อุเบกขาคือการวางใจเป็นกลาง ไม่ให้ใจกระเพื่อมไปกับความยินดียินร้าย ส่วนสันโดษคือความสุขจากการยินดีพอใจในสิ่งที่ตนมีตนเป็น ทั้งสองเป็นธรรมที่ควรไปคู่กัน เพื่อให้ชีวิตและการปฏิบัติธรรมเจริญก้าวหน้าอย่างสมดุลEquanimity is keeping the mind neutral, not swaying with delight or aversion; contentment is the happiness of being satisfied with what one has and is. The two should go hand in hand, keeping both life and dhamma practice progressing in balance.
Someone asked: what's the difference between equanimity and ?
Equanimity: A Neutral Mind, Unmoved by What Stirs It
Pra Ajarn explained that equanimity is setting the mind neutral, keeping it balanced, not swaying with the delight or aversion that tries to provoke. We know what's pleasant and what's not, but the mind stays neutral, unmoved. Delight is moderate delight; sorrow is moderate sorrow. If we're overjoyed one moment, we'll likely be overwhelmed with grief the next — like a pendulum swung fully to one side, which must swing back just as far to the other. But as the swing grows smaller and smaller, until it can rest still and balanced, that stillness is equanimity.
Contentment: Happiness in What One Already Has and Is
Contentment, meanwhile, is the that comes from being sfied with what one already has and is. Humans rarely feel satisfied with what they have, so their happiness ends up being scarce. We buy something new and feel delighted opening the box, but after using it a while, we grow bored. We get a new job and feel happy for the first month, then indifferent after that — even though the happiness ought to continue on and on. If we have contentment, satisfied with what we have, we gain continuous happiness — a happiness that stays with us all the time. All it takes is contentment.
Why the Two Must Go Together
Equanimity and contentment should go hand in hand, as s that accompany each other; life then becomes very happy. The same is true for dhamma practice — it requires both equanimity and contentment together for practice to progress continuously, because along the path of practice we inevitably meet checkpoints that bring great suffering. Even the noble ones had to walk all the way to the end of the mass of suffering, which shows that suffering comes in waves along the entire path. Without equanimity, this becomes a problem; with equanimity, life stays balanced, able to pass through each crisis — meeting a new crisis, we simply keep the mind neutral and move through it. The happiness of contentment, meanwhile, develops according to what we have in each moment — without overreaching hope, without pinning expectations on the future, without dwelling on the past. Taking the present, whatever we have and are, as our foundation — satisfied with however little, for now — life then stays happy, continuously.