May All Beings Be Free of Discrimination

📖Master’s Reading

The last step of practicing the "Four Immeasurables" is to give rise to "equanimity": "May all beings be free of the discrimination of craving and hatred." Yet after this line, one must likewise add the most important secret of transforming the mind: "and may my mind abide too."

Many misunderstand "equanimity" as indifference; in truth it is the impartial mind of no dual distinction. What is "impartial equanimity"? "Equanimity" is like the space we live in: if this place has no craving and hatred, no one holds "I dislike you, you dislike me," nor the opposition of love and hate. In a pure place without strife and right-and-wrong, communication and coexistence are naturally pleasant, the mind settles, and without panic one naturally attains true rest.

When your mind grasps impartiality and feels all is the same, there is no good or bad and no relation of gain and harm, and the mind is at peace. When you no longer compare at every turn, no longer cling to near and far, and have no distinction of great and small or beautiful and ugly, the afflictive obstacles within naturally disperse.

True practice is letting the mind abide in the "impartial equanimity" without opposition; the mind unstirred, it can leave inverted dreaming far behind and enter the pure, undefiled, still world of the buddhas and bodhisattvas. Set down worldly distinction and view all things with a wide, impartial heart, and your heart's capacity accords with the dharmadhātu, attaining true abiding and great ease.

🌱Reflection for Daily Life

• The impartial mind is closest to the buddha-mind.
• Equanimity is the impartial mind of no dual distinction.
• May beings be free of distinction, and may my mind abide too.
• Set down good and bad, gain and harm, and the mind naturally calms.
• Leave inverted dreaming far behind and enter the still realm.