On Equanimity (and happy new year!)
February 22, 2012 | 13 Comments
Happy new year! Today is Tibetan new year and as I am a student in a Tibetan Buddhist lineage, I say to you: Happy New Year!! Today is the day a new cycle begins. (And it’s the one year anniversary of The OHP—so, yay!!)
Today marks the beginning of the year of the dragon, which basically means this: fasten your seat belt and get ready to ride because the dragon is a symbol of power, assertiveness, expansion, and intensity. As always, whether it is used for good or ill is entirely up to you.
We all go through periods where we feel the wind at our back—my hope for you is that this coming year will be just such a time. But when energies are strong, the possibility for confusion goes up.
One of the ways to stay on track is through maintaining equanimity. This does not mean remaining in a state of non-feeling or perpetual placidity. Equanimity is more about what great surfers must possess.
Think about what it must be like to be a world-class surfer. They don’t just set up for the easy waves—their intention is to ride all waves with the appropriate combination of focused intensity and easeful letting go. Whether a wave is gentle or roiling, the same degree of focus and release is present. This is the equanimous part. But the wave—now that, no one can predict.
Your meditation practice is exactly this—it trains you to meet the whole world, within you and around you, with just such bravery. In meditation, when stressful thoughts arise, you gently let them go to resume focus on breath. When funny thoughts arise, you do the same, as you do with thoughts that are vicious, confused, trivial, painful. Each time, you let go and come back. You see that there is no wave you cannot ride. The coming back itself is the equanimity, not the thought or its content.
When you can do this on your cushion, you will find that, quite spontaneously, you are better able to come back when your boss is a jerk, your girlfriend is late (again), or your cat pees on your sofa (again). Equanimity on the cushion plants the seeds for equanimity in all things.
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Happy New Year! May the year of the dragon bring you many blessings.
categorized in: meditation, open heart project
13 Comments
Happy New Year to you too, Susan!
‘They don’t just set up for the easy waves—their intention is ride all waves with the appropriate combination of focused intensity and easeful letting go.’ Love this.
xo
Rock on!!
Thank you! Post is perfect timing for me, as usual. Equanimity is something I’d love to learn more about and experience. Cultivating it seems to be my latest invitation. And of course, writing that down is scary – because I don’t want any more invitations to cultivate it! 🙂
Hee! I totally understand. Nonetheless, stay tuned for more teachings on equanimity over the coming months. 😉
Dearest Susan: Happy New Year to you our delightful teacher, who tells it “like it truly is”. I find the more I can restrain myself from stirring the pot, the less drama there is in my life. This does not mean I ignore my feelings whatsoever. I can see now though where I used to stir the pot till it boiled over with my judgements that yes were so critical. Now it has become so much easier once I saw the actual “Proof” that this works. There is enough drama in this life, on our dear planet without adding to it. This has been a profound lesson for me to learn, Sure wasn’t easy, but I can’t deny the power of it, and the peace that results. Yeah, Baby, it is pretty fantastical.
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Happy New Year, Susan!
I’ve been wanting to know what equanimity means from a Buddhist perspective and was delighted to see your post. I love the surfer metaphor – and it’s going to help me with my new job to raise money for good in this tough environment! Thank you!
Hi dear Susan Piver, how are you?
I read your book and it is wonderful book I love it, but Miss Susan I m written about you and I can’t find any information about your life, where are you from, where do you lived, what education, your parents, something about your life heritage, please help me. thank you an
Happy New Year to you Susan. Thank you for your post on equanimity and especially the surfing metaphor. Funny. I spent a good portion of my younger years surfing and I suffered through many inconveniences, days of flat water, etc. as I pursued my passion, but I really suffered – secretly- with a fear of big waves…of getting wiped out, injuries, and looking incompetent. Yet another tangible reminder of how fear of being tossed around- a lack of equanimity – held and still in other ways continues to hold me back. I’m working on it, though, and am grateful to you for sharing the dharma.
Susan~
I have been reading your posts for some time now. I am from Otisfield Maine and have been practicing meditation inconsistently for a couple of years and consistently for about 6 months. This has changed my life. I can not grasp how something so accessible and simple can be so profound. I want to do this work. I am presently a school nurse and I am looking forward to the year of the dragon to be a journey into opening the hearts of others.
& a Happy New Year to you Susan – I hope everyone enjoys it
“One day ay a time” !!
Susan – Happy (belated) New Year, and congratulations on the one-year anniversary of the Open Heart Project!!! I recently discovered I could browse your earlier Open Heart postings on Vimeo, and found an absolute treasure-trove of wonderful teachings, including a series on the Six Paramitas (which are very helpful in my currently studies). That you should make these Dharma teachings freely available for the benefit of all is a wonderful, wonderful act of generosity – you peg the Dana Para-Meter!!! :^). Seriously, a huge thank you, and congratulations.
Susan, I am so grateful to have found you, and your Open-Heart Project. Congratulations on the OHP! I love how accessible you make Meditation, and am now approaching my practice differently than I did without my “virtual teacher”. What has helped me are your prompts to remain gentle and to simply notice thoughts that arise without judgment. I’m also so inspired by your talks, such as the recent one on Meditation & Creativity.
I do struggle with keeping my eyes open during the practice, but will continue to meditate in this way, as I like the idea that I’m training the eyes to be still and soft. It’s refreshing that we don’t need to fight anything, to just allow, notice, let go.
Setting aside 5-10 minutes each day for my Sitting Practice just may be the best thing I have ever done for myself. Thank-you with all my heart!
I’ve been struggling to find my path (for career, for life). How should I spend my time? What is “good” enough or the “right” thing? I’ve been spending almost a year learning to accept myself and forget other people’s expectations. I’m definitely grown a lot, but now I would like to take action instead of waiting for life to happen to me. So this year, I would like to continue my practice (you are the only reason I’ve kept with at least once a week) to ground myself and finally develop the courage to let go and live however I like.