Bigger Container: Equanimity

How do we cease suffering in life? The Buddha offered an analogy using salty water as an example. If we put a teaspoon of salt into a glass of water, it becomes a very disgusting drink. In this example, salt represents the suffering in our life. Every life has its teaspoons of salt, some dashes of salt here and there and some heaping tablespoons all at once. 

The question is how can we deal with the inevitable suffering that we all experience? How can we gain a sense of equanimity in the face of all the ups and downs of our life experience?

Using the salt analogy, the key is to make the “container” bigger: Not a glass, but a gallon, or even a big clear lake. 

Here is the solution to this analogy proposed by Doug Kraft in his book, Befriending the Mind:

Equanimity doesn’t come from fortifying ourselves against life. It comes from expanding to include more and more. There are three ways to go about feeling better [and reducing our suffering]:

1. Reduce the amount of salt.
   
   This doesn’t work so well. We have only a little influence on the world around us. But ultimately, the world doesn’t care what we want it to be. It is what it is.
   
2. Numb out our sensitivity to salt.
   
   In other words, we can dull ourselves with drugs or distractions, or by purposely focusing our attention elsewhere. This doesn’t work so well either. We can numb out and push unpleasantness aside a little bit. But ultimately we don’t really have that much control over our bodies. They obey universal, impersonal laws.
   
3. Make our container bigger.
   
   As Suzuki Roshi [Zen monk and teacher] put it, “The best way to control a cow is to put it in a larger pasture.” Making our container bigger is not always easy. But when meditation practice works, that is what happens.

All of our practices have elements of expanding our awareness to include all of our experience without exception. And, to work with whatever arises in the mind with a sense of spaciousness, acceptance, and compassion. This is how we make our ‘containers’ a little larger each week. As we do, the ‘salt’ in our lives becomes less and less noticeable.