Lecture 09: " Compassion, Mutual Joy, and Equanimity"

This is only the English version. No translation is permitted inside this document.
The practice of Loving-Kindness, which we have discussed in detail in Lecture 08, is one
of the 1Four Sublime States, known as Brahmavihāra in Pāḷi language. In the Buddhist
understanding of the world and cosmos there are 31 worlds, where different kinds of living
beings live according to their kamma, actions intentionally committed in the past. The 31
worlds can be simplified into three – the worlds of suffering, the worlds of sensual pleasures,
and the worlds of meditative bliss. The worlds of meditative bliss, which comprise of twenty of
the thirty-one, are known as "Brahma Worlds", the worlds where Brahmās live. Brahmās differ
from deities because they do not seek and do not enjoy sensual pleasures. Their main interest
is meditative bliss.
Brahmās are masters in four skills – 2Loving-Kindness, Compassion, Mutual Joy, and
Equanimity. Because these skills are mastered by Brahmās, they are known as Brahmavihāra,
literally "Abiding of Brahmās". The term also elevates these meditation practices above the so-
called Dibbavihāra, literally "Abiding of Deities". We will discuss Abiding of Deities when we
talk about concentration on colors and elements, in the Lecture 17. Furthermore, the Sublime
States are developed toward all living beings without exception, hence they are also called
"Four Boundless States" (Appamaññā).
In Lecture 08, I have listed the eleven benefits of Loving-Kindness practice, referring to
the Karaṇīyamettā Sutta of Khuddaka Nikāya. In that discourse, the Buddha specifically speaks
about the practice of Loving-Kindness, Mettā. The great meditation guide Visuddhimagga
however suggests that developing Compassion, Mutual Joy, and Equanimity, will also bring
about those eleven benefits. I think this would be particularly obvious if each of the last three
practices is developed with the support of Loving-Kindness practice.
Let's look at the practice of Compassion, Mutual Joy, and Equanimity, one by one.
(A) Compassion, Karuṇā, is directed toward all beings who suffer. In this practice we
acknowledge the suffering of other beings, regardless of the reason why it happens to them.
Suffering people are those who have their limbs cut off, eyes pricked out, ears and/or nose cut
off, ugly, poor, blamed, neglected, helpless. We are also aware of the more common kinds of

1 Four Sublime States (Brahmavihārā)

2 A simple list next to me:
Four Sublime States
1. Loving-Kindness (Mettā)
2. Compassion (Karuṇā)
3. Mutual Joy (Muditā)
4. Equanimity (Upekkhā)
1
suffering, such as being sick, being unsuccessful in achieving a material or spiritual aim, being
unlucky, being sad or in depression. With this attitude we have covered a good number of
living beings, but not yet all. We can observe all living beings as worthy of compassion if we
acknowledge that all living beings are subject to birth, old age, and death. Furthermore, we
can realize that in the past, all living beings, at least in their previous lives, experienced
suffering – and that they may experience suffering in the future, if not in this life, then perhaps
in their next lives. Especially evil living beings, such as murderers, robbers, adulterers, and liars
are worthy of compassion, because they are bound to the consequences of their evil actions
and will have to experience them in this world in form of different kinds of punishment, and in
accordance with the law of kamma, because of which they will suffer accordingly in this life
and many lives in the future.
A number of intelligent people have asked the question, whether compassion is always
skillful. For example, you could ask: "Would it be appropriate to wish a frog – just now caught
by a snake – to free itself from the imminent death and thereby deprive the snake of its meal,
possibly condemning it to death by hunger?" In cases like this, we come to the striking
difference between the ethical attitudes of materialists-nihilists and those who believe in
kamma and rebirth. For a materialist-nihilist, who believes that we live only this life and after
death we are destroyed without having to experience consequences of our actions, it would
be obvious that the snake has caught its prey, so let it enjoy it. I would then ask the
philosophical question, whether it would be also alright for murderers to murder their victims
if they caught them, or for thieves to enjoy their booty if they stole it unrecognized.
According to the law of kamma, we learn that whatever it is that living beings do will
bring about consequences in this life and/or in their next lives. The snake which eats the frog
might fill its tummy for now, but in its future lives it may be born as a frog and suffer the same
death for many lives, as the current frog did. On the other hand, if the snake is left hungry,
then even if it dies it will not create the bad kamma, and thereby perhaps release itself from
the world of animals and potentially gain a birth in a more pleasurable, safer world. Therefore,
if we see a living being enjoying pleasure at the expense of another living being, we stay
compassionate toward both – first, toward the one who suffers, wishing and helping them to
avoid the suffering. Second, toward the living being who lost their prey. We help them to avoid
an evil deed and think how we could possibly recompense their loss.

