For those of you that haven't been part of the last three classes, we're doing a four-part

series on what are called the divine abodes and that means the divine dwelling places.

Where our awakened heartmind lives when we're really in that freedom. And the first expression

or the first abode is love. The second is compassion. The third is joy. Tonight we're

on to the fourth, which is equanimity. And I notice that often when I share what these

are, people are very juiced and wanting to hear the first three and they get to equanimity

and it's like it doesn't have quite the sex appeal of love and joy. But actually as you'll

explore, it is. I will share though that my first introduction to Buddhism was in 11th grade

in a comparative religion class. And I remember when I heard about the middle way, when I heard about

equanimity, when I heard about not getting caught in desire, I immediately wrote off Buddhism

as not for me. And of course over the years I've discovered that the middle way and equanimity

are actually the grounds for the deepest happiness possible, which of course is what will be explored

tonight. So what is equanimity? Equanimity is the freedom or balance that we experience when we're

not grasping after anything and when we're not pushing away anything, that open-handedness that's

really receiving the moment as it is, no tinkering, just being. And there's this kind of spaciousness

that opens up and it allows for all the expressions of our natural being to arise.

I thought maybe I would share a poem with you that I've always liked that I will kind of

communicate some of this and it's called Duck Meditation. Now we are ready to look at something

pretty special. It is a duck riding the ocean a hundred feet beyond the surf as it cuddles

in the swells. There's a big heaving in the Atlantic and he is part of it. He can rest while

the Atlantic heaves because he rests in the Atlantic. He probably doesn't know how large the

ocean is and neither do you. But he realizes it's somewhere and what does he do I ask you?

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