Ajahn Jayasaro on Equanimity

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Sam Vara
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Ajahn Jayasaro on Equanimity

Post by Sam Vara »

I had the great good fortune to attend a Q&A session with Ajahn Jayasaro a few weeks ago, and was struck with his thoughts on the topic of equanimity. Many Buddhists see this as some kind of ultimate goal, something to be attained, so that one can finally ride out the pleasant and unpleasant vedanā that life throws our way. But this was, to me, refreshingly different and helpful:
Often the idea is that equanimity is the goal, and in fact equanimity is the foundation for the application of wisdom. This is a very important point, that without equanimity we are inevitably biased, prejudiced, and it's only with equanimity that we have the ability to look at things in a very nuanced, sophisticated and precise kind of way. So it's not that we're practising in order to be calm and centred, so whatever we see in the news or see or hear goes on. Often that's the idea: we need to gain this goal of equanimity and then we will not suffer from all the ups and downs of life.

But for me, equanimity is a stage, a foundation or necessary precondition for the application of wisdom....The equanimity that we are developing in Buddhism is based upon the investigation of causality; why things happen, how things happen. So if we are observing any phenomena as being the outcome of a vast web of causes and conditions, and we realise that given all these causes and conditions, right now it could not be any other way. It is this way because of all the supporting causes and conditions. So that's the equanimity. "It's like this", as Ajahn Sumedho says. But from that position of equanimity and acceptance, the question is "What now?" What's the way forward? It's not that now I'm OK with it, that's it, that's the end of my path.

...If then causes and conditions are like this, which ones do we have any power to change, and which ones do we have to accept?...In talking about motivation, in Buddhism there are two kinds: wholesome motivation and unwholesome motivation. Unwholesome motivation arises whenever there is ignorance of the way things are, avijjā. And that unwholesome motivation is called tanhā. In the formulation of the Four Noble Truths, dukkha is caused by craving, but the craving here is ignorance-based desire. That's the meaning of craving or tanhā. And then we contrast that with vijjā or understanding of the way things are. And the motivations that arise naturally from vijjā are not called craving, are not the cause of suffering, and they are the path to liberation. And they are called chanda, or sometimes dhammachanda or kusalachanda...

So this idea that Buddhism teaches that suffering is caused by desire, so we get rid of all desires and we don't have any suffering, is a gross distortion, a misrepresentation. What we need to do is channelling that energy from the unwholesome path to the wholesome path...
The audio can be found here:
https://teachings.cittaviveka.org/category/audio-talks/

It's the highest on the list, 9th April. If you disagree with anything in the excerpt, please check first that I have not made transcription errors, and if I have, then I'm sorry.

I might post more excerpts later as I mull things over. :anjali:
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Re: Ajahn Jayasaro on Equanimity

Post by seeker242 »

Everything that I have ever seen or heard from Ajahn Jayasaro has been extraordinarily good! :anjali:
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Sam Vara
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Re: Ajahn Jayasaro on Equanimity

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seeker242 wrote: Mon May 09, 2022 12:08 pm Everything that I have ever seen or heard from Ajahn Jayasaro has been extraordinarily good! :anjali:
I agree. I've been lucky to be there when he has made a couple of his very infrequent trips to the UK, and he hasn't got a huge printed or audio output. But it's all worth treasuring.

A monk once said in a dhamma talk that the Ajahns who really impressed him were the ones who tended to stay in one place and not make much publicity. Jayasaro is one such, I think.
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Re: Ajahn Jayasaro on Equanimity

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:thumbsup: Very good. I think it's the secular mindfulness movements and so-called Secular Buddhism (an oxymoron) that sees upekkha as the goal; just be in the here-and-now and be free from suffering and happy. For Buddhists, insight, awakening and paññā is the goal.

