The Bodhisattva Doctrine in Buddhist Sanskrit Literature c8.s8.35

c8.s8.35

“His equanimity was not disturbed, even when the villagers tried to vex or please him by spitting or by offering garlands and perfumes, and thus he acquired the Perfection of *upekkhā*.” 333 The Tibetan equivalent is *btaṅ-sñoms* (*Lal. V. Tib.*, p. 36, line 18). According to S. Lévi, it means, “l’équilibre par rejet.” 334 S. C. Das explains thus : “*Btaṅ-sñoms* is a word signifying impartial and equal treatment of friend or foe, i.e., to abstain from anger or affection for friends and relations, equal treatment to all living beings without either attachment or hatred” (*Tib. Dicy.* 529a). *Upekṣā* thus seems to denote the mental state of equanimity under all favourable and unfavourable circumstances, and also the practice of impartiality in one’s conduct towards others. Kṣemendra and a commentator of the *Pr. Pā. Aṣṭa.* emphasize the latter aspect of *upekṣā*.335 The other Mahāyānist authors also regard it as a principle of action, and not merely as a subjective psychological phenomenon. When *upekṣā* is regarded as “equanimity”, it is the neutral middle term between *sukha* and *duḥkha*. When it is interpreted as “impartiality”, it is the neutral middle term between *anunaya* (friendliness) and *pratigha* (repugnance); it then corresponds to *udāsīna* (neutral), which is the mean between *mitra* and *amitra*. *Upekṣā* has something in common with the “Apathy” of the Stoics of Greece and Rome.336