FromwhatIread (3)

The book’s name: The Many Ways to Nirvana

Writer / Editor: His Holiness Dalai Lama / Renuka Singh

Publisher: First published in Great Britain in 2004 by Hodder and Stroughton Ltd; a division of Hodder Headline PLC

Content:

1.     The Four Seals in Buddhism

2.     Overcoming Negative Emotions

3.     Self-development through the Six Perfections

4.     Cultivating Equanimity

5.     The Four Noble Truths and the Eight Verses of Thought Transformation

(The followings are my short notes I took while I read the book; it might be useful for anyone who has no time to read the whole book or it might tempt you to read the book; anyway, the points I got here might not be the same if your read it by yourself…)

The Fourth Chapter: Cultivating Equanimity

4. Cultivating Equanimity. Talking about equanimity in the sense of alleviating attachment and hatred. Practicing equanimity is the same with cultivation of positive qualities like love and compassion: they can be based on reasoning and understanding from a particular religious basis. An individual practitioner can develop loving kindness and compassion by thinking that through such practices, he or she will achieve enlightenment because the Buddha taught this path. On the other hand, a person could develop such qualities thinking that the development of love and compassion would bring mental peace, physical well-being, or harmony and peace within his or her family. This kind of reasoning is not based on any religious tradition.

A biased mental attitude or partiality is a big hindrance and an obstruction to comprehending reality. For example, the reality is that things are dependent on multifarious causes and factors: things are interconnected, interdependent and interrelated. When we are unable to see this reality, then problems arise because we tend to pick out just one factor – whether it is the experience of happiness or that of problems and difficulties – and try to use it to explain a complex situation. We tend to highlight just one factor out of the many and focus exclusively on that particular cause or factor. Because of this, we are unable to solve many issues confronting us. In fact instead of solving difficulties, we sometimes create additional ones. To deal effectively with a particular problem, it is important to prepare ourselves mentally to understand the reality of a situation and to be able to see facts objectively. You can see why practicing equanimity is very important.

When we confront complex situations and try to solve the problems inherent in them, it is important to have a holistic attitude rather than a narrow mind. In Buddhist practice, when we talk about developing equanimity, we refer to two levels. 1^st – develop a state of mental equilibrium, reaching a point where you do not have any special attachment to one group and hatred towards another; 2^nd – do not make distinctions among other sentient beings; develop a powerful mind, wishing to benefit everyone without differentiation.

By understanding the four Buddhist seals you can reach different stages of equanimity. For example, in understanding the 1st teaching that all conditional phenomena are impermanent, you realize that all things are caused and that they are all transitory and impermanent. The second teaching, which says that all contaminated things are suffering means that just as my mind is contaminated and polluted and suffering is part of my nature, the same applies to all other people. Then I must ask how can I hate or get attached to other beings when we are all the same. When we talk of Nirvana as peace or liberation as the state of total peace, we realize that everyone possesses a Buddha nature and can easily develop equanimity.