This talk provided by Lezlie Laws completes a series of talks reviewing the four Divine Abidings: Lovingkindness, Compassion, Sympathetic Joy, and Equanimity. She describes how Equanimity brings balance to the expression of the other three qualities of consciousness.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 55:46 — 51.1MB)
During this talk, Lili reviews her research on the various ways that equanimity importantly factors into the process of Awakening.
Here are the notes prepared for this talk: Equanimity notes
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 51:08 — 46.8MB)
During this talk, Lezlie Laws reviews the seventh Awakening Factor, Equanimity, beginning with a very well-written essay by her describing the poise and dedication of a hawk living in New York City and raising chicks in the middle of the busy metropolis. She speaks of how viewing a video about this hawk stirred her emotionally and connects the theme of the story and her experience with the Awakening Factor of Equanimity. This is followed by her review of the traditional characteristics of the Equanimity Awakening Factor, which functions to bring balance to the other six factors and, therefore to the Awakening mind. Several participants in the meeting then talk about their understanding of how the story and Equanimity applies to her or his life experience.
The topic for the next talk will summarize the fulfillment in the development of the elements found within the Four Foundations of Mindfulness through an explanation of how the Noble Eightfold Path becomes realized as the Noble Tenfold Path.
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Equanimity is the quality of present-moment awareness and behavior that is highly valued in all spiritual endeavors. Theravada Buddhism has developed an extensive analysis of equanimity to support the process of Awakening conceptually, and this talk reviews those concepts, using the Visuddhimagga, translated as “The Path of Purification”, as a guide. Two primary areas of practice that will be reviewed are associated with the cultivation of lovingkindness, compassion and sympathetic joy, along with the function of equanimity as one of the Seven Awakening Factors.
Here are the notes prepared for this talk: Cultivating Equanimity
Next week’s talk will “Go back to the basics” with a guided training meditation focusing on mindfulness of breathing meditation, followed by a Dharma talk that will provide an insightful review of how mindfulness of breathing meditation beneficially affects the neural structures of the brain and the function of that practice for advancing the process of Awakening.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:02:41 — 57.4MB)
This is the second of a series of talks reviewing the Divine Abidings, with emphasis on understanding the characteristics of Equanimity as a balancing factor, to avoid what are called the Far Enemy and Near Enemy of the four factors. The talk also includes suggestions for cultivating the factors of Mindfulness, Investigation of Mind Conditioning Factors and Energy/Right Effort to support the functioning of Equanimity.
Here are the notes prepared for this talk: Balancing Lovingkindness Compassion and Sympathetic Joy
The topic for the next talk in the series will be a review of Lovingkindness, the primary focus in the cultivation of the Divine Abidings.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 57:57 — 53.1MB)