- Why Does the Buddha Emphasize Contentment?
Does searching for contentment in Buddhism mean settling for less out of life? How do we balance contentment with an aspiration for personal growth? We will consider such questions, as well as relate contentment to equanimity in early…
- Learn Calm: an Elements Practice from Early Buddhism
An early Buddhist practice with the four elements leads us to equanimity and calm with the ups and downs of life. We'll look at that practice in this video with reference to a few early texts.
- Can Practicing Kindness Bring Us to Nirvana? One Professor's Controversial Claim
Several years ago the eminent scholar and professor Richard Gombrich put forward a controversial thesis: that the Buddha believed practicing kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity could lead us directly to enlightenment. We…
- Learning Kindness: The Problems of "Near and Far Enemies" in Buddhism
In the practice of kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity it is of great value to learn how to distinguish them from other emotions that are similar but opposed to them. We will discuss what are termed their "near enemies"…
- You Can Be Too Equanimous
Can you be too equanimous? This is a surprising conundrum from early Buddhism, noted by the scholar Anālayo in a recent encyclopedia entry. We will take a look at an answer to that question that seems to say that indeed we can have too…
- Equanimity Through Sense Restraint
One of the key ways the Buddha recommended we aim towards an equanimous outlook on life was through sense restraint, otherwise known as "guarding the sense doors". What was that practice? We will discuss it in this video.
- Equanimity Meditation: Last of the Brahmaviharas
In this video we will look at the meditation practice of equanimity in the Brahmavihāras or so-called abodes of the gods. We will begin with a look at what equanimity means in early Buddhism, and its importance. We will turn to a couple…