The fourth and last immeasurable thought is tangnyom (བཏང་སྙོམས་) or equanimity. It is the attitude or thought to treat everyone without partiality or discrimination, and further, the wish to free all sentient beings from attachment, hatred (ཆགས་སྡང་) and all other forms of bias and prejudice. The practice of equanimity is founded on the Buddhist philosophical view that all sentient beings are equal in their empirical and ontological states of existence. All sentient beings, irrespective of existential differences, seek pleasure and happiness and avoid pain and suffering. Similarly, all sentient beings are essentially ontologically clustered psychomatic parts that are intricately interconnected, and inherently dependent on numerous causes and conditions. They lack any independent existence. Thus, all sentient beings are equal and undifferentiated in their natures; it is only concordant with nature to eschew differentiation and partiality when generating benevolent thoughts.

Although equanimity is listed as the fourth last of the four immeasurables, Buddhist traditions in Bhutan often recommend practicing equanimity before the other three so that one’s cultivation of benevolent thoughts do not become limited, partial, or one-sided. This is because true altruism and benevolence in the Mahāyāna traditions must extend to all sentient beings without any partiality or difference, not only towards some selected recipients. Thus, a practitioner must first learn to let go attachments and desire for those whom one loves, and similarly jettison any hatred and jealousy for those whom one loves not. One does this by juxtaposing a disliked person with a person who is much loved and has been extremely kind. One strives to treat both of them equally without any difference. One wishes to seek happiness for both and dispel their suffering equally.

This contemplative practice is often substantiated with the Buddhist belief in numerous lifetimes. All sentient beings have been one’s beloved parents, siblings, or spouses in the past, just as loved ones in this life have all also been one’s enemies many times. From this perspective, it is irrational to treat some better than others or love some more than others. Moreover, depending on one’s priorities and purposes in life, sometimes enemies who we view as doing us harm instead bring about great benefits by posing new challenges and opportunities for growth. Similarly, those who are deeply loved can unintentionally bring about great harm and suffering. Using such reasoning, the practitioner ideally develops an impartial attitude toward all sentient beings and wishes them equal happiness.

Having developed emotional and mental equilibrium, the practitioner engages in generating benevolent thoughts including loving kindness, compassion and joy towards all sentient beings. Equanimity can also be cultivated through contemplative meditation and absorptive meditation, which can be classified into three types. According to the tradition passed down through Patrul Rinpoche of Tibet, equanimity and other immeasurable thoughts can be cultivated in the four modes of a wish (འདུན་པ་), prayer (སྨོན་ལམ), resolve (དམ་བཅའ) and supplication (གསོལ་འདེབས་) in the following four-step manner:

1. How I strongly wish that all sentient beings become free from attachment, hatred, and all forms of discrimination, and abide in great equanimity.

2. May all sentient beings become free from attachment, hatred, and all forms of discrimination, and abide in great equanimity.

3. I resolve to help all sentient beings become free from attachment, hatred, and all forms of discrimination, and abide in great equanimity. 

4. I beseech the Buddhas, Bodhisattvas and powerful beings to help me in helping sentient beings become free from attachment, hatred, and all forms discrimination, and abide in great equanimity.

In Bhutan, people commonly chant this line to generate equanimity:

མ་ནམ་མཁའ་དང་མཉམ་པའི་སེམས་ཅན་ཐམས་ཅད་ཆགས་སྡང་ཉེ་རིང་དང་བྲལ་བའི་བཏང་སྙོམས་ཆེན་པོ་ལ་ཡུན་རིང་དུ་གནས་པར་གྱུར་ཅིག

May all mother sentient beings as vast as space be free from attachment, hatred, and all forms of discrimination, and permanently abide in state of great equanimity.

Karma Phuntsho is the Director of Shejun Agency for Bhutan’s Cultural Documentation and Research, the President of the Loden Foundation and the author of The History of Bhutan. The piece was initially published in Bhutan’s national newspaper Kuensel in a series called "Why We Do What We Do."