2
 A story from one of the Buddha's previous lives is that he, 34as a king of the deer,
together with his flock of deer, was forced to live in a limited compound. He had to accede to
the human king's request that once in a time one of the flock will get ready for death, so the
human king can have fresh venison for his meal. One day it was the turn of a pregnant doe.
She came up to the Buddha-to-be, the king of the deer, and asked him to replace her turn with
somebody else's turn, because she was pregnant. The Buddha-to-be, out of his great
compassion toward all living beings, replaced the day of her death with his. Ironically, the king
of the deer was an exception to the rule; he was granted immunity to slaughter from the
human king himself. On that day, the king of the deer got ready on the slaughtering block and
waited for the king's servant to come and kill him. The human king himself came up. When the
king of the deer explained the matter to the human king, both the pregnant doe and the king
of the deer received immunity. The Buddha-to-be then asked: "But king, this way only me and
the pregnant deer have immunity. What about the other from the flock?" The king, therefore,
gave immunity to all of the flock. "Well, king, now all of the flock have immunity. What about
the other deer?" The king also gave immunity to all other deer. In this way, the Buddha-to-be
gradually requested and gained immunity for all animals, including birds and fish. The moral of
this story is that we can radiate limitless love for all living beings, including all victims and all
victimizers.
In the practice of compassion, our attitude is not pity. In fact, pity and haughtiness
should be skillfully recognized and avoided since the time we start the practice of compassion.
5
Compassion on one hand is the development of our kindliness and willingness to allay
suffering of all living beings – so that they enjoy the same peace and happiness as we do. On
the other hand, it also counteracts harmfulness, because we realize that suffering is caused
by greed, hatred, and ignorance, and we should thereby develop ourselves to purify our
minds from them. Thus, by the will to elevate other living beings to our level of happiness and
peace we avoid the mental states of pity and haughtiness; by the wisdom that living beings
suffer on account of others' mental defilements we dedicate ourselves to purification of our
minds.
The practice of compassion is therefore successful when it develops peace and
happiness of ours. Because of the intentions to elevate the peace and happiness of living

3 Jātaka Commentary for jātaka no. 12, Nigrodhamigajātaka

4 A slideshow depiction of the story will cover the screen. (1) A beautiful, golden deer together with a large flock of deer in a large
fenced compound close to a forest. (2) A pregnant doe talking to the king of the deer. (3) The king of the deer keeping his head on
the slaughtering block. (4) The king is talking to the king of the deer. Later a cloud will appear near the king, which will contain (a)
the king of the deer, the pregnant doe, then (b) several deer (five of the flock), then also (c) wild pigs and rabbits, and finally (d) a
bird and a fish
5 Pop up from bottom: Compassion develops our will to elevate other living beings to the same level of peace and happiness as we
have, and it also leads us to avoid greed, hatred, and ignorance.
3
beings, we do not suffer from sorrow. It has been scientifically shown that when we just
empathize with the other living being – thereby accommodating to their experience of
suffering – we happen to suffer just like they do. In the practice of Compassion, we do not
succumb to the suffering of others. Rather, we maintain whatever skillful and positive states of
mind that we already have and give a helping hand to those who need it.
Like in the practice of Loving-Kindness, in the practice of Compassion we engage in
compassionate speech and action along with the mental development in that direction. We
also do not expect that anybody will experience anything particular by the power of our
concentration on compassion while we meditate. We practice this meditation technique as a
support in our development of skillful attitudes and purification of our mind from mental
defilements.
The Buddhist scriptures suggest that there are 6132 kinds of meditation on Compassion.
There are seven kinds of specified compassion, namely for males, females, Enlightened
persons, not-yet-Enlightened persons, deities, humans, and beings in worlds of suffering.
The unspecified compassion is again practiced for all living beings, selecting the term living
beings, breathing things, creatures, moving things, or those endowed with body. We have
thus twelve kinds of compassion which we can radiate to the eleven choices of directions,
namely the four cardinal points, the secondary cardinal points, above, or below, or all
directions at once. Multiplying twelve by eleven we get 132. Like in the case of Loving-
Kindness, there are many more choices for the practice of compassion, because we can
expand it by region – for example our room, then building, village, township, country,
continent, planet, and the whole world. We can also choose specific beings as our objects:
certain kinds of animals, or even specific human beings that we personally know or don't
know.
The practice of Compassion starts from our position of happiness or peace, which we
developed either by 7relaxation, by remembering a time when we were happy, by
appreciating the peaceful conditions we enjoy now, or by reminding ourselves of the
excellent qualities of the Buddha, His Teachings, or our teacher. With a firm position of
happiness of peace, we take up five appreciated persons of the same gender as we are, who
are still alive, and who experience suffering. In the manner explained for Loving-Kindness

