Equanimity

I love love love the teachings on developing Equanimity. When I first heard them I could relate to the whole idea that we have unbalanced attitudes towards friends, enemies and strangers. I could also see how, for example, a person I am attached to could be an object of aversion for others, therefore clearly showing the person is not inherently pleasant or unpleasant.  

I recently had a teaching on Equanimity which refreshed in my mind the importance for me of developing a warm and friendly attitude towards all living beings. I was mulling over the benefits today of actually being able to do this. I came to the conclusion if I really could develop a warm and friendly feeling towards all living beings, it would completely protect me. 

During the teaching on Equanimity the teacher said

“We often don’t like people and have no interest in getting close to them, we are able to generate this effortlessly” 

Completely true in my case, he went on to say

“Whenever we see people we have an inbuilt fault picking device. When we first meet someone we think, What’s wrong with them? Then sometimes when we cant find anything wrong with them ,we see good qualities, exaggerate them and become attached. Also if we find faults in a person, we then go to our friends and collaborate, we then make the faults of others appear to them. We then think, I’ve questioned everyone and they all agree, therefore it must be true”

I do this all the time, Im so unbalanced. I don’t want to be anymore though. If I had a warm and friendly feeling towards all living beings then as Geshe Kelsang Gyatso says

“There will be no basis for the problems of anger or attachment to arise, and our mind will remain at peace all the time”

Sounds good to me. I know as well that if I don’t have a balanced attitude towards all living beings then there is no basis for developing strong minds of love, compassion and Bodhichitta. So… I have made a determination that I am really going to try and do this, starting from now.