Ten Percent Happier with Dan Harris - How To Keep Your Sht Together No Matter What Kamala Masters

Episode Date: January 11, 2026

Because even doing the dishes can be an opportunity to wake up. We're bringing you some of our favorite gems from the archives, as chosen by our staff. This week, we're hearing from dharma teacher Kamala Masters as chosen by our executive producer DJ Cashmere. Kamala reflects on the practice of equanimity, and how to be mindful even in the "hell realm" of raising young children.  Full Episode:  How To Be Okay No Matter What | Kamala Masters   Join Dan's online community here Follow Dan on social: Instagram, TikTok Subscribe to our YouTube Channel Get ready for another Meditation Party at Omega Institute! This in-person workshop brings together Dan with his friends and meditation teachers, Sebene Selassie, Jeff Warren, and for the first time, Ofosu Jones-Quartey. The event runs October 24th-26th. Sign up and learn more at eomega.org/workshops/meditation-party-2025.   To advertise on the show, contact [e-mail] or visit https://advertising.libsyn.com/10HappierwithDanHarris   SPONSORS:  Odoo: Discover how you can take your business to the next level by visiting odoo.com. Modern management made simple.

This is the 10% Happier Podcast. I'm Dan Harris. Happy Friday, everybody. Today, we're talking about something we all want, but often struggle to actually achieve equanimity. You're going to hear from one of my favorite meditation teachers, Kamala Masters, who's an awesome person. You're going to hear from her about how she cultivated some measure of balance and calm in the middle of an extremely chaotic period of her life when she was raising young children by herself. To be clear, though, this is not just about achieving equanimity with children. It's about keeping your shit together no matter what's going on. As you may have noticed, there's a lot going on in the world. So this is a discussion of evergreen importance. As you also may have noticed, we've been doing Friday episodes of late, where we share golden nuggets from our vast archive as selected by members of the team here at 10% happier.

Today's clip, which, again, is from Kamala Masters. The clip was chosen by DJ Kashmir, who's our executive producer, who himself has, you children. In a moment after this quick break, you're going to hear DJ describe why he picked the clip and then we will hear the clip from Kamala. But first and very quickly, I want to remind you to come check out what we're doing over at Dan Harris.com. Paid subscribers now get guided meditations that come with all of our Monday, Wednesday episodes, custom guided meditations, really designed to help you take the learnings from the conversations here on the show on Mondays and Wednesdays and I kind of put them in your brain, in your mind, in a deeper way.

Payed subscribers also get live meditation and Q&A sessions on video every Tuesday at 4 Eastern. I'm going to do the next one solo, but sometimes I do it with our Teacher of the Month. In September, our Teacher of the Month has been Vinnie Ferraro in October. It will be the great Seb and A. Salasi. Speaking of Seb, if you want to meditate with me and Seb in person, we will be back at the Omega Institute for another installment of meditation party from October 24th through 26th. There's a link in the show notes. Okay, quick break. Then we'll come back and we'll hear from DJ and then Kamala Masters.

Hey, this is DJ Kashmir. I am the executive producer here on the show. And I think all the time about this moment from Dan's conversation with Kamala Masters a few years back. This was an episode about equanimity and she just did an incredible job laying out the definition of equanimity, what it is and what it isn't, how to practice it. But actually the moment that stuck with me the most comes right at the end of the interview, where she's talking about what it was like to try to develop a practice as a young mom, raising three kids on her own, which she calls a hell realm. And essentially what she talks about is learning from her meditation teacher how to turn

everyday moments, recurring, repetitive, sort of cyclical care task moments, like washing the dishes, how to turn those into the heart of her meditation practice, basically, and how she learned to feel the water on her hands when she was washing the dishes and to notice the thoughts arising in her mind when she was washing the dishes. And I just found this story and the way she tells it so evocative and compelling. I'm someone with two little kids at home and a lot of domestic responsibilities, and it can be very easy for me to slip into a story about how the conditions in my life are such that it's too hard for me to practice the way that I might want.

And this story of hers just sort of cuts to the heart of that delusion and is this sort of beacon for me saying, no, you can practice. Like if you're alive, you can practice. You can find the moments in your life to turn into a place of practice. And I just find it really compelling. I find it really inspiring and to see how she started and how far she's come in her practice.

It gives me a model and a North Star. And I definitely can't say that I always wash the dishes mindfully. But what I can say is this reminder has been helpful to me again and again and again, that we can find these little moments in our day and turn those into meditative moments. Yeah, I hope you enjoy it as well. Thank you, DJ. Okay, so now let's hear the portion of the interview with Kamala Masters that resonated so hard with DJ. Just a few little notes here for context. You're going to hear Kamala mention the term meta,

which is often called loving kindness, which is a practice where you send a series of phrases toward a series of people. So you envision people and then you send them phrases like happy, healthy, safely with ease. Kamala teaches meta, like many, if not all Buddhist teachers, but really the focus is on equanimity practice, which as you will hear is a little bit different. Also, you're going to hear her mention her teacher, Munindraji, Anagurika Munindra, but she refers to him as a munindraji. He was also a major teacher for Joseph Goldstein and Sharon Salzberg. He died back in 2003.

