Greetings Bhante 
Is this at all related to ‘Awareness’? As in, that which watches/sees and knows, but is apart?
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Bhikku Bodhi:
He knows thus: ‘When I strive with determination, this particular source of suffering fades away in me because of that determined striving; and when I look on with equanimity, this particular source of suffering fades away in me while I develop equanimity.’ He strives with determination in regard to that particular source of suffering which fades away in him because of that determined striving; and he develops equanimity in regard to that particular source of suffering which fades away in him while he is developing equanimity.
Thanissaro Bhikkhu:
He discerns that ‘When I exert a [physical, verbal, or mental] fabrication against this cause of suffering, then from the fabrication of exertion there is dispassion.
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Indeed, yes. Upekkhā straddles a line between emotional neutrality and observation.
Thanks for checking that, Mike!
Ven Bodhi doesn’t make any of the mistakes that Ven Thanissaro does in this passage. There are a couple of points I think are less than ideal, however.
First, as already mentioned above, I’d prefer to avoid the repetition of the verbal phrase; but this is really just a translator’s choice, it’s not incorrect either way.
Second, the use of “determination” here has never really chimed with me. It really is just a synonym of “striving”, so taking it away shouldn’t change the meaning substantively. But I think “determination” adds a specific nuance: to act with a set goal in mind that one will not relinquish. As Merriam-Webster puts in, “firm or fixed intention to achieve a desired end”. Again, this is not exactly wrong, but it conveys a rather more specific freight of meaning than the term itself in Pali.
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@sujato Thank you 
Would it be fair to say that that duality ceases, or is diminished, in Upekha? Observation without Sankhara?
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Equanimity of feeling as such is one of the aggregates and part of samsara, which constitutes a duality with nibbana. Although equanimity of feeling is eventually abandoned, for the Buddha and arahants there is always duality:
“these are the world’s designations, the world’s expressions, the world’s ways of speaking, the world’s descriptions, with which the Tathagata expresses himself but without grasping to them.”—DN 9
Equanimity is located in SN 36.31 in the second foundation of mindfulness, which distinguishes feeling. This is distinct from equanimity of energy associated with the third foundation and balance in states of mind.
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Umm, I’m not quite sure that I’d put it that way.
As for duality, it’s only directly mentioned in the context of the kasiṇas where there is no duality in the experience of the meditator. So from that perspective there is no duality in any jhana. Having said which which, in a less strict technical sense, it is the case that equanimity as an emotion would lean towards dissolving the boundaries between self and other, as do the other brahmaviharas. In this sense, it is the very opposite of the “I’m all right Jack” mentality of indifference.
As for saṅkhārā, apart form the relatively rare usage of upekkhā as a neutral feeling, it is itself an attitude or response to experience, and thus a kind of saṅkhārā in a broad sense. Indeed, one of the threefold divisions of saṅkhārā includes good choices, bad choices, and imperturbable choices (aneñjabhisaṅkhārā), where the imperturbable is the kamma associated with the equanimity of 4th jhana and above. This is still a saṅkhārā, indeed a very powerful one, albeit subtle.
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Thanks very much for your responses Bhante @sujato and @paul1 
I find it useful to push the boundaries in order to try and shake out the nuances of these terms, what is included, and what is not
Interesting stuff to consider
Thank-you 
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@Khemarato.bhikkhu
Thanks for the link to the Ven Analayo essay above. It lists and explains all the many various aspects of Upekkha really well 
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Bare attention is the most common form of equanimity experienced at the student level, and is related to the sense restraint of the gradual path:
“Sati as bare attention is particularly relevant to restraint at the sense doors (indriya saÿvara).71 In this aspect of the gradual path, the practitioner is encouraged to retain bare sati in regard to all sense input. Through the simple presence of undisrupted and bare mindfulness, the mind is “restrained” from amplifying and proliferating the received information in various ways.”—-Analayo
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Can you provide the reference for this pease?
It is here in the book “Satipatthana,” in chapter 3 ‘Sati’ under ‘Characteristics and functions of sati’, 111.5:
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Thanks; it’s always nice to let readers know where you sourced things, when possible.
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