The Practice of Equanimity

Equanimity is a term you may have heard in a yoga or meditation class before. It means to have mental and emotional composure, arising from a deep awareness and acceptance of the present moment. Some might associate equanimity with being cold or devoid of feeling. Or to some it might seem like an unattainable concept, practiced only by monks or renunciants. This is quite the contrary. Being equanimous doesn't mean you aren't engaged in the world or that you are suppressing your feelings. It means you are fully engaged and operating from the witness mind, fully conscious and beyond any attachment or aversion to what is happening.

It is an excellent tool for us in today's world, as we are juggling the ups and downs of a multitasking, high gear, high stress lifestyle. Equanimity is one tool that helps us avoid the pitfalls of suffering. And yes, it takes lots of practice. So why not try it out on your yoga mat to get a taste of what it's like.

Mukunda Stiles speaks about equanimity in his book Ayurvedic Yoga Therapy (p. 112), when describing the asana Natarajasana, the King Dancer pose. This asana is named for the hindu god, Shiva, and symbolizes Shiva as witness consciousness. Natarajasana is a standing pose, back bend and balancing pose all in one. It is an incredible heart-opener and when I practice it, I really find that for a few moments everything pauses and begins to transcend time. I float in this consciousness, feeling connected to everything. Moments like this remind me to take this expanded consciousness off the yoga mat and into the world.

Mukunda goes on to say "By focusing on the witness consciousness, one can learn to transcend human frailties and difficulties with equanimity, while remaining fully engaged in the daily routine of everyday life."

To deepen this practice, try it out in this heart-opening meditation, from Dr. Kelly McGonigal.

This a 10 minute meditation on the practice of equanimity from her blog, Science and Sutras.

"Overview from Kelly: In all meditation traditions, it is believed that the foundation for true happiness is overcoming the basic sense of separation from others that most of us have most of the time. This sense of separation includes (but is not limited to) feeling different than, in competition with, judgmental about, or wronged by others.

This meditation will help you observe with mindfulness the thoughts, sensations, and emotions that arise when you think about three (self-created) categories of “others”: friends, enemies, and strangers. It then gives you the opportunity to choose to dissolve the sense of separation by cultivating a sense of “equanimity”—that is, reminding yourself of the essential sameness of friends, enemies, and strangers. This may not be what first comes to mind when you think of happiness, but there is a great deal of wisdom in this notion and in the meditation practice."

Her meditation practice is also available as streaming audio file, here.

Equanimity is a sublime way of being and is described in Patanjali's Yoga Sutras as one of the four attitudes to cultivate for being with people. (Sutra I.33)

So why not give equanimity a try by practicing vrkasana (tree pose) or natarajasana and become the witness mind as you float in a sea of calmness and expansion.

What is your experience on and/or off the mat with equanimity? I'd love to hear about it in the comments.

Who am I?

I feel like I have not been fully "showing up" in many parts of my life for a good while now. It has largely been due to my experience with chronic pain. I have been diagnosed with several things, but there is no need to go into details, because the real heart of the matter is that I have been identifying with my body as if it were my true Self. I have been blinded by the veil of suffering.

Gratefully in the past several years of dealing with this I've had moments of clarity, where the veil has been lifted, along with my spirit and understanding of who I truly am. When it comes down to it, I am not my body. I am not my mind. I am not all the little labels that could be attached to myself for all the roles I play in this life.

And that's just it. We "play" the roles we've been handed. It is part of this cosmic play, this divine dance, we call life. In sanskrit it is called Lila or Leela, which in a non-dualistic philosophy, means the creative play of the divine absolute.

When I remember this, it always puts a smile on my face, much like the cheshire cat in Alice in Wonderland, because I've remembered the little secret that has been shared with me. Ramana Maharshi, a famous Indian saint and jnana yogi, was famous for asking the question "Who am I?" to lift the veils of illusion.

So the next you are feeling crushed or even elated by all the things that make up your experience in this life, remember that you are not any of the labels, the pain, the beauty, the accomplishments or the failures. You are simply a part of the cosmic play that is life. You are a thread woven into the blanket of consciousness that covers us all. You are the true, capital "S" Self.

life is circular

I just finished teaching my first workshop series on Pranayama today. It was a great journey to share and of course I learned a lot along the way, which never ceases to amaze me. It covered the basics of Pranayama, what it is, how to discern it, purification practices, breath work to strengthen prana, the energy body's system and anatomy and a few forms of meditation. I plan to offer it again in the Fall. It may be slightly revamped, too.

On another blissful note. My beloved Guru, Ma Jaya, was here in Atlanta last weekend. She blew me away and left nothing but the true Self standing. oh. my. god. My gratitude has never been deeper. Can't wait until she comes back in October.

I will be gently moving into summer sabbatical of sorts in a couple of weeks, teaching a little less and studying more, through the breath, through art and wherever else my intuition takes me (hopefully the beach at somepoint.)

And so I leave with this quote from my Guru:

"The Self is the source of Shakti on every level of one's being."

-Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati

happy