This Wednesday Night Meditation included a 34-minute meditation and a 46-minute talk about Caring More . . . and Caring Less. To Care and Not to Care — Two great themes, compassion and equanimity.

I took inspiration from several quotations for this week’s talk, which you can find below.

I hope you find it helpful, and you are welcome to join my free Wednesday Meditations – which are open to everyone!

Meditation on Caring More . . . and Caring Less

Talk on Caring More . . . and Caring Less

Quotes about Compassion

You should cultivate kindness
toward the whole world with a boundless heart:
above, below, and all around,
unobstructed, without enmity or hate.
Live without covetous greed,
fill your mind with benevolence.
Be mindful and one-pointed,
inwardly stable and concentrated.

— Aṅguttara Nikāya 4.29

There are those who do not realize
that one day we all must die.
But those who do realize this
settle their quarrels.

— Dhammapada 1.6

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“As I am, so are others;
as others are, so am I.”
Having thus identified self and others,
harm no one nor have them harmed.

— Sutta Nipāta 3.710

Knowing that the other person is angry,
one who remains mindful and calm
acts for one’s own best interest
and for the other’s interest, too.

— Saṃyutta Nikāya 1.188

As the earth gives us food and air and all the things we need, I give my
heart to caring for all others until all attain awakening. For the good of
all sentient beings, may loving kindness be born in me.

— Maureen Connor, Buddhadharma, Winter, 2013, p. 88

Quotes about Equanimity

Whose mind is like rock, steady, unmoved,
dispassionate for things that spark passion,
unangered by things that spark anger:
When one’s mind is developed like this,
from where can there come suffering & stress?

— Udāna 4.34

Walking evenly over uneven ground
perfectly enlightened with perfect knowledge,
they walk evenly over the uneven.

— Saṃyutta Nikāya 1.7

Calm is one’s thought, calm one’s speech,
and calm one’s deed, who, truly knowing,
is wholly freed, perfectly tranquil and wise.

— Dhammapada 7.96

On a branch
Floating down river
A cricket, singing

— Issa

Quote about Compassion & Equanimity

These two – compassion and equanimity – are summarized in this from
the great poet T.S. Eliot, in Ash Wednesday

“Teach us to care and not to care
Teach us to sit still”

What Should You Care About More?

If one going down into a river,
swollen and swiftly flowing,
is carried away by the current —
how can one help others across?

— Sutta Nipāta 2.321

Buddhism values “the cultivation of happiness, the genuine inner
transformation by deliberately selecting and focusing on positive mental
states.”

— Dalai Lama and Howard Cutler, The Art of Happiness, p. 44-45.

And did you get what
you wanted from this life, even so?
I did.
And what did you want?
To call myself beloved, to
feel myself
Beloved on the earth.

— Raymond Carver

The two great risks are risking too much but also risking too little.
That’s for each person to decide. For me, not risking anything is worse
than death. By far. 

— Jimmy Chin