Use code SUMMERPRACTICE for a 25% discount on all On Demand Courses through August 31.

Search Sangha Live

Equanimity: Finding Balance in Difficult Times

With James Baraz recorded on January 16, 2022.

Found our teachings useful? Help us continue our work and support your teachers with a donation. Here’s how.

In times like these with so much uncertainty, fear and suffering, how can we keep our center in a world that sometimes seems to be spinning out of control?

Equanimity (upekkha in Pali) in Buddhist teachings describes the quality of balance in any circumstances. It is one of the Four Divine Abodes, one of the Seven Factors of Enlightenment, one of the Ten Paramitas and a number of other Buddhist lists. When highly developed it is the precursor to the experience of awakening.

How can we cultivate equanimity in our meditation practice? Even more, how can we access it in our daily life?

Listen to the audio version below, or click here to download the mp3.

Tags: compassion equanimity suffering wisdom

Discussion

Leave a Reply

Discover more from the Dharma Library

  • Willa Blythe Baker

    Belonging: The Dharma as a Journey to Connectedness

    Recorded : July 10, 2022

    Behavioral scientists have long known that human beings are wired for connection. But recent studies show that in the wake of the social isolation imposed by the Covid crisis, the world is experiencing a spike in loneliness. In such times of isolation — physical or felt — how can meditation help? What do the Buddha’s…

    Read More

  • JD Doyle

    The Practice of the Beautiful: Moving Beyond Fragmentation and Stability

    Recorded : June 2, 2024

    Allowing the beautiful to guide us in our practice opens up possibilities beyond our conditioned habits. Awakening to beauty involves being with the messiness and the challenges of our lives. Beauty does not belong to anyone. As we orient away from that which is pleasing to that which is beautiful in ourselves and in our communities, we align ourselves with a path that blossoms into liberation for all beings.

    Read More

  • Zohar Lavie

    Opening to the Joy of Interconnection

    Recorded : July 4, 2021

    A deeply conditioned habit of the human mind is to experience ourselves as independent and distinct from others and the world that we share. At the heart of Dharma teachings is the invitation to question, inquire into and transform this conditioning of separation, opening us to the joy and possibility of mutuality and interconnectedness. During…

    Read More

  • photo of Martin Aylward smiling

    Vast View, Fine Attention

    Recorded : December 16, 2018

    In this session, Martin explores the apparent paradox of a vast view combined with a fine attention, along with practices to bring both into focus. How do we hold both simultaneously? How can we be responsive, without feeling responsible? How might we bring both a vast view and a fine attention to both our inner…

    Read More

  •

    Daily Meditation Recordings, with Ulla Koenig – Week of 05 May, 2025

    We are delighted to have Ulla Koenig guiding our Daily Meditation sessions this week. May these offerings support and enrich your practice.

    This week’s theme is: Touching Ground

    Whether it is the dynamics of the world that stir our hearts and minds, or personal challenges, as human beings we are confronted in many ways with the fragility of life. Touching ground, finding something to orient and trust in, is a deep need and yet not an easy endeavor. We dedicate this week to exploring the idea of taking refuge and translating it into a meaningful act that we can participate in no matter what.

    Our Dharma Library thrives through collective generosity. Your donation helps sustain this offering for our entire community.

    Read More