By directly perceiving the nature of life, it's fragility, liability to suffering,
impermanence, and insubstantial nature; we cultivate a non-reactive mind and heart.
An equanimous mind and heart is a non-reactive mind and heart.
How much of the time do we react, in a knee jerk
fashion, to other people, our children, coworkers, spouses, friends, strangers, devoid of
equanimity, compassion, loving-kindness? A plethora of mental and emotional states
arise in our daily lives that are far from equanimity.
The Buddha spoke about five obscurations of mind
and heart, called the five hindrances, which he challenged us to closely observe, identify
and eradicate. They are:
1) Greed
2) Anger, hatred, ill will.
3) Restlessness, worry, and anxiety
4) Sloth and torpor
5) Skeptical doubt
All of these states compromise
equanimity. No two things can occupy the same space. Such is true with
equanimity and the five hindrances. Evenness of mind and these states cannot
co-exist simultaneously.
Let us explore how each of these states causes us to lose equanimity.
When we are tired, through lack of sleep,
overwork, or stress, and experience depletion of our physical and mental resources, sheer
exhaustion, it is easy to become irritable. Sustaining an eveness of mind, an open
heart, a clear wieldy malleable imperturbable mind is next to impossible at these times.
The first principle of philosophy is to state
the obvious. Common sense antidotes include get enough rest, pace yourself, let your
attention be where your body is. The Buddha emphasized this guideline and
practice. When activity of body speech and mind is filled with awareness, and a
continuity of consciousness is sustained with balanced effort, one's physical and mental
energy is buoyant, resilient. Experiment. Let your attention be where your
body is when engaged in any activity.
When the door of irritability has opened,
restlessness, worry and anxiety are not far behind. When we are rushed, in a hurry,
have too much to do with not enough time, find ourselves moving from one to one task to
another without completing either, we lose focus and become scattered in our attention and
in our efforts. At this time there is a lack of spaciousness in our minds and
hearts. Our minds speed along, jammed with conflicting needs, desires and tasks, all
of which require our undivided attention.
Do your best to finish each task, even while having numerous interruptions.
Break down tasks into bite size pieces and acknowledge completion of each
bite.
Acknowledge beginning, middle and end. This increases focus and one-pointed
attention.
Restlessness begets restlessness. If,
while in sitting meditation, one physically moves to get away from discomfort, (as opposed
to realigning posture due to the effects of gravity) then the restlessness ball is set in
motion. If one intervenes on the desire to move, the restlessness ball can be
stopped.
So it is with the mind. If one expends
energy chasing one's thoughts, the endless race that no one wins is in full force.
Worry and anxiety, in or out of meditation beget worry and anxiety.
One-pointed focus is the traditional antidote
for this play of monkey mind. Come back to the breath, on or off the cushion.
Take a few deep breaths and place total attention on the full cycle of the breath; notice
the beginning, middle and end, of each breath.
Repeat three to ten times, or however many times
it takes until you are once again, absolutely present, your attention located in your
body, your mind focused and clear. This curtails an obsessive, compulsive, fruit
loop, and fruitless train of thought. Step off the train headed for nowhere and
stand on the platform of the breath and awareness of breathing.
Off the cushion, when you are needing to apply
your thinking process to problem solving or decision making, allot yourself a set period
of time to contemplate the matter at hand, say ten or fifteen minutes. At the end of
the allotted time, draw a conclusion from your thoughts. Allow your thoughts to bear
fruit. For major decisions you may chose to repeat this process a few times during
the course of a week or a month, until the fruit is ripe and prime for plucking.
Continued
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