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Originally Posted by sentient
Ok Rain95,
So when you kick out the interpreter, what happens then?
Are you now exploring the ‘issness’ of things without the (dual) filter?
The redness of red and so on?
Yet staying in this equanimity, as Gem suggests, so as not to be swayed by the isnesses or suchnesses (inner or outer) one encounters?  |
I'm not sure if 'swayed' conveys the meaning I try to convey. The way I frame equanimity is in opposition to reactivity. IOW, the absence of reactivity is equanimity. It's not so popular because this narrative doesn't imply desirable experiences, bliss, energy, or other special spiritual experience, nor the absence thereof. It contains no promise as a reward for your work. The meditation industry, that desire for people to experience things which they do not currently experience, is desire based. Oh I want bliss, I want energy, etc. But what is the current state of such a mind? That question brings attention to 'the way it is' after it has been distracted by 'the way I want it to be'. I'm not the first person to point out that this nature of desire is also the nature of 'distraction'.
When we say 'distraction' it usually means that the mind has wandered off some object of meditation - that something 'else' draws the attention, but there is a difference between a wandering mind and a wild mind. A wandering mind isn't disrupted by agitation in the way an adverse mind or a craven mind is. The wandering mind is peaceful. The reactive mind is agitated. In meditation such as breath awareness, the attention is on the air then it wanders off for a wile until you notice it wandering, upon which attention returns as intended to to feeling of the air. That wandering doesn't disturb the depth of meditation. It is simply known, mind has wandered away, mind remembers to observe breath. What we usually find, however, is, people start to become distraught: 'I suck at this', 'the is hopeless', 'I might as well give up'... and feelings of frustration and impatience begin to disturb the meditator. That disturbance is the reactivity which disrupts the meditation - and hence it is that which is 'distraction'.
Therefore equanimity isn't a special experience of some kind, it neither necessitates special experiences nor precludes them. It is the 'nature of awareness'. In the 8 fold path, which deals with all that is 'right', there is 'right meditation', and right meditation is not what is observed, but the way in which it is observed. In the noble truths of Buddhism: There is suffering; there is a cuase of suffering; suffering can end; the is a way of ending suffering - the last truth pertains to a way, just like 'the Tao' means the way. The ending is a way of being without suffering, so it speaks of an absence, a cessation, rather than the attaining or presence of a special sort of experience that signifies nirvana.
Hence the meditation, rather than being the means to experiencing something wonderful, is the process of purification, which cleanses the mind/body life-form of 'blocks' through the cessation of the reactive efforts that hpld the blocks in place. That cessation of reactivity is called 'equanimity'. In theory it sounds simple, but in practice there are limitations such that a person can be still fairly easily during mild sensational experiences, but when the experience becomes quite extreme, like pain, or great pleasure, one finds themselves becoming overwhlemed by their aversions and desires, clingings, graspings and so forth.
The deliberate practice is a strongly determined and ardent endeavour to 'remain still' no matter what sort of experience arises, and this practice strengthens the stability of balance of mindful equanimity so that a person can experience greater extremes of experience without losing the plot. Such strengthening enables a person to withstand the rising of their deepest held emotional/mental contents into their full conscious awareness without the old reactivity which used to arise to distract them from these most violent of storms. As all things arise to consciousawareness only to dissolve away, the purification proceeds in this fashion.
In the bigger picture of kammic law, action and reaction are the volitions produce potential for experience. So any reactivity one has generates kamma, which is the psychic energy with drives re-birth. When one ceases to react to the lived experience which is arising from the potentials of past volitions, thos old potentials are continualling expiring, but without reactivity, no new potentials are being generated. This expiry of the old potentials whilst not generating new potentials sees the 'storehouse' of potentials burning up - just as a fire burns up the fuel it has. If you do not add new fuel to the fire, it soon expires altogether. This is another way of symbolising the purification process.
In this way, the absense of reactivity, or IOW, equanimity, is at the essense of the purification process. Experiences such as bliss and energy are merely consequences which shouldn't be given particular importance.
You see, it is 'the way' rather than 'the outcome' that matters, so 'right meditation' isn't trying to make energy happen. Right meditation is 'a way of observing' with the stillness of equanimity.
Then again, all this I say isn't true. It is only a conveyance of meaning, so I make no claim 'this is what Buddhism says' - because then I pretend to present an authority. Indeed this only advocates for free thinking, real discernment and depth of consideration.