So that's just a little bit of context. Okay, let's hear from Kamala Masters now. Would you be willing to describe in a little bit more detail if we wanted to do equanimity practice formally, how would we do that? What does that look like? What are the instructions? Well, usually it would start out in our tradition. It would start out with doing meta first, but you could go directly to equanimity. So one step to take is to, I'm going to put a little spot for Sharon. Sharon teaches equanimity beautifully, Sharon Salzberg. And I have equanimity online at Dharma seed also. The way I teach it is I would teach meta first to develop a heart of meta for yourself and then, you know, go to the individual beings as we go through oneself, benefactor, dear friend, neutral person, and then difficult person. And then all beings. All beings is really helpful for a lot of people. So that then when

we go from meta, usually when I teach equanimity, I do the first days of meta. And then we go on to equanimity, where we are developing equanimity with meta already in our hearts. So we're not going to do the meta practice. Now we're going to do the equanimity practice. And actually equanimity, you know, it has these individuals that we go through. Equanimity starts with a neutral person, because with that neutral person, we can more easily develop equanimity towards that person. So the phrases are different. The equanimity phrases are, they're more like statements. They're not offerings. They're more like statements of understanding. So in equanimity practice were understanding how to be equanimous within us so that we can understand with equanimity that person

we are relating to. So one understanding would be pleasure and pain arise and pass away. This is how it is. And there are other things like gain and sorrow arise and pass away. This is how it is in life. So in that way, these are phrases that have to do with wisdom where we're coming to understand their deep meaning. So we start off using particular phrases and maybe we use a phrase like, may you have balance in your life? And then maybe we go on to a benefactor. And we use a phrase like, birth and death are part of life. These are phrases that are very wisdom oriented. They're not like sending equanimity to that person. They're very oriented towards understanding that this is the way it is right now. So say now next you go to a person that's close to you and then you

remember something about that person that they're going through that could be very difficult. And then you remember that situation, that person. And then you will say a phrase like, this is how it is in your life right now. This is how your life is unfolding. May I open to how it is in your life right now. And so you're always in your phrases developing that kind of wisdom that's going to align with how it really is in life.

And this is what brings equanimity that we're not reacting to it, that we're aligning in ever-deepening ways, to the unfolding of life. Yeah, I think that's what you mean when you say. These are wisdom phrases because they direct us to the truth, however, uncomfortable, hopefully in a way that allows us to relax into it. In terms of the instructions, I just want to repeat them back to you just to make sure I've got it.

From what I heard, you would advise, you know, if we've got the time, to start with some meta or loving kindness practice, so we might sit in a reasonably quiet place, close our eyes, bring to mind an easy person, envision this person or your dog or your cat, send them the classical phrases, which are often, you know, may you be happy, may be safe, healthy, live with ease. Move on to yourself, a mentor or benefactor, a neutral person, a difficult person or a person with whom you're having difficulty, and then all beings. So once the mind is tenderized with a little bit of love and warmth, then you could move to this equanimity practice that you described,

to which would be, again, to call specific people to mind, maybe an easy person yourself, and then go from there, and to say phrases that direct your mind and perhaps maybe as somewhat of an offering the mind of the person who's your meta target or your equanimity target in the moment of gain and loss are inevitable. Birth and death are inevitable

to put us in this mind state of this is the way things are. Right. You were really good at, mentioning all of that, Dan, yeah. So you reviewed it well. And you might even use the last phrase, which is sometimes hard for people to get. The last phrase has to do with karma, the actual traditional phrase, which is, all beings are owners of their karma, their happiness or unhappiness, depends upon their actions and not upon my wishes. All beings are owners of their karma, their happiness or unhappiness depends upon their actions and not upon my wishes.

So I have shortened that phrase when I'm working in the equanimity practice with my own children, for example, to say, all beings have their own journey. That's it. Because inwardly, I do understand that now my children are grown and seeing them go through a lot. And I could never really control their journey as much as I tried, you know. And to say, you have your own journey. And also included in that is a meta, I could say that, you have your own journey and all beings have their own journey. Included in that is a deep understanding in my heart that I'll help you as much as I can.

And I know that the unfolding of your life is really beyond my control. So that's karma too, understanding of karma. So got woven together. How does that work? Are you able to achieve some sort of equanimity when it comes to your own children? More. I have not been always equanimous with my children.

That's true. I just have blown my top sometimes, but I never really harm them physically, of course. And I know that's hard, you know, that it's really hard. It's really frustrating. I raised three children on my own when I was in my 20s. It was a hell realm. It's what sent me to the Dharma.

So I really understand that it's not easy. And we're going to blow our top and we're going to say things that we regret and hopefully we can overcome it and ask for forgiveness. But we're just human. That could be an equanimity phrase. Remember that we're all just human. It sounds to me also like a self-compassion phrase. Absolutely, yeah.