6 The mind-map graph on "132 Kinds of Compassion" will cover the screen, gradually zooming to the different lists as I say them,
finally showing the graph altogether at once.
7 A simple list will appear at the side of the screen –
Four Ways How to Bring Forth Happiness
1. Physically (by relaxation)
2. Mentally (remembering the time when you were happy)
3. Logically (reminding yourself of the present positive circumstances)
4. By Faith (rejoicing over the qualities of the Buddha, Dhamma, or your teacher)
4
practice, we dedicate the first ten minutes of each hour to ourselves reciting in our mind the
sentence "may I be in peace", and other ten minutes for each of the five selected persons,
with the sentence "may this person be liberated from suffering." We can replace "suffering"
by any synonyms of words describing displeasure. For example, "may this person be free from
worry", "may this person be free from sickness", "may this person be free from enemies",
"may this person be free from birth in worlds of suffering." The sentence that we choose to
recite in our mind during the meditation practice will serve only as an anchor to the object of
our meditation. In other words, we avoid attachment to the sentence. Then, as soon as we can
easily concentrate, we abandon reciting the sentence and directly concentrate on the object
without any verbalization.
We can imagine how the person is suffering from the miserable conditions they find
themselves in, but when we gain concentration and stabilize the mind, we can work with the
wisdom that the person is made of continuously changing body and mind, and that our
thoughts of compassion support the body and mind in their development toward positive
mental states. Working only with the body and mind of the suffering person may help the
meditator to avoid unnecessary distress possibly caused by imagining the suffering of the
object. We let the happiness or peace grow toward the other person as they naturally develop
thanks to our equanimity toward all mental states.
We gradually let our concentration develop into strong feelings of joy for one of the five
selected persons. When that happens, we remove that person from the five and divide up the
sixty minutes of meditation by four, keeping ten minutes for ourselves and around twelve
minutes for each of the remaining four. In this manner we gradually purify our attitude toward
all four. Then we can select five neutral, and finally five persons who are hostile or who we do
not appreciate. The suggestions for dealing with anger toward unappreciated persons are
explained in detail in the Lecture 08. When we have developed Compassion also for all the five
hostile and unappreciated persons, we can practice Compassion to all living beings without
any distinction, for example with the sentence "may all beings who suffer be liberated from
suffering." To encompass the entirety of all living beings, we may use the sentence "may all
beings who are suffering in the Cycle of Rebirth be liberated from all suffering." This
sentence of course implies that we wish them to attain the highest Enlightenment.
Concentration on the mental state of Compassion may gradually get deeper and
stronger, eventually culminating in very strong concentration, known as absorption (jhāna).
The first level of absorption which consists of so-called 8"applied thought", "sustained
8 A simple list of "Factors of Meditative Absorption (jhānaṅgāni)" will appear next to me. The heading of the list will change from
"First Level" to "Second Level", and at that time also the last two factors disappear. Then the heading will change into "Third Level"
and the third factor also disappears.
Factors of Meditative Absorption (jhānaṅgāni)
5
thought", "joy", "ease", and "one-pointedness" can be further developed to a second level by
abandoning "applied thought" and "sustained thought", and then third level by abandoning
also "joy". Compassion is dependent on the mental state of ease; hence this meditation
practice allows maximum third level of absorption. We will talk more about absorptions in the
Lecture 18.
While the practice of Compassion trains the will to elevate living beings toward
happiness and peace, the practice of (B) Altruistic Joy (Muditā) cultivates the appreciation of
happiness and peace which others already have. In this case we are aware of the living beings
who enjoy beauty, pleasure, who are lucky, famous, have a lot of friends, or after death are
destined to birth in worlds of pleasure. We can broaden the spectrum of our objects for this
meditation by realizing that even though some living beings suffer now, they might have
enjoyed a lot of success in the past, or might possibly enjoy it in the future. We appreciate
their situation and wish them increase in it, in the direction of their preference.

