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-- EVENTS Sundays Practice Schedule Calendar Events TEACHINGS Kobun Teacher Blog Teachers & Talks Meditation Instruction Zen Traditions Podcasts Science Discussions — Pandemic & Practice 2 VISIT Ways To Visit Reservations DONATE EVENTS Sundays Practice Schedule Calendar Events TEACHINGS Kobun Teacher Blog Teachers & Talks Meditation Instruction Zen Traditions Podcasts Science Discussions — Pandemic & Practice 2 VISIT Ways To Visit Reservations DONATE JIKOJI REMAINS CLOSED Dear Jikoji Sangha, Jikoji remains closed due to the coronavirus and Covid-19 pandemic, and we have suspended all public events, asa well as guest bookings, until circumstances allow otherwise. We are, however, bringing some of our programs online. Please see our Events page, or notices at right, for more information. We appreciate your understanding and continued support. May all beings be healthy and happy. Gassho. Coronavirus (COVID-19) Resources Coronavirus FAQ Santa Clara County Public Health Department Coronavirus Resource Center John Hopkins University & Medicine Coronavirus (COVID-19) main page Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Coronavirus (COVID-19) summary page Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Social distancing Wikipedia Coronavirus: Why You Must Act Now Medium The Exponential Power of Now New York Times Parents' daunting new coronavirus reality Axios Information & Resources for Schools and School Personnel US Department of Education) Early Symptoms & dealing with the disease First person account at YouTube SUNDAY PROGRAM ONLINE * On Zoom * Sunday, May 3 - 10am-12:30pm Zazen - Service - Dharma Talk - Join us! THE CASE FOR EQUANIMITY by Shoho Michael Newhall "For all the trouble under the sun There be a remedy or there be none If there be a remedy, go and find it If there be none, never mind it" The opening statement of a Dickens novel, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times" has carried its age well, as applicable now as when written. In our present time the story is far too real. Real events confront us: the pandemic, polarization, divisional legacies, regressive tensions, social fears, and a cultural immaturity that seemingly cannot move beyond a harrowing adolescence. To have no intense positions at this time seems either an act of avoidance or simply ignorance. Given these circumstances, the question for us is what to do, or not do, how to respond, or not respond, how to be in this moment of history authentically, and how to be real in the making of a real world. The Buddhist tradition in its methodology has historically had a separate life from the waves of social dynamics, but being on the same sea it has been affected and does affect it all along. Since waves are not diminishing, it may be time to access our equipment, our nautical tools - the oars, sail, rudder, sextant, etc., on this dharma boat of ours, this raft to the other shore. Our essential equipment includes prajna or wisdom, and karuna or compassion, and there are many others, all imbued with the meditation practice itself. One tool often in the background is upeksa or equanimity. It may be time to also bring this piece of equipment out. It may be a good rudder for us at this time, perhaps even a good sail. In Buddhist tradition it is said the fourth dhyana , the fourth stage of meditative absorption, called upeksa-dhyana or equanimity, was the state in which the Buddha woke up. The story goes that the Buddha was in nirvikalpajnana , or non-discursive awareness, and in releasing any preference for the pleasure that accompanied it, he entered into the stage of equanimity. Apparently it was this position that created a basis or place for enlightenment to come forward. Later in Buddhist history there arose the four brahmaviharas , the "divine abodes," also called apramanas : loving kindness, empathic joy, compassion and equanimity. Apramana means to be immeasurable. They are called immeasurable because they extend limitlessly in all directions to encompass everyone, and because one never finishes them, there is always more to do. Equanimity, as the last of the immeasurables, is said to be their summation and to embrace them all. To take on an investigation of equanimity, we first must do the difficult work of confronting our apparent innate tendency to hold views, to have fixed preferences, and even acknowledge their capacity to develop into a set bias. To like chocolate ice cream rather than vanilla is not a problem, but to judge those vanilla lovers as wrong could be. Cognitive biases come in many flavours: there is confirmation bias, hindsight bias, blind-spot bias, availability bias, self-justification bias, consistency bias, negativity bias, etc. To have a political position or an issue important to us without any bias or exclusion must be acknowledged as a task of great effort or even courage. So how then do we meet our views, our likes and dislikes, even our preference for chocolate over vanilla, and take on this apramana of equanimity? The definitions of equanimity include: evenness of temper, emotional composure, calmness and steadiness, especially amid trying circumstances, fairness of mind, impartiality. The Latin root "aequus" means "even, equal," and together with the Latin "animus" (mind or spirit) becomes "aequanimitas" - equal mind." Equal in meaning or value is "equivalent." Equal in significance, power or weight is called "equipollent." Another variant, "equipoise," means to hold or bring two elements into relative status, and may be compared with the word "balance." This common word is much used in spiritual and self-help discussions, but as a straightforward verb it means to just maintain or make level what was not. There are some earlier Buddhist translations that mis-define upeksa "indifference." But upeksa is clearly neither a dry neutrality or a cool aloofness. And as it is not a thought or emotion but a sustained, non-reactive state of view and activity, it then may carry aspects of detachment and sustain a mutual forbearance toward all conditions that present themselves. Equanimity does not assume passivity or withdrawal however, but rather an energy and intention to meet a situation as it is, that is, in full context. The Buddha said the mind of equanimity is "abundant, exalted, immeasurable, without hostility and without ill-will." Should "there be a remedy," and should we wish to find it, take up and employ the "equipment" of equanimity, we might start by looking into an early sixth century teaching, a commentary by the Yogacaran teacher Sthiramati of a text called Trimsika. This teacher opens upeksa into three complimentary parts. He says that equanimity is equilibrium (in sanskrit: samata ), equanimity is also a tranquil flow of mind ( prasathata ), and equanimity is effortlessness ( anabhogata ). A study by Gadjin M. Nagao, entitled the "Tranquil Flow of Mind: An Interpretation of Upeksa" has brought this teaching into contemporary thought. Samata, translated as equilibrium, is also understood as “equality," - equality of existence and non-existence, of self and other, perception and non-perception, equality of all dharmas, equality of all beings. To hold both together is equilibrium. This is not to neglect differentiating characteristics of each. Thich Nhat Hanh describes this as an "overview," that is, to look over the situation, see the complete picture, as if from a hilltop, after coming from dense trees below. From this open viewpoint, the expanse of the forest, the context of each tree, even the spaces between the trees are recognized together, and each tree remains unique. Samata has a connection to the more familiar " samadhi .” Both have the common root " sama ." Sama translates as “same” and samata then reads as “sameness.” Vasubandu, the author of the above Trimsika text, had a brother monk named Asanga, another great Yogacarian scholar, who wrote of samata this way: Now you should know that the bodhisat...