This guided meditation focuses on cultivating upekkha (ooh-peh-kah), equanimity regarding one’s subjective experience. This quality of consciousness is frequently identified in Buddhist teachings: one of the Seven Awakening Factors, one of the Four Diving Abidings, one of the Ten Perfections, and the primary characteristic of the Fourth Jhana. During the meditation attention is established on mindfulness of breathing, with associations stated between prolonged breath awareness, concentration, tranquility and equanimity. The meditation student is invited to investigate mindfully the quality of consciousness to determine whether the mind is too excited or too sedated, too identified with what is in awareness, or if attention is too dispersed and distracted. Right Effort is brought to mind to find an equanimous balance between extremes of energy and identification, cultivating a “middle way”, suitable for the process of Awakening.
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