Many years ago, we gave one of our assistants a book to read, and it's a fairly simplified book. It's called the Dictionary of Buddhism. It has a lot of listings of numbered things, numbered items like the Four Noble Truths, the Noble Eightfold Path and so on, but it's very brief, it doesn't have much explanation. Our assistant became very perplexed, very surprised and confused when they found that the word Equanimity was listed under what is called the Ten Vipassanu Kilesas, and those two words "Vipassanu Kilesas" gets translated in English into the "Defilements of Insight," or something similar. So this was a listing of some things that interfere with our development, which could block our development, and equanimity was listed.
Our assistant was quite confused and wanted to know what was going on, Equanimity is a Parami, Equanimity is part of the Four Brahma Viharas, why is it now a defilement? Well, the equanimity they were talking about as a defilement is a type of equanimity that gets stuck, being very calm and very peaceful, and it blocks further growth. The Vipassanu Kilesas are things that will block the Vipassana practice. A person can get so high and everything's peaceful, everything's very nice, and they get stuck there. These are dangers. The different concentration states are also dangers. If people can master going into a nice concentrated state, feel very peaceful, no body pain, no nothing, get up and walk away, feel nice and calm afterward, they can get stuck. If they do get stuck, it becomes a defilement to their growth, it stops them continuing with wisdom growth.
Whatever practice you do, judge your practice on how you react throughout the day. Check your reaction. Don't judge your practice on what's happening on the pillow. That's part of it, that helps, that's the training, but remember to judge your practice when you are standing in line and somebody takes three pieces of papaya. Judge your practice if you go to your dishes and they are missing and you see somebody else who has them. Judge your practice throughout the day, that's the real test of the practice. When we think of the different stages of concentration, a lot of people get attached to them, they are very peaceful, they are very calm, and then these people don't want to do the wisdom side at all. This is a very major problem for a lot of people today, in particular, because they don't have enough foundation practice.
Now, going back, I mentioned a few days ago about how in the Buddha's day they didn't have computers, tape recorders and everything else, the minds were more simple, they also had higher Morality. In general the people practicing had higher morality than people who come into these retreats here. A lot of the people here are straight from the full moon party or they are going to be there on the day after the retreat or whatever. They are doing a lot of things that are not really proper, and yet they've got some good Kamma, they've come to do a retreat, learn something, they may change their direction and so on. But by and large, the societies in those days, the people who practiced already had a very strong foundation.
You only have to look into your own life, and I'm sure a lot of you are similar to me, I was not taught to be super-generous growing up. It just wasn't and isn't something done in our societies. When you think of Indian society two and a half thousand years ago, and even parts of it today, any spiritual seeker would be given food, if they were wandering the streets looking for food, any of them. They could be totally naked, dirty, they haven't washed in ten years, matted hair (and not because they did it themselves but because it's never been combed, never been washed). There were people practicing what they called dog-duty asceticism, where they would walk on the ground with their hands and knees, they would eat out of garbage cans, practicing trying to be like a dog, thinking that that was how to purify. And they were allowed to be that way, thinking that it was a spiritual practice to be like that, they would be given food, they would be given shelter.
What would happen on the streets of any of the cities you came from, if somebody was naked with matted hair crawling along on all fours, going into garbage cans?! It was a different world... a different world. In those days with people having more respect for spiritual practice and generally more generosity and morality, it seems that they were better able to do the concentration work, getting deep absorption, and not get so attached to it. And yet even though in general they could use it more wisely, there were also stories where people got attached to their powers. The Buddha's cousin is one of them, Devadatta, who tried to kill the Buddha later. After he developed some psychic powers through strong concentration, his mind went crazy with the fame that he got. So it was a danger even in those days, and today it also appears to be dangerous, because people don't seem to have enough foundation practice, not enough wisdom to protect themselves with.