Equanimity, that sense of calm and peace that we all desire. How can we achieve it?

The Buddha gave us a path, a practice, an attitude that will create equanimity. He said, “Do not distinguish friend, enemy, stranger.” This short sentence contains a powerful lesson.

Here are some of the ideas I am considering for this Sunday as I reflect on the concept of Equanimity. It will be interesting to see which ones I choose. But in the meantime, the ideas and some wonderful quotes are below for your own consideration of Equanimity.

Join us this Sunday at 11:00 for 60 minutes of lively (and live) music from the Joyful Harmony Band, my reflections on Equanimity, a chance for discussion and some quiet meditative time. Enjoy refreshments at noon, and then, if you like, stay for Health Circle, this week featuring Drumming and Chanting for Healing.

Webster’s definition:

Equanimity, noun

mental calmness, composure, and evenness of temper, esp. in a difficult situation : she accepted both the good and the bad with equanimity.

Here are some great quotes on the subject, followed by some thoughts from the Theravada Tradition.

“Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word happy would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness. It is far better take things as they come along with patience and equanimity.” –  Carl Gustav Jung (Swiss psychiatrist, Psychologist and Founder of the Analytic Psychology, 1875-1961)

“Happy the man who can endure the highest and the lowest fortune. He, who has endured such vicissitudes with equanimity, has deprived misfortune of its power.” – Seneca (Roman philosopher, mid-1st century AD)

“If there is love, there is hope to have real families, real brotherhood, real equanimity, real peace. If the love within your mind is lost, if you continue to see other beings as enemies, then no matter how much knowledge or education you have, no matter how much material progress is made, only suffering and confusion will ensue.” –  Dalai Lama (Head of the Dge-lugs-pa order of Tibetan Buddhists, 1989 Nobel Peace Prize, b.1935)

“There often seems to be a playfulness to wise people, as if either their equanimity has as its source this playfulness or the playfulness flows from the equanimity; and they can persuade other people who are in a state of agitation to calm down and manage a smile.” – Edward Hoagland

“Anything that helps you maintain unruffled equanimity is right action.” – Sri Sathya Sai Baba (Indian Spiritual leader, b.1926)

“Let the wave of memory, the storm of desire, the fire of emotion pass through without affecting your equanimity.” – Sri Sathya Sai Baba

[But it's never too late, or too early, to be happy -- a message Carlson wants everybody to listen to.] There is a big payoff to learning to be happier, … You handle your parents better, you handle your peer pressure, you handle life in general with a lot more equanimity, and it just gets to be a lot more fun. ~ Richard Carlson

If we cannot meet our everyday surroundings with equanimity and pleasure and grow each day in some useful direction, then … life is on the road toward misfortune, misery and destruction.  - Luther Burbank

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The Perfection of Equanimity:

Quotes from the Theravada Tradition

Equanimity purifies loving kindness… The function of equanimity is to see things impartially; its manifestation is the subsiding of attraction and repulsion. Its proximate cause is reflection on the fact that beings inherit the results of their own karma.. The perfection of equanimity should be considered thus: “When there is no equanimity, the offensive actions performed by beings cause oscillation in the mind. And when the mind oscillates, it is impossible to practice the requisites of awakening.” And: “Even though mind has been softened with the moisture of loving kindness, without equanimity one cannot purify the requisites of enlightenment and cannot dedicate one’s requisites of merit along with the results to furthering the welfare of beings.”…

Without equanimity the bodhisattva cannot offer up something without making false discriminations over gifts and recipients. Without equanimity one cannot purify one’s virtue without thinking about the obstacles to one’s life and one’s vital needs.

Equanimity perfects the power of renunciation, for by its means one overcomes discontent and delight… When energy is aroused to excess because it has not been examined with equanimity, it cannot perform its proper function of endeavoring… And because one is unconcerned over the wrongs done by others, one perfects the abiding in lovingkindness…

Equanimity is accompanied by compassion and compassion by equanimity. (Someone may ask:) “How can the bodhisattvas, the great compassionate ones, look upon living beings with equanimity? Some teachers say: “Sometimes they show equanimity towards living beings when it is necessary to do so.” But others say: “They do not show equanimity towards living beings (as such), but toward the offensive actions performed by beings.”

A Treatise on the Paramis, translated by B. Bodhii

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