B) Altruistic Joy
The practice of Altruistic Joy is a remedy against jealousy and envy. 9Jealousy is the
painful desire of somebody else's advantages, whereas envy is the disapproval of another's
success. As you can see, both of these have the same goal – to rid another person of their
success. Altruistic Joy is countering these attitudes by development of the approval of others'
positive situation and willingness to support them in its increase.
You could then ask: "Well, then, isn't competition against altruistic joy?" Competition is
the situation when one tries to be better than the other. It is possible to compete with a
jealous mind, but also with an altruistic mind. In the first case, because of jealousy or envy, the
competitors will fail to follow fairness, break the rules by cheating and deceiving one another,
and possibly plot an evil deed against the other one if they suffered a defeat. In the case of
competing with an altruistic mind the rivals still aim at their own victory, but at the same time
respect each other's qualities and by the act of competition encourage the other's progress,
point out another's deficiencies and possibly reveal their secrets to the opponent, so as to stay
really fair. In such a case the competitors can stay fair and loyal to the rules of the
competition. In some cases, when one of the competitors is apparently winning, he or she
-> Applied Thought
-> Sustained Thought
-> Joy
-> Ease
-> One-Pointedness
9 This sentence will pop up from below, with "Jealousy" in bold and "envy" also in bold: Jealousy is the painful desire of somebody
else's advantages, whereas envy is the disapproval of another's success.
6
might possibly give the rival a helping hand to increase the rival's odds. A lot of movies have
been filmed to portray competing with altruistic joy in contrast to competing with jealousy and
envy, certainly including the series of Karl May's "Winnetou & Old Shatterhand", or the
Chinese movie "The 36th Chamber of Shaolin". Apart from decreasing jealousy and envy, the
practice of Altruistic Joy also supports decrease of greed and conceit, because the meditator
understands that all living beings can enjoy whatever the wealth of happiness and pleasure
there is in the world. The meditator therefore engages in mental, verbal, and bodily action
for the benefit of other living beings who already enjoy happiness and peace, supporting
them generously and humbly in the positive situation and its further betterment.
The practice of altruistic joy builds on the practice of loving-kindness, which develops
the will that all living beings are happy and in peace. Altruistic joy also builds on compassion,
which develops the will that all who don't enjoy happiness and peace yet are worth enjoying
them. Therefore, the practice of altruistic joy will progress most smoothly when loving-
kindness and compassion are mastered. Mutual joy is also the "middle path" between the two
extremes of "indifference" and "merriment", which should be avoided. Indifference makes
genuine appreciation of another's success impossible, and merriment may become an obstacle
on the path toward even further progress.
The Buddhist scriptures suggest that there are 132 kinds of practice on Altruistic Joy.
10
There are seven kinds of specified altruistic joy, namely for males, females, Enlightened
persons, not-yet-Enlightened persons, deities, humans, and beings in worlds of suffering.
The unspecified altruistic joy is again practiced for all living beings, selecting the term living
beings, breathing things, creatures, moving things, or those endowed with body. We have
thus twelve kinds of altruistic joy, which we can radiate to the eleven choices of directions,
namely the four cardinal points, the secondary cardinal points, above, or below, or all
directions at once. Multiplying twelve by eleven we get 132. Like in the case of Loving-
Kindness, there are many more choices for the practice of altruistic joy, because we can
expand it by region – for example our room, then building, village, township, country,
continent, planet, and the whole world. We can also choose specific beings as our objects:
certain kinds of animals, or even specific human beings that we personally know or don't
know.
The practice of altruistic joy starts again with ourselves as we enjoy happiness or peace,
either by 11relaxation, by remembering a time when we were happy, by appreciating the
10 The mind-map graph on "132 Kinds of Altruistic Joy" will cover the screen, gradually zooming to the different lists as I say them,
finally showing the graph altogether at once.
11 A simple list will appear at the side of the screen –
Four Ways How to Bring Forth Happiness
1. Physically (by relaxation)
7
peaceful conditions we enjoy now, or by reminding ourselves of the excellent qualities of
the Buddha, His Teachings, or our teacher. With a firm position of happiness and peace, we
take up five appreciated persons of the same gender as we are, who are still alive, and who
are obviously wealthy and prosperous, happy and satisfied. If we cannot find five such people,
we can think of their success in the past or potential success in their future. In the manner
explained for Loving-Kindness practice, we dedicate the first ten minutes of each hour to
ourselves with the sentence "may I be in peace" and other ten minutes for each of the five
selected persons, with the sentence "may this person be able to retain their wealth,
prosperity, and happiness, and enjoy their steady increase." In the way we did during the
practice of Compassion, the sentence that we choose to recite in our mind during the
meditation practice will serve only as an anchor to the object of our meditation. In other
words, we avoid attachment to the sentence. Then, as soon as we can easily concentrate we
will abandon reciting the sentence and directly concentrate on the object without any
verbalization.
In the beginning we may imagine how the person is enjoying their wealth, friends, fame,
health, or happiness, but when we gain concentration and stabilize the mind, we can work
with the wisdom that the person is made of continuously changing body and mind, and that
our thoughts of altruistic joy support the body and mind in their development toward positive
mental states. Working only with the body and mind of the successful person may help the
meditator to avoid potential sensual desires and slipping into jealousy or envy. We again let
the happiness or peace arise as they naturally develop thanks to our equanimity toward all
mental states.
We gradually let our concentration develop into strong feelings of joy for one of the five
selected persons. When that happens, we remove that person from the five and divide up the
sixty minutes of meditation by four, keeping ten minutes for ourselves and around twelve
minutes for each of the remaining four. In this manner we gradually purify our attitude toward
all four. Then we can select five neutral, and finally five persons who are hostile or who we do
not appreciate. The suggestions for dealing with anger toward unappreciated persons are
explained in detail in the Lecture 08. We can further remind ourselves of the possible
consequences by reflecting in four ways – 12firstly, jealousy and envy may lead to loss of
2. Mentally (remembering the time when you were happy)
3. Logically (reminding yourself of the present positive circumstances)
4. By Faith (rejoicing over the qualities of the Buddha, Dhamma, or your teacher)
12 A simple list, possibly covering whole screen:
Four Ways of Reflecting on Jealousy, Envy, and Altruistic Joy
1. Jealousy and envy may lead to loss of friends, fame, trust, and support from those around us.
2. According to the law of kamma, jealousy and envy have the consequence of birth in worlds of suffering.
3. By development of mutual joy we may gain friends, fame, trust, and support from those around us.
4. After death, if we are not fully Enlightened yet, we may be born in a world of pleasure.
8
friends, fame, trust, and support from those around us; secondly, according to the law of
kamma, jealousy and envy have the consequence of birth in worlds of suffering, and thirdly,
by development of mutual joy we may gain friends, fame, trust, and support from those
around us, and fourthly, after death, if we are not fully Enlightened yet, we may be born in a
world of pleasure.
When we have developed Altruistic Joy also for all the five hostile and unappreciated
persons, we can practice Altruistic Joy to all living beings without any distinction, for example
with the sentence "may all living beings be able to retain their wealth, prosperity, and
happiness, and enjoy their steady increase." To encompass the entirety of all living beings, we
may use the sentence "may all beings who ever enjoyed wealth, prosperity, or happiness in
the Cycle of Rebirth enjoy its steady increase, and soon purify their minds from all mental
defilements." In this case we wish all living beings, not only the impermanent pleasures of life,
but also the 13Ultimate Pleasure, paramaṃ sukhaṃ, which is Enlightenment attained by the
highest level of mental purification.
Concentration on the mental state of Altruistic Joy may gradually get deeper and
stronger, eventually culminating in very strong concentration, known as absorption (jhāna).
The first level of absorption which consists of so-called 14"applied thought", "sustained
thought", "joy", "ease", and "one-pointedness" can be further developed to a second level by
abandoning "applied thought" and "sustained thought", and finally third level by abandoning
also "joy". Altruistic Joy is dependent on the mental state of ease; hence this meditation
practice allows maximum third level of absorption. We will talk more about absorptions in
Lecture 18.

