,
And it's
important to stay centered through it all,
To be in equanimity.
Suzuki Roshi put it this way.
He
said,
When you realize the fact that everything changes,
And you can find your composure in it,
There you find yourself in nirvana.
Let's practice.
You'll hear three bells to begin,
And three bells to close.
I'll mind the time.
Find your full expression,
Your full moon flowering
in all of your glory expression of this moment,
Of wherever you are.
I invite you to take some
deep breaths,
Offering a kindness to yourself with wherever you are,
And in the kindness
a sense of equanimity.
A sense of,
Yeah,
I'm right here,
No matter what's happening in my world,
No
matter what's happening in the world around me.
Can you find your composure in it?
In the composure
of whatever is happening,
You can find yourself in nirvana.
Breathing here.
Feeling this full moon
as bright as she is.
Noticing what it's like to be able to see her,
To know her,
And how,
As you see the moon,
You may as well also be getting to know yourself,
Be getting to know
this sacred universe that we were born into.
No matter what is happening around you in a time of
anxiety,
Can you find and cultivate peace within?
Peace is not an absence of change or difficulty.
It should not be confused with withdrawal or indifference to life.
Withdrawal is not true
inner peace.
Staying right here among all that life brings is how we cultivate peace.
Staying
with ourselves,
Staying with the moment,
Just as it is,
Is how we cultivate equanimity.
No matter what is arising,
Staying with yourself.
Finding equilibrium,
Finding neutrality,
Right here.
May we allow for our hearts to stay open.
For in this meditation,
Training,
We are training the heart,
Training the heart and mind to be together,
To work together,
To find balance,
To find peace.
Right here,
Right now,
No matter what arises.
May we breathe and hold ourselves no matter what.
As Dr.
Martin Luther King so eloquently spoke,
We can walk through the darkest night with the
radiant conviction that all things can work out together for the good.
We can walk through the
darkest night with the radiant conviction that all things can work together for the good.
Can
you meet the world with the eyes of a sage and the innocence of a child?
Can you practice as you sit
coming home to yourself?
Take a few more long,
Slow,
Present breaths with yourself.
Slowly,
Slowly,
Perhaps feeling the flower that is you alive,
Alive in yourself,
Alive in who you are,
Alive
in what you're bringing forward and being neutral,
Finding the equanimity in the flowering.
See you tomorrow.
