77 Great Equanimity (1)

Alan Wallace Fall 2012 Retreat Podcast: Vipashyana, Four Applications of Mindfulness

Teaching pt1. Alan continues with the series on the 4 greats with great equanimity. There’s a similar liturgy beginning with 1) why couldn’t all sentient beings abide in great equanimity free from attachment to those who are close and aversion to those who are far? There are various levels of equanimity. In settling the mind, still awareness and a lack of preference for all arisings are crucial for the mind to settle in its natural state. If you respond with anything other than equanimity, you are not doing the practice. In vipasyana, subjective awareness itself is established as empty as are the appearances arising to the mind and their referents. In dzogchen, samsara and nirvana are not only equally empty but equally pure and equally expressions of rigpa.
Meditation. Great equanimity. Let your awareness illuminate the space of the body and the space of the mind. Your body is neither the space nor the sensations, either individually or collectively. Rest in the emptiness of your body. Your mind is neither the space nor the mental events, either individually or collectively. Rest in the emptiness of your mind. If your subjective mind is empty, so are all the sense objects out there. Rest in the emptiness of the environment. Release all grasping, and let your awareness come to rest in its ground state. Imagine pristine awareness as an orb of light at your heart chakra. Inquire 1) why couldn’t all sentient beings abide in great equanimity free from attachment to those who are close and aversion to those who are far? Arouse the aspiration 2) may we all abide in great equanimity. Arouse the intention 3) I shall do it. 4) May I receive blessings from all the enlightened ones to do so. With every in breath, blessings in the form of light come in from all directions. With every out breath, that light flows out in all directions.
Teaching pt2. Imperturbability, equanimity, and balance are signs that your practice is working.
Those in long-term shamatha retreat have a clear preference for a good environment. Equanimity is dharma practice, not just shamatha practice, and we should develop equanimity towards all appearances (mind, body, and environment). It’s about the quality of awareness we bring to reality, not the quality of the experience rising to meet us.

Meditation starts at: 11:55