C) Equanimity
The last of the Sublime States is (C) the practice of Equanimity (Upekkhā). Because Pāḷi
word upekkhā is used with different meanings in different contexts, it becomes somewhat
complicated. To clarify the point, I would like to list the ten kinds of equanimity in brief, in

13 Pop up from the bottom: Ultimate Pleasure (paramaṃ sukhaṃ) – Enlightenment at the highest level of mental purification.
14 A simple list of "Factors of Meditative Absorption (jhānaṅgāni)" will appear next to me. The heading of the list will change from
"First Level" to "Second Level", and at that time also the last two factors disappear. Then the heading will change into "Third Level"
and the third factor also disappears.
Factors of Meditative Absorption (jhānaṅgāni)
-> Applied Thought
-> Sustained Thought
-> Joy
-> Ease
-> One-Pointedness
9
accordance with the Commentary on Paṭisambhidāmagga15, and right after that, explain
further the practice of Equanimity as the Sublime Abiding.
For the convenience of the audience, I have reorganized the list of different Equanimity-
meanings into three categories.
First is the triad of equanimity-meanings, 16(a) which are not directly related to
meditation, namely the (1) Equanimity of feelings, which are simply any feelings (or
sensations) neither pleasant nor unpleasant, (2) Equanimity as one of the nineteen "Universal
Beautiful Mental Factors", or one of the 52 mental factors in general. I will explain more about
mental states and mental factors in Lecture 19. Finally, there is the (3) equanimity of energy,
which is the time when we make neither too strenuous effort, nor stay too lax. For us this is an
important point in meditation, but it may also refer to other aspects of our lives.
The second triad of equanimity-meanings are (b) related to meditation of
Concentration. First is (4) the Equanimity of Sublime States, which we will talk about later in
terms of meditation practice. This kind of equanimity is practically identical with the
17
"Neutrality of mind as a kind of mental factor", which I mentioned in the previous triad.
Unlike the mental factor, which simply describes a state of mind, the term "Equanimity of
Sublime States" points to the fact that it can be developed in meditation. Second is (5) the
Equanimity of Absorption, which arises with the third of absorption's eight levels. Although
this kind of equanimity is not clearly visible during the practice itself, it plays an important
function in producing impartiality toward the meditative bliss. Finally, (6) the Equanimity of
purification attained with the fourth level of meditative absorption is characterized by serenity
and stableness, freedom from all opposing states.

