Equanimity: Wisdom of Non-Discrimination | Thich Nhat Hanh (short teaching video)

Look at my two arms.

My right arm...

it can do calligraphy,

it has written...

hundreds of poems.

It can invite the bell.

And yet, my right hand
is never...

proud of itself.

My right hand will
never tell my left hand,

"You are good for nothing.

"You don't write any poem,

you don't practice calligraphy."

Why?
Because in my right hand...

there is the wisdom of
equanimity, "upeksha."

It knows that it is the left hand
at the same time.

And it behaves
according to that wisdom.

One day I was using my left hand
to hold a nail...

I wanted to hang something
on the wall.

And my right hand
was using the hammer.

That day I don't know why
it was not so skillful...

Instead of pounding the nail,

it pounded my finger.

The moment it made the mistake
and created suffering,

it put down the hammer
and took good care right away.

It did not have to say, "I'm sorry."

But the way it behaves is perfect.

It considers the left hand as itself.

There's no distinction that...

"You know, I am the right hand.
I'm taking care of you, the left hand.

You have to remember that!"

So it practices
the emptiness of loving,

emptiness of transmitting
in a very perfect way.

And we know that in our body,
in our consciousness,

there is that wisdom we call
"the wisdom of non-discrimination."

The sanskrit term is nirvikalpajnana,

the wisdom of non-discrimination.

This means discrimination...

This is non-discrimination
wisdom.

We have it. We have that seed
of wisdom within us

within our body,
within our consciousness.

We can develop it
in order to...

to have its guidance
in our daily life.

We have to treat our partner,
our mother, our children...

we have to treat other groups
in exactly the same way.

The Hindus should treat
the Muslims in that way;

the Muslims should treat
the Hindus in that way.

Whites should treat Blacks in that way;

Blacks should treat Whites in that way.

Israelis and Palestinians...

they should look at each other
like the right and the left hands.

Only the wisdom of non-discrimination
can bring about true peace, true love.

And it will help remove the fear.

I don't think that the right hand
is afraid of the left hand,

and that the left hand
is afraid of right hand,

because both of them have
the wisdom of non-discrimination.

They know that they belong to each other;
they are inside of each other.

Everything that happens to the right hand
will happen to the left hand.

The suffering of one finger...

is the concern of all ten fingers.

This is the way
we have to train ourselves.

Mindfulness, looking deeply...

is the only way for us to touch
the nature of interbeing

that can make the wisdom of
non-discrimination manifest.

If we act, if we love, if we give...

according to this spirit
of non-discrimination,

we can only create
happiness and well-being.

I remember 15 years ago,

I had the first chance to 
taste a peanut butter cookie.

It was at the Zen center
in Tassajara.

I liked it very much.

I learned that, in order to make peanut 
butter cookies, you have to prepare...

before putting the cookies into the oven
you have to separate...

to make individual cookies.

But when the cookies
come to the oven,

they begin to discriminate
against each other,

push [each other] a little bit
on the other side,

"Let me be in the central position!"

"You are ugly!"

"You are not brown,
beautiful like me!"

"You don't deserve that place!"
And then...

discrimination begins to take place.

And the war,
and the suffering.

They don't know that they are one.

And that is very much the way
we deal with each other

because we don't know
how to touch our ground of being.

We have lost our wisdom
of non-discrimination.

When I spoke to you about
Four Elements of True Love,

I did not say much about
Upeksha [non-discrimination].

because Upeksha is difficult.

Upeksha comes after Mudita [joy]...

after Karuna [compassion],
and after Maitri [lovingkindness].

The first element of true love
is Maitri,

the capacity of offering
joy and happiness.

Karuna, the capacity of removing the pain,
the sorrow and transforming them.

And joy [Mudita] - True love
should be able to give us joy.

When we cry all day, all night,

we know that
our love is not true love.

And finally the fourth element of true love
is Upeksha.

That is translated "equanimity."

Equanimity is exactly
the wisdom of non-discrimination.

When you are a true lover,
you don't discriminate anymore.

The one who loves
and the one who is loved,

you become one.

Your beloved is you.

And you are your beloved.

Only by having that kind of
wisdom of equanimity,

your love becomes perfect.

And there will be no suffering,
no discrimination.

And if, looking into
the nature of your love,

you don't see any element of equanimity,
you have to practice.

Because the love that is based
on notions of self and other,

and "this" is outside of "that,"
that love is not deep yet.

If you are a psychotherapist,

I think you can learn a lot
from this teaching.

According to psychotherapy,

the aim of the therapy is to regain,
to restore a healthy self.

But even if you have a so-called
healthy self, you continue to suffer

because you cannot
come out of your self.

You are still locked
in the idea of self.

That is why suffering continues.

The true relief is
you get out of the notion of self.

In a relationship,
if the self is still very strong,

you know what will happen.

There will be clash
between self and self.

To give up your self,
to become one with your beloved...

is to practice non-self.

And your degree of happiness,
understanding and love...

will increase by 1000 times.

In this perspective, I think 
the teaching of the Buddha can...

can help a lot with psychotherapy.

Looking deeply to realize
the nature of interbeing,

to know that the self is
only made of non-self element,

That kind of practice can greatly
enhance the quality of the healing.

Only with that practice 
fear can be dealt with.