(perhaps off-topic, but great answer by him in support of vegetarianism in the Q&A)
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Re: Ajahn Jayasaro on Equanimity

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DNS wrote: Mon May 09, 2022 2:45 pm :thumbsup: Very good. I think it's the secular mindfulness movements and so-called Secular Buddhism (an oxymoron) that sees upekkha as the goal; just be in the here-and-now and be free from suffering and happy. For Buddhists, insight, awakening and paññā is the goal.
Yes, one can be quite equanimous in the here-and-now and still have masses of latent tendencies. The job's not done until they are all rooted out.
(perhaps off-topic, but great answer by him in support of vegetarianism in the Q&A)
Not off-topic at all, I'm delighted you listened to some more of it! He is quite robust in his positions, and doesn't just tell questioners what they want to hear, which can sometimes happen with monastics.
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Re: Ajahn Jayasaro on Equanimity

Post by Ceisiwr »

Sam Vara wrote: Mon May 09, 2022 11:29 am ...
:goodpost:
“Knowing that this body is just like foam,
understanding it has the nature of a mirage,
cutting off Māra’s flower-tipped arrows,
one should go beyond the King of Death’s sight.”
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Re: Ajahn Jayasaro on Equanimity

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Will it be successful if one having based on equanimity, keep a subtle citta aside and investigate only the remaining khandhas ?
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Re: Ajahn Jayasaro on Equanimity

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Saadhu! Saadhu! Saadhu! 🙏🙏🙏😊
We don't live Samsara, Samsara is living us...

"Form, feelings, perceptions, formations, consciousness - don't care about us, we don't exist for them"
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Re: Ajahn Jayasaro on Equanimity

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Thanks for posting that, Sam Vara. Very interesting Q&A. About to listen to the other session...

I like the way he switches between answering in English and Thai. I guess he's lived there a long time, but I've seen that with other from his era, who had to learn Thai to be able to learn Dhamma from Ajahn Chah and others.

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Re: Ajahn Jayasaro on Equanimity

Post by Sam Vara »

mikenz66 wrote: Tue May 10, 2022 9:38 pm Thanks for posting that, Sam Vara. Very interesting Q&A. About to listen to the other session...

I like the way he switches between answering in English and Thai. I guess he's lived there a long time, but I've seen that with other from his era, who had to learn Thai to be able to learn Dhamma from Ajahn Chah and others.

:heart:
Mike
His English even has a very slight Thai inflection, noticeably different from when I first heard him speak in person. Apparently he interacts with very few English speakers.
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Re: Ajahn Jayasaro on Equanimity

Post by mikenz66 »

The Q&A from the day before was also interesting. I liked his discussion on the distinction between sati and sampajañña. The latter is often translated as "clear comprehension", which is rather non-specific, so I liked his comment that it was to do with knowing the context of actions. Bhikkhu Sujato tries to capture that sense by translating it as "situational awareness", but I find that a little jarring. I liked Ajahn Jayasaro's example - a monk practising chanting loudly late at night and annoying others could have good sati with respect to the chanting, but hopeless sampajañña (awareness of context).

:heart:
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Re: Ajahn Jayasaro on Equanimity

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delete
Last edited by pegembara on Thu May 19, 2022 6:53 am, edited 1 time in total.
And what is right speech? Abstaining from lying, from divisive speech, from abusive speech, & from idle chatter: This is called right speech.
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Re: Ajahn Jayasaro on Equanimity

Post by pegembara »

mikenz66 wrote: Thu May 19, 2022 3:53 am The Q&A from the day before was also interesting. I liked his discussion on the distinction between sati and sampajañña. The latter is often translated as "clear comprehension", which is rather non-specific, so I liked his comment that it was to do with knowing the context of actions. Bhikkhu Sujato tries to capture that sense by translating it as "situational awareness", but I find that a little jarring. I liked Ajahn Jayasaro's example - a monk practising chanting loudly late at night and annoying others could have good sati with respect to the chanting, but hopeless sampajañña (awareness of context).

:heart:
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True but not right!
At one time I went to see a teacher who said that we don't need the discipline or the Vinaya rules: "All you have to do is be mindful. Mindfulness is enough." So I went back and told Ajahn Chah, and he said: "True but not right, right but not true!"

https://www.dhammatalks.net/Books3/Ajah ... ly_Are.htm
And what is right speech? Abstaining from lying, from divisive speech, from abusive speech, & from idle chatter: This is called right speech.
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