15 Patisambhidāmagga Aṭṭhakathā – Maggasaccaniddesavaṇṇanā - 1. Sutamayañāṇaniddesavaṇṇanā, (Myanmar edition vol.1.

p.173.)
16 The list will gradually grow, perhaps next to me. Finally it will look this way:
Meanings of the word "Equanimity"
(a) Equanimity not directly related to meditation
(1) Equanimity of feelings (vedanupekkhā)
(2) Equanimity as a kind of mental factor (tatramajjhattupekkhā)
(3) Equanimity of energy (vīriyupekkhā)
(b) Equanimity related to meditation of Concentration
(4) Equanimity of Sublime Abidings (brahmavihārupekkhā)
(5) Equanimity of Absorption (jhānupekkhā)
(6) Equanimity of Purification (pārisuddhupekkhā)
(c) Equanimity related to meditation of Insight
(7) Equanimity of Insight Meditation (vipassanupekkhā)
(8) Equanimity as an Enlightenment Factor (bojjhaṅgupekkhā)
(9) Equanimity of Formations (saṅkhārupekkhā)
(10) Equanimity of the Six Senses (Chaḷaṅgupekkhā)
17 Now both the line of (4) and (2) will glow in white or yellow, at the same time.
10
 Finally, we have the quartet of equanimity-meanings (c) related to meditation of Insight.
First there is the (7) Equanimity of Insight Meditation, which evenly discriminates the nature of
conditioned phenomena as impermanence, unsatisfactoriness, and not-self. Second is (8) the
Equanimity as one of the seven Enlightenment Factors. It is the detachment from mental
states as they arise and pass, and it also ensures the balance of mental factors present at the
time of Enlightenment. Third is (9) the Equanimity of Formations, which is attained as the
tenth of the seventeen Insight Knowledges. In this stage the meditator has already passed the
most difficult steps of the Noble Path and is on the threshold of Enlightenment. I will talk
about the progress of Insight in Lecture 22. The fourth and last of the equanimity-meanings is
(10) the Equanimity of Six Senses. It is attained by the highest level of Enlightenment, by
Arahants, who are thereby free from all defilements which would arise from any of the six
senses: eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, or mind.
With the clear understanding of the word equanimity, 18upekkhā, in the sense of
Sublime State and in contrast to other meanings of the word, we can look further into its
characteristics.
Unlike the previous Sublime States, namely Loving-Kindness, Compassion, and Altruistic
Joy, the practice of Equanimity doesn't depend on a positive feeling, such as happiness. That is
because equanimity is free from differentiation, perhaps better understood as calm, or
serenity.
That being said, true equanimity is reached only with perfection of the previous three
Sublime States. (1) Loving-Kindness practice, by its training of selflessness purifies the
meditators' attitude to the extent that they are able to allow all living beings to enjoy peace
and happiness, regardless whether they are appreciative, neutral, or hostile. Equanimous mind
builds on this achievement, because all living beings, including oneself, are understood as,
ultimately, the same. The practice of (2) Compassion cures meditators from pity and
haughtiness - two selfish negative attitudes which would not allow arising of pure equanimous
mind. Then, the practice of (3) Altruistic Joy cures meditators from jealousy and envy, and
thereby allows the mind to stay truly equanimous. Then, when equanimous mind is well
developed, it can support further development of Loving-Kindness, Compassion, and Altruistic
Joy by training equal attitude toward all living beings, including oneself.
When comparing equanimity with the other three Sublime States, we can see that it is
superior to them, because it is free from restlessness. The simile given by Mahasi Sayadaw
mentions the case of 19a mother of four children – a baby, a sick child, an adolescent, and one
18 Now the line "(4) Equanimity of Sublime Abidings (brahmavihārupekkhā)" will glow in strong light, perhaps yellow or white.
19 Now the screen will be covered by a colored background, and five pictures will appear – mother, baby, sick child, adolescent,
and an independent (working) man. Then arrows will be drawn from the mother-picture to the pictures of her children, with the
11
who manages his own affairs. In the case of the baby, the mother develops her loving-
kindness and does her best to satisfy any of its needs. For the sick child she has to practice
compassion, and work hard to free him from the suffering. With the adolescent she rejoices in
his successes and supports him in further progress. As for the child who manages his own
affairs, he doesn't cause any worry to his mother, as he lives independent from her. Toward
him the mother keeps equanimous thoughts and stays calm, satisfied, free from worries. In
the real world, a mother's feelings toward her children are much more complicated than this,
but I still believe that the simile may help you to recognize the intended meaning and
penetrate more into the difference between the four Sublime States.
Equanimity has to be distinguished from indifference. Indifference is the emotional
emptiness of unwise, infatuated delusion, which doesn't consider danger in evil actions and
is dependent on sensual pleasures. Contrary to that, Equanimity is the emotional fullness,
vigilant self-control, which roots in true wisdom and observes the all-encompassing equality
of cause and effect, both in terms of obvious processes in the world, and especially, in terms
of the law of kamma. With the understanding that all living beings are simply heirs of their
actions, that suffering is the consequence of bad actions committed in the past and pleasure of
good actions, there arises freedom from various kinds of mental pain, such as 20sorrow,
distress, anxiety, worry, anger, and lust, to name a few. Because equanimous mind observes
all beings including oneself, the mental defilements such as 21conceit, arrogance, loneliness,
feeling of being hurt, feeling of rejection, or feeling of underestimation are also cured to a
great extent. According to 22Alan Wallace, the practice of equanimity may be a solution for the
neurological disorders of 23"affective deficit" (characterized by cold indifference), "affective
hyperactivity" (where elation and depression are alternating unexpectedly), and "affective
dysfunction" (inappropriate emotional responses, such as taking delight in someone else's
misfortune).
Practice of Equanimity is again distinguished in 132 kinds. 24There are seven kinds of
specified Equanimity, namely for males, females, Enlightened persons, not-yet-Enlightened
persons, deities, humans, and beings in worlds of suffering. The unspecified Equanimity is
again practiced for all living beings, with any of these five sentences – (a) "It's kamma, that
implements both evil and good, making one suffer pain or gain pleasure." (b) "All those