Another thing about equanimity as I've been taught is that it allows you to come close to other people's suffering to keep your cool so that you can be useful when people need you. Because if your mind is balanced, you're not freaking out in the face of somebody else freaking out, then that could serve you and other people really well. That's right. We can always bring it along. You can make it be part of meta, too. Say, for example, somebody's difficult in our own hearts and we're doing our best to sending meta to that person. I offer you my goodwill and things are just as they are. Just adding that equanimity phrase to it just says doing the best I can and things are just as they are right now. It's important to add that right now to that phrase because it changes all the time. So I've noticed. Yes. Yeah. I do want to pick up on a phrase you used earlier, you said something about in the face of difficult circumstances or people,

the job is to handle your own mind. And I just think that's worth amplifying because that's a massively empowering and I think even liberating thing to teach people, which is that you can't take responsibility for everything that happens with somebody else. But you can take responsibility for your own mind. Absolutely. Yeah. And if you really put our thoughts around it, it's like the impact that we can make with our energy, first of all, needs to be with ourselves to look what's going on in our own minds, because that's what really can change. We really have the possibility of making change in the world, of course.

But mostly the potential for change happens in here in our own hearts. as doing those simple things, I've repeated several times, to know what's beneficial and to nurture that, to know what's not beneficial and to refrain from that. And so when we can even know that much, we can act with a lot of power in the world. When going back to Menindra, he would say, I heard him say several times in different instances

about how when there is a purity of the mind, even in the moment, you know, when there is no hatred, no greed, no delusion, or a lessening of that, the mind is very powerful. What it says, what it does can have a great impact around us. Just the transmission of having a person like that in our presence, even that having a person like that is very powerful. So we can have a greater impact if we pay attention to what's going on inside. Before I let you go, I want to, you talked about raising

three children on your own, and that bring you to the Dharma, I suspect there are some people listening who are like, whoa, tell me more about that. How did you become such a deeply respected and experienced teacher in this very demanding discipline while raising three children? How did you get your practice time in at home? I practiced at home a lot because I couldn't go to retreats, but sometimes I could and told you my first teacher was Mnindraji. And a lot of you in the audience may have heard this story if you've listened to talks before. It's about how I learned how to practice at home, which was so important. Because practicing at home in my daily life, walking through the hallways, opening doors, washing dishes,

helped me when I went to my first retreat, be able to have continuity in my practice. So it was a continuity that really helped me. When I first came to the Dharma, I brought Menindra to Maui to teach a retreat. And so he did. And he came home with us and the three children. Or did I have four at the time? No, I had three. So anyway, he said, do you sit every day?

I said, no, I can't sit every day. And he said, well, what do you do? And I just right away, I said, mostly what I do is wash dishes. So he said, okay, let's go to the sink. So he stood right beside me as if we were under the Bodie tree and he taught me how to wash the dishes. Like just when feeling the warm water, just no feeling, feeling or warmth, warmth, or what are you thinking now? He would ask me, I'm worrying, worrying, worrying, okay, note worrying. We did all that.

And then he said, do you do walking meditation? I said, no. He said, well, where do you walk? And I said, usually from the dining room to the bedroom and back forth, he said, let's go there. And we went there and he taught me how to do walking meditation every time I stepped in that hallway. So that's how I learned. And that's what I did for a long, long time. I took his advice and I did it.

And then when I would go to sit, as soon as they gave the instructions, the mind would just take it in and I would just say, oh, okay, I'll do that. So I would just go to the breath, just be there. When it goes to something else, notice that, okay, come back to the breath. Okay. I was so desperate. I wouldn't do anything. When I went to my first long retreat, it was a very, I could see. Yeah, I can practice, you know.

I can really practice sitting down and being quiet. And, yeah, it was really helpful to do that practice at home, everyday practice. I think that story is going to be potentially. extremely helpful and empowering for anybody with little kids at home or anybody who feels that their life is too busy to do any sustained level of practice. We could just do it walking wherever we have to walk already and while doing whatever chores we have to do already. So it's really helpful. I'm glad. Thank you to the great Kamala Masters, also to the great DJ Kashmir for suggesting that excerpt. We will put a link to the full episode. If you want to go back and listen to that,

we'll put a link in the show notes. Also, speaking of you are. Go check out Dan Harris.com. If you sign up, you'll get custom companion meditations for all of our Monday, Wednesday, episodes, and weekly live guided meditation sessions every Tuesday at 4 Eastern. And if you want to meditate with me in person, don't forget to check out the link in the show notes to the upcoming meditation party at the Omega Institute, the weekend of October 24th. Finally, thank you very much to everybody who works so hard on the show. Our producers are Tara Anderson, Caroline Keenan, and Eleanor Vassili, are recording and engineering. is handled by the great folks over at Pod People. Lauren Smith is our managing producer. Marissa Schneiderman is our senior producer. DJ Kashmir is our executive producer,

and Nick Thorburn of the band Islands wrote our theme.