Dharmabytes from free buddhist audio
Aug 3, 2026 · 5 min · 3 segments
Equanimity is the deepest level of metta: metta imbued with seeing reality. Maitrisiddhi brings in Kisa Gotami, Hiroshima and her own…
So you're holding these two things where it's like the Buddha is missing his two chief disciples.
He's sad that they're not here anymore, and yet he knows that this is the way things are.
Beings arise and they pass away.
This is the way things are.
So this is metta as equanimity.
We're holding that the worldly winds happen.
Sometimes pleasure arises, sometimes pain arises.
Sometimes praise happens, sometimes blame happens.
Sometimes we get fame and people speak well of us.
Sometimes we get infamy and people speak ill of us, or they ignore, they don't even notice what it is we've done.
And sometimes we have gain, we get what we want, we get the job, the car, the partner.
And sometimes we have loss, we lose the job, the car, the partner, the mother, the child.
This is the way things are.
So equanimity is a response that sees that much of, you know, what happens is based on conditions.
There are all these conditions that are arising that make, you know, they're, they're all flowing on under their own steam, [laughs] if you see what I mean, and we cannot control them all.
In fact, what we can control is a minute fraction, and in fact, most of what we can control is how we respond to what is presenting.
We can't do anything about other people's choices.
We can't do anything about, um, I don't know, political happenings in other countries.
Uh, s- there's so much that we cannot control, and what we do so much in our lives is we try to control what is beyond our control.
So, uh, for instance, this is usually the nature of worry, [laughs] where it's, it- it's like we sort of go through what if, or maybe if, or but what if, but what if.
And we're expending a huge amount of emotional energy driven by fear, worrying about what is not within our power to control.
And the irony of what is not equanimity is it actually blocks us because it w- because we're so tied up in, well, worry or the drama of like, um, oh, this is what's happening to me.
Oh, my life is marvelous, I'm getting what I want.
This is great.
This is fantastic.
So you're holding these two things where it's like the Buddha is missing his two chief disciples.
He's sad that they're not here anymore, and yet he knows that this is the way things are.
Beings arise and they pass away.
This is the way things are.
So this is metta as equanimity.
We're holding that the worldly winds happen.
Sometimes pleasure arises, sometimes pain arises.
Sometimes praise happens, sometimes blame happens.
Sometimes we get fame and people speak well of us.
Sometimes we get infamy and people speak ill of us, or they ignore, they don't even notice what it is we've done.
And sometimes we have gain, we get what we want, we get the job, the car, the partner.
And sometimes we have loss, we lose the job, the car, the partner, the mother, the child.
This is the way things are.
So equanimity is a response that sees that much of, you know, what happens is based on conditions.
There are all these conditions that are arising that make, you know, they're, they're all flowing on under their own steam, [laughs] if you see what I mean, and we cannot control them all.
In fact, what we can control is a minute fraction, and in fact, most of what we can control is how we respond to what is presenting.
We can't do anything about other people's choices.
We can't do anything about, um, I don't know, political happenings in other countries.
Uh, s- there's so much that we cannot control, and what we do so much in our lives is we try to control what is beyond our control.
So, uh, for instance, this is usually the nature of worry, [laughs] where it's, it- it's like we sort of go through what if, or maybe if, or but what if, but what if.
And we're expending a huge amount of emotional energy driven by fear, worrying about what is not within our power to control.
And the irony of what is not equanimity is it actually blocks us because it w- because we're so tied up in, well, worry or the drama of like, um, oh, this is what's happening to me.
Oh, my life is marvelous, I'm getting what I want.
This is great.
This is fantastic.
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