"relationship" written above each arrow – Loving-Kindness, Compassion, Altruistic Joy, Equanimity.
20 Appear randomly on the screen and disappear at once when they all collect.
21 Appear randomly on the screen and disappear at once when they all collect.
22 "Contemplative Science: Where Buddhism and Neuroscience Converge" by B. Alan Wallace
23 These three disorders will slide up from the bottom of the screen, one after another.
24 The mind-map graph on "132 Kinds of Equanimity" will cover the screen, gradually zooming to the different lists as I say them,
finally showing the graph altogether at once.
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persons who breathe and live, have only kamma as their own property in possession." (c)
"All creatures have only kamma as their own property in possession." (d) "All moving things
have only kamma as their own property in possession." (e) "All those endowed with body
have only kamma as their own property in possession."
We have thus twelve kinds of Equanimity, which we can radiate to the eleven choices of
directions, namely the four cardinal points, the secondary cardinal points, above, or below,
or all directions at once. Multiplying twelve by eleven we get 132. Like in the case of Loving-
Kindness, there are many more choices for the practice of equanimity, because we can expand
it by region – for example our room, then building, village, township, country, continent,
planet, and the whole world. We can also choose specific beings as our objects: certain kinds
of animals, or even specific human beings that we personally know or don't know.
For successful practice of Equanimity there are five qualities required to be developed in
advance – 25(a) the Right Attitude that all living beings have to experience consequences of
actions which they committed in the past, (b) faith in the Buddha, His Teachings, and
Community of His Disciples, (c) mindfulness, (d) mental effort, and (e) deep levels of
concentration on Loving Kindness, Compassion, and Altruistic Joy. The practice of Equanimity
starts again with ourselves as we experience peace. When we are established in peace, we
take up five neutral persons of the same gender as we are, who are still alive, and who do not
cause us neither worries nor excitement. Mahasi Sayadaw also recommends that we choose
those persons whose situation is too difficult to bear. In the manner explained for Loving-
Kindness practice, we dedicate the first ten minutes of each hour to ourselves with the
sentence "may I be in peace" and other ten minutes for each of the five selected persons,
with the sentence "evil actions bring evil results; good actions produce good results." In the
way we did during the practice of Compassion, the sentence that we choose to recite in our
mind during the meditation practice will serve only as an anchor to the object of our
meditation. In other words, we avoid attachment to the sentence. Then, as soon as we can
easily concentrate we will abandon reciting the sentence and directly concentrate on the
object without any verbalization.
In the beginning we may keep in mind the personality of the selected persons, and train
in the understanding of the equal share of kamma consequences among all living beings, and
that although we may help past good actions to manifest their consequences, it is not possible
25 Simple list:
Five Qualities Required for Successful Practice of Equanimity
(a) The Right Attitude that all living beings have to experience consequences of actions which they committed in the past
(b) Faith in the Buddha, His Teachings, and Community of His Disciples
(c) Mindfulness
(d) Mental effort
(e) Deep levels of concentration on Loving Kindness, Compassion, and Altruistic Joy
13
to remove evil actions committed in the past. Later, when we gain concentration and stabilize
the mind, we can work with the wisdom that the person is made of continuously changing
body and mind, and that our thoughts of equanimity support the harmonious processes of the
world. Working only with the body and mind of the successful person may help the meditator
to avoid indifference and direct the mind toward understanding of not-self. We again let the
peace arise as it naturally develops thanks to our equanimity toward all mental states.
We gradually let our concentration develop into peaceful thoughts arising from wise
attitude. When that happens, we remove that person from the five and divide up the sixty
minutes of meditation by four, keeping ten minutes for ourselves and around twelve minutes
for each of the remaining four. In this manner we gradually purify our attitude toward all four.
Then we can select five appreciated persons, and finally five persons who are hostile or who
we do not appreciate. The suggestions for dealing with anger toward unappreciated persons
are explained in detail in the Lecture 08.
When we have developed altruistic joy also for all the five hostile and unappreciated
persons, we can practice Equanimity to all living beings without any distinction, for example
with one of the two sentences suggested by Mahasi Sayadaw: "all beings have their individual
kamma, either good or bad, depending upon their own actions done in the past as well as
present and have to experience the consequences of it," or "only kamma is one's own
property in possession and things have happened and would happen according to one's own
individual kamma which automatically produces an effect."
Concentration on the mental state of Equanimity may gradually get deeper and
stronger, eventually culminating in very strong concentration, known as absorption (jhāna).
The first level of absorption which consists of so called 26"applied thought", "sustained
thought", "joy", "ease", and "one-pointedness" can be further developed to a second level by
abandoning "applied thought" and "sustained thought", and third level by abandoning also
"joy". Because equanimity is not dependent on the mental state of "ease", it is possible to
abandon "ease", develop the higher level of "equanimity" and thereby attain the fourth level
of absorption.

