Dharana 105 of 112 · verse 125

The Same to Friend and Enemy

If everything is filled by one thing, honour and dishonour stop being different.

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Before you try this

This is a contemplative exercise, not a rule about how to be treated. It does not ask you to accept harm or to stay anywhere unsafe.

The practice

Bring to mind someone who has treated you well and someone who has not, and an occasion of praise and one of humiliation. Hold that all four are equally full of the same thing. Then let your attitude towards the four become the same one, and stay in it.

What it works on

This is the previous contemplation applied where it costs something. The text presents it as a consequence rather than an effort: knowing that everything is equally filled, evenness is what is left rather than what is achieved.

Notes

  • The evenness is meant to be warm. Coldness towards both is a different thing and not this.
  • Start with small slights. Large ones need much more ground under them.

Practise gently

Shoonyaka offers educational and contemplative material, not medical, psychological or religious authority. Nothing here diagnoses or treats any condition. Stop any practice that leaves you dizzy, frightened or unwell, and treat a strong reaction as a reason to rest rather than to push on.