Date: 06/28/2025 06/29/2025
Location: Star River Meditation Center
Teacher: Yunquan Huang
Dharma Knowledge
Discriminating Mind and Equanimity
In Buddhist practice, the contrast between the discriminating mind and equanimity illuminates how the mind moves from confusion to clarity. The discriminating mind is our default mode of perceiving the world; equanimity is a cultivated quality that gradually emerges through insight. They are not enemies, but stages on a continuum. Understanding the function and limits of discrimination—and learning how equanimity arises within it—is central to practice.
The discriminating mind categorizes, judges, compares, and prefers. At the conventional level, it is necessary. Without discrimination we could not learn, work, or communicate. The problem begins when we cling to our discriminations—treating judgments as facts, preferences as truths, and viewpoints as identities. When discrimination fuses with ego, it hardens into opposition, comparison, and conflict, giving rise to suffering.
Typical expressions of discrimination include strong likes and dislikes, fixation on gain and loss, and rigid right–wrong thinking. We grasp at what we like and reject what we don’t; we draw lines between “us” and “them.” Over time, the mind becomes stretched between attraction and aversion and loses its capacity to rest. At a deeper level, discrimination labels experience so quickly that we stop seeing what is actually present and instead see only our concepts.
Equanimity does not mean the absence of discernment; it means freedom from being bound by it. Equanimity sees that all beings are subject to conditions and change, and therefore does not assign absolute value based on preference or position. It does not erase differences; it refuses fixation. Judgments may still arise, but the mind does not cling to them or act them out compulsively.
In practice, equanimity develops through mindful observation of discrimination itself. When we notice, “This is preference,” “This is aversion,” “This is comparison,” and choose not to react automatically, equanimity begins to take root. As awareness deepens, we see that discrimination often arises from habit and fear rather than necessity. When fear is understood, grasping relaxes, and equanimity naturally appears as steadiness and warmth.
Equanimity is inseparable from compassion. As long as the mind draws rigid boundaries—“for me” versus “against me”—compassion remains conditional. Equanimity recognizes that all actions arise from causes and limitations, fostering understanding without excusing harm. It allows us to uphold principles while respecting people, to be firm without being hostile.
It is important to clarify that equanimity is not uniform treatment of all situations. Conditions differ; responses must differ. Roles and responsibilities are real. Equanimity does not deny these differences; it prevents them from turning into prejudice. With equanimity, discernment becomes clearer and actions become more skillful because they are not driven by emotional reactivity.
In daily life, the difference between discrimination and equanimity shows up in small moments: speaking to be right versus speaking to understand; choosing to win versus choosing what is wholesome; defending identity versus solving a shared problem. Each mindful adjustment is a step from division toward balance.
In summary, discrimination makes the world navigable; equanimity makes life free. Practice does not seek to eliminate discernment but to return it to its proper place—as a tool, not a tyrant. When discrimination no longer manufactures opposition, equanimity becomes the mind’s ground. From that ground, wisdom and compassion can function together, unobstructed.