26 A simple list of "Factors of Meditative Absorption (jhānaṅgāni)" will appear next to me. The heading of the list will change from
"First Level" to "Second Level", and at that time also the last two factors disappear. Then the heading will change into "Third Level"
and the third factor also disappears. Then the heading will change into "Fourth Level" - "Ease" will disappear and instead
"Equanimity" will appear.
Factors of Meditative Absorption (jhānaṅgāni)
-> Applied Thought
-> Sustained Thought
-> Joy
-> Ease
-> One-Pointedness
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 In the next lecture we will go through the mental qualities which enable progress in any
meditation practice, namely the Five Powers, the Four Bases of Spiritual Power, and the Ten
Skills of Absorption.27

27 Mention in THANKS at the end of the lecture: - "Brahmavihara" by Mahasi Sayadaw, En. tr. from Burmese by U Min Swe (Min
Kyaw Thu)
- "Acceptance of the Worldly Conditions Through the Practice of Equanimity" Daw Vupasannta
- "Unselfish Joy: A Neglected Virtue" – Natasha Jackson, in The Wheel Publication no. 170, 1983, Buddhist Publication Society;
- "Upekkhā: The Highest State of Brahmavihāra" by Prof. Dr. Hla Myint
- "Blending the Secular and Spiritual Dimensions of Equanimity (Upekkha)" by Prof. Padmasiri de Silva
15
 Video Meditation Course -
Meditation in Theory and Practice
Contents28
● Lecture 01: "Why Meditate?" (an introduction to the history of meditation, the attainments of the
Buddha, the nature of the mind, and the Four Noble Truths)
● Lecture 02: The Foundations of Meditation: Right Attitude and Ethics

● Lecture 03: The Drive: Right Effort and Energy Management

● Lecture 04: Mindfulness and meditation postures

● Lecture 05: Mindfulness in daily activities (Four Kinds of Clear Comprehension, eating meditation)

● Lecture 06: The Seven Suitables and the Ten Impediments

● Lecture 07: Observing and Dealing with the Five Hindrances

● Lecture 08: Loving-Kindness Meditation (Double Lecture: Theory & Practice)

● Lecture 09: Compassion, Mutual Joy, and Equanimity

● Lecture 10: The Five Powers, Four Bases of Spiritual Power, Ten Skills of Absorption

● Lecture 11: Concentrating on and Observing Parts of the Body and its Four Elements (32 Parts of
Body, 4 Elements, Ajjhatta/Bahiddhā, 28 Rūpa and other counting)
● Lecture 12: Concentrating on vs. Observing the Breath

● Lecture 13: Meditation on Death

● Lecture 14: Concentrating on vs. Observing the Impermanence of the Mortal Frame

● Lecture 15: Meditation on Generosity, Virtue, Deities, and Peace

● Lecture 16: Meditation on the Qualities of the Triple Gem

● Lecture 17: Kasinas

● Lecture 18: The Attainments in Concentration Practice (Five kinds of Joy, Five Factors of Jhāna,
Higher Jhānas and the related controversy, Psychic Powers, and Immaterial States)
● Lecture 19: Observing the Sixteen Mental States (+ 89 Cittas and 52 Cetasikas)

28 Whatever is in brackets is the contents of the lecture. It is not part of the lecture name.
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● Lecture 20: Observing the Five Aggregates

● Lecture 21: Observing the Seven Enlightenment Factors

● Lecture 22: The Progress of Insight

● Lecture 23: What is Enlightenment? (Eight Vicissitudes, Famous Arahants)

● Lecture 24: Attending a Meditation Retreat (How to Survive in a Foreign Environment)

● Lecture 25: Meditation in the Daily Life (Instructions Also For Those Who Have Never Attended Any
Meditation Retreat)

17