Insight Hour with Joseph Goldstein cover image

Insight Hour with Joseph Goldstein

Ep. 182 – Equanimity: "There in the Middleness"

Sep 30, 2023
The podcast discusses the concept of equanimity and its role in finding balance amidst chaos and navigating the ups and downs of life. It explores how gain and loss impact our emotions, emphasizes the need for acceptance of life's changes, and discusses the importance of equanimity in meditation practice and achieving Buddhahood.
56:32

Podcast summary created with Snipd AI

Quick takeaways

  • Equanimity is the foundation for boundless love, compassion, and empathetic joy in our lives.
  • Equanimity strengthens as we recognize the impermanence of all phenomena and let go of attachment and aversion.

Deep dives

Equanimity as the Balance in Life's Changes

Equanimity is a mental factor that plays a critical role in our happiness and spiritual awakening. It is defined as neutrality and evenness of mind. When equanimity is developed, it allows us to ride the waves of life's changes with balance and ease. Without it, we are tossed about and suffer. Equanimity helps us navigate the alternation of gain and loss, praise and blame, fame and disrepute, and pleasure and pain. It allows us to remain undisturbed by external conditions and maintain an open-minded, impartial, and balanced state. Equanimity is the foundation for the other Brahma-Viharas, enabling boundless love, compassion, and empathetic joy. It also leads to deep insight into the three characteristics of existence: impermanence, unsatisfactoriness, and selflessness. Overall, equanimity brings a sense of freedom, fearlessness, and deep peace to our lives.

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