True and Useful™

Creating Equanimity: A Meditation

Creating equanimity in your body is essentially equivalent to attempting to maintain a continuous relaxed state over your whole body as sensations (pleasant, unpleasant, strong, subtle, physical, emotional) wash through. Creating equanimity in your mind means attempting to let go of negative judgments about what you are experiencing and replacing them with an attitude of loving acceptance and gentle matter-of-factness.

Let me give you a tangible example of how equanimity can be created in your body and mind. Let's say that you have a strong sensation in one part of your body. As you focus attention on what is happening over your whole body, you notice that you are tensing your jaw, clenching your fists, tightening your gut, and scrunching your shoulders. Each time you become aware of tensing in some area, you intentionally relax it to whatever degree possible. A moment later you may notice that the tensing has started again in some area; once again gently relax it to whatever degree possible. If there are areas that cannot be relaxed much or at all, you try to accept the tension sensations and just observe them.

As a result of maintaining this whole-body relaxed state, you may begin to notice subtle flavors of sensation spreading from the local area of intensity and coursing through your body. These are the sensations that you had been masking by tension. Now that they have been uncovered, try to create a mental attitude of welcoming them, not judging them. Observe them with gentle matter-of-factness, giving them permission to dance their dance, to flow as they wish through your body.

Shinzen Young is a meditation teacher.  Learn more at Meditation in Action.

Love your enemy

To pursue the path of equanimity is to develop an awareness that is completely even, like the ocean, taking in equally the joys and sorrows of all people – loved ones, relatives, friends, acquaintances and strangers. This is the meaning of a statement made by so many of the world's great spiritual teachers, "Love your enemy." It doesn't mean love the person you hate. It means love those who hate you. It's that all-inclusiveness that is the essence of equanimity.

Don't Forget to B*R*E*A*T*H*E

It may sound like an obvious reminder, but if you stop and pay attention at any moment during the day, you’ll probably notice that your breathing is often so shallow as to be almost undetectable.  Not only are you depriving your body of oxygen, one of its most vital nutrients, but you’re missing many opportunities to release, slowly but steadily, the inevitable build-up of stress and tension caused by life’s ordinary day-to-day challenges.

Try to remind yourself to take a few slow, deep breaths throughout your day.  You might even make a little "Don't Forget to B*R*E*A*T*H*E" sign for your bathroom mirror, car or desk.  A few deep breaths can help you maintain your composure and give you a chance to re-group before responding to the next challenge or difficult situation.  Whether you notice a dramatic difference or a slight shift in your mood, an increase in conscious deep breathing will have a subtle but powerful effect over time.

A.G.R

Painting: Deep Breath, by Melanie Weidner. Melanie is a Quaker Artist and Spiritual Director whose contagious love for image, metaphor, poetry, and spiritual exploration create joyful and transformative openings for growth. She engages wide audiences across the country with experiences of art and spiritual refection, then circles back to her Oregon studio to pray and create. Website: Listen for Joy.

Equanimity

You hear some bad news. Immediately your heart pounds, your breath tightens, your face frowns. You hear some good news. Your heart jumps, your face smiles. In both cases, your thoughts swirl and you lose your center. You see something disgusting, you feel pain, you notice a horrible thought, or you see your favorite, delectable treat, and you lose your center, inwardly rushing toward or fleeing from what you have encountered. All this describes our ordinary mode of pre-programmed, automated, conditioned, and contingent living.

In Buddhism, Sufism, and Kabbalah, equanimity appears as a precursor to and expression of enlightenment, as a wonderful and necessary quality of mind and heart. The spacious mind-heart leaves room for all the difficulties and attractions of life, for everything wanted and unwanted. Within the warmth of this vast inner space, equanimity permits us to live freely, allowing everything to have its place without having us, without taking us. In equanimity, we live in the world of presence, neither fettered nor buffeted by the inevitable turmoil of life.

But equanimity does not build a spiritual ivory tower, insulated from all the cares and woes of living. Equanimity does not mean indifference. On the contrary, equanimity increases our compassion and enables our care to penetrate below the surface of life. While working vigorously toward our goals, while fulfilling our responsibilities for service, equanimity provides a safe harbor, the security of inner peace, the calm in the center of the storm.

As we enter difficult situations, or indeed any situation which we would rather avoid, equanimity enables us to meet life with aplomb. This inner peace and evenness of spirit lets us bring our best to life without retreating or succumbing to inner turmoil as a reflection of the outer chaos.

To work toward equanimity, we let go of attachments. In this we distinguish the normalcy of caring and loving from the slavery of being bound and chained by identification and clinging. The latter may, at any moment, drag us out of presence and down into the world of reactions. Unwelcome events do send ripples across the calm ocean of equanimity, ripples informing us of the need to respond. But it is precisely the quality of equanimity that helps us respond effectively instead of reactively.

Joseph Naft
Inner Frontier

Quotes of the Week

"Act as if the world is going to treat you well." 

~Unknown

Source: Kare Anderson
Say it Better blog

"Gratitude, not understanding, is the secret to joy and equanimity."

~Anne Lamott