Tranquility of Equanimity

 

(photo by Emma MacFarlane)

Padraig O’Tuama:

We might have some capacity to learn how to respond with more equanimity to these forces we cannot control. 


Sharon Salzberg:
Certainly if I heard the word “equanimity,” long ago, I’d have thought, that’s really bizarre. What does that mean? And so many times, we think it means indifference, but it really doesn’t. It’s such a huge capacity of our hearts to see what we’re going through, to see what others are going through, and to just have this perspective of, there is change in life, and there is light in the darkness and darkness in the light. And we’re not avoiding pain, because some things just hurt. That’s fundamental. But we’re holding it in a way that it’s like the love is stronger than the pain, even. And then we can really be with things in a very, very different way.

Equanimity is a word which has crept up a lot in my life lately and it is usually just on the other side of integration, or should I say productive integration?!

Sometimes it is hard to access this sense of balance especially when we intentionally discard the difficult pieces, the grief and the sorrow. The scales immediately tip in what we had wagered was a positive direction only to render an imbalance which, though filled with “good” stuff, is hard to budge and so it stagnates. 

This “very, very different way” incorporates the other ingredients of life which, though difficult, allow the scales to move and achieve a balance which quivers, though never far from a fulcrum of grace. The peaks are made low and the valleys raised!
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The preceding is a post of over a year ago and it calls to me resoundingly still.
One of the things we have in common is being overwhelmed and I might say, in good ways and in difficult ones. And we seem to forget the overwhelming of goodness and beauty when the overwhelmingness of anxiety and fear seem monstrous.
But the lessons of equanimity beckon and encourage us to look into our memory banks or just sit still and contemplate times, even imagined ones, of wonder and awe, relief and pause. At first these moments seem small but increase in proportion to our mindfulness. At first these moments pale next to terror and panic but radiate a golden healing thread which begins to appear at the edges like a sunrise.
The image attached to this meditation was taken by my niece Emma. She has an amazing eye especially for space and color. I chose it to accompany this piece because it speaks to me of how beauty, tranquility and even equanimity might be called forth in a city, a city which often represents harsh chaos, a city which often is overwhelming. Emma has captured a moment of tranquil equanimity or equanimous tranquility.

I am reminded to hold both overwhelmings. I am hopeful that no matter how dim the  light, it is weighty enough to balance. It might even be the fulcrum or the cornerstone or the lynchpin.