2020 Week 44 Contemplation Thoughts
- What would it be like to always be in a state of equanimity? Would it be boring? Would we seem constantly indifferent to others?
- How did I come to equate composure with boredom and indifference?
- Equanimity is not reacting (to “good” or “bad” things)
- If equanimity and composure is the absence of a reaction then what is it that makes us react to things? I think it goes back to our beliefs and judgements. If we don’t have a belief that something is good we won’t have a happy reaction to it. We would be neutral
- Babies have been known to come away from falls of considerable height without any broken bones. This is because they don’t tense up and for this reason their bones don’t break upon hitting the ground. A baby stays relaxed falling from the fifth or sixth floor because it has no beliefs about what will happen to it when it falls from that height. It does not have the typical adult reaction of fear which leads to tensing which leads to bones breaking
- So then could we say that equanimity is our natural state? We move away for this as we get older and start to form beliefs, opinions, judgements about the world around us. As our fears, pet peeves, desires become more and more engrained
- It’s easier to maintain equanimity when you look at the big picture than when you get sucked in to focusing on particulars. When you focus on particulars it’s easy to make mountains out of mole hills
- Whenever I think of equanimity I picture a poo with still waters. Birds may glide across it, plants may grow up from its depths, but the water is always still
- Maybe that’s how we can maintain our own equanimity. We have to remember that the events and people who come into our lives are like the birds gliding across or the plants breaking through the surface of a pond but they aren’t the pond itself
- Can equanimity and judgement coexist? I don’t think so. It would be like throwing stones into your pond
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