equanimity – tscottmiller

words to live by | alice walker

3-jewels-walkerquote

Expect nothing. Live frugally
On surprise.
Become a stranger
To need of pity
Or, if compassion be freely
Given out
Take only enough
Stop short of urge to plead
Then purge away the need.

Wish for nothing larger
Than your own small heart
Or greater than a star;
Tame wild disappointment
With caress unmoved and cold
Make of it a parka
For your soul.

Discover the reason why
So tiny human midget
Exists at all
So scared unwise
But expect nothing. Live frugally
On surprise.
~Alice Walker
Anything We Love Can Be Saved

monthly sit-together [8/14]: the stickiness of attachment

Relaxing our grip. Cultivating steadiness in the face of challenge and change. A timeless and always relevant topic was proposed for this Sunday’s monthly contemplation and discussion: Non-Attachment!

3 Jewels Yoga Sangha will explore the sticky dimensions of attachment — including in our exploration the relationship of Non-Attachment to Equanimity (steadiness or evenness of mind); the subtle differences we might experience between Non-Attachment and Detachment; and, what the 4 Noble Truths remind us, that suffering arises from clinging or craving.

The Second Mindfulness Training | Non-Attachment to Views

Aware of the suffering created by attachment to views and wrong perceptions, we are determined to avoid being narrow-minded and bound to present views. We are committed to learning and practicing non-attachment from views and being open to other’s insights and experiences in order to benefit from the collective wisdom. Insight is revealed through the practice of compassionate listening, deep looking, and letting go of notions rather than through the accumulation of intellectual knowledge. We are aware that the knowledge we presently possess is not changeless, absolute truth. Truth is found in life, and we will observe life within and around us in every moment, ready to learn throughout our lives.

______________
RESOURCES:

On Equanimity

Lion’s Roar ~ www.lionsroar.com/sit-like-a-mountain-an-image-of-e…/
Insight Meditation Center ~ www.insightmeditationcenter.org/…/articl…/equanimity/
Buddha Net ~ www.buddhanet.net/ss06.htm

On The Four Noble Truths

Lion’s Roar ~ www.lionsroar.com/buddhism-by-the-numbers-the-four-…/

On The Four Parameters of Clinging + Co-Dependent Arising of Clinging/Craving

BuddhaSasana ~ www.budsas.org/ebud/ebdha284.htm
Access to Insight ~ www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn12/sn12.002.than.html
www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/kn/ud/ud.1.03.than.html
Vipassana ~ www.vipassana.com/resources/nutshell_paticcasamuppada.php
Thich Nhat Hanh Dharma Talks http://tnhaudio.org/2012/12/02/a-new-teaching-on-the-twelve-nidanas/

On Non-Attachment

Access to Insight ~ www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/harris/bl141.html

On The Mindfulness Trainings (Plum Village)

5 Mindfulness Trainings ~ http://plumvillage.org/mindfulness-practice/the-5-mindfulness-trainings/
14 Mindfulness Trainings ~ http://plumvillage.org/mindfu…/the-14-mindfulness-trainings/

HEAR HERE [for deep listening]: The Biology of the Spirit |Sherwin Nuland + On Being With Krista Tippett

SN: Well, you just got the word. I’ve been sitting here on the edge of my seat, hoping, ‘When am I going to get to say this word, wonder?’

Wonder is something I share with people of deep faith. They wonder at the universe that God has created, and I wonder at the universe that nature has created. But this is a sense of awe that motivates the faithful, motivates me. And when I say motivates, it provides an energy for seeking. Just as the faithful will always say, ‘We are seeking,’ I am seeking.

We’re seeking different things. I’m seeking an understanding of this integrity of everything, of this unity of everything, of the equilibrium of not just the homeostasis, as the physiologists say, the staying the sameness, but of the closeness that we are constantly coming to chaos. I have had chaos. I’ve had chaos to the point where I thought my mind was lost, which gives me a deeper appreciation of equanimity, not just to continued existence but to continued learning, continued productivity, this kind of thing.

KT: …I mean you really do suggest that the human spirit is something of an evolutionary accomplishment.

SN: I think there is an evolutionary accomplishment of the human cortex, the cortex of the brain, and the way it relates to the lower centers of the brain and the way it relates to the entire body, the way it accepts and synthesizes information, uses information from the environment, from the deepest recesses of the body, the way it recognizes dangers to its continued integrity. And I think that this is precisely what the human spirit is doing. The human spirit is maintaining an equilibrium, and it largely is related to its normal physical and chemical functioning…

Consciousness is only a kind of an awareness of our surroundings, an awareness of our emotions, an awareness of our responses. The human spirit is something much greater. The human spirit is an enrichment. It’s the way we use our consciousness to, I keep using this word, to synthesize something better than our mere consciousness, to make ourselves emotionally richer than we in fact are.

HEAR HERE [for deep listening]: The Biology of the Spirit