Upekkha

Meaning

Upekkhā is equanimity, imperturbable clarity, a cornerstone of Buddhist practice.

It appears in numerous contexts:

• The fourth brahmavihāra
• One of the wholesome mental factors (kusala cetasika)
• One of the 40 “official” meditation objects (kammatthana)
• One of the “jhāna factors” (markers of a particular level of concentration)
• One of the ten pāramitās
• One of the seven factors of awakening

Eight worldly winds

Upekkhā is the highest form of emotional maturity: a mind remaining calm in the face of the “eight worldly winds” (attha-loka-dhamma):

• Loss and gain
• Good and bad reputation
• Praise and blame
• Sorrow and happiness

One could say that upekkhā is resilience to anicca, cultivated through its wise understanding.

What upekkhā is not

Although upekkhā is often translated as “equanimity” or “impartiality,” it is important to understand that it is not indifference, coldness, or lack of care. Rather, it is unshakeability of mind without suppressed feelings. The ability to regard any sensations (pleasant, unpleasant, neutral) as arising and passing conditions, but not occasions for suffering.

While the obvious opposite, the “far enemy” of upekkhā, is greed or aversion, the “near enemies” are precisely indifference, apathy, and unconcern. The mind can be calm and free from reactivity as a result of practicing upekkhā, or it can appear so simply because it doesn’t care.

Role in the brahmavihāra system

In essence, upekkhā is something like a foundation for the other three brahmavihāras, a stable base that prevents falling into afflictive states - “a mind unmoved and unshaken, like a mountain peak.”

How to develop upekkhā

• Observe how reactions to praise and criticism arise, and distinguish feeling from clinging
• In meditation - track bodily sensations without becoming involved (and if you add the lens of the three characteristics, you get vipassanā)
• Train the ability to stay with experience without an immediate “yes/no,” “mine/not mine”
• Remember that any state of mind is conditioned and impermanent, and does not require instant clinging
• Practice the intention: “I meet this experience evenly, clearly, and caringly”
• Distinguish: when calmness is clarity, and when it is avoidance

Our distant ancestors, single-celled organisms, once lived in a slightly salty, warm ocean. Much has changed since then, but we still carry that ancient ocean inside, in every cell of our bodies. Upekkhā is something like that inner ocean, independent of external events. A permanently comfortable “inner weather,” despite all the world’s winds.