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Guided Meditation (50) Equanimity

So hello everyone who is here today with the YouTube and listening, maybe into the future as well. In some ways, we span geography across the globe, and we also span time into the future with how these recordings work. It's kind of an amazing thing that we share and feel a connection to so much.

There are some—maybe some of you have heard me say many times—I like to divide our experience of life, what goes on with our life moment by moment, into two areas: there is what is happening, and there is how we are with what is happening, or our relationship to what's happening. Mindfulness practice I put in the latter camp. Mindfulness is a practice of showing up and being attentive to what is happening.

To engage in mindfulness with equanimity^[1] has the function of staying with the mindfulness—staying with a relaxed, dedicated, sincere attention to this moment. Attention connects us, being present, being available for the flow of the present moment as it keeps appearing and arising for us, moment by moment.

One thing that helps to have equanimity—to just stay present, stay with the mindfulness moment by moment—is to not think that you are unique. Not to think that your experience is unique enough that it's an exception to what all humans experience. Not to dismiss what's happening to you or make it unimportant. Everything is important, you're important. But what's also important is the steadiness of how we are, the steadiness of mindfulness.

When we're practicing mindfulness, it's kind of like we have the bumper sticker that says, 'I stop for nothing when I practice mindfulness.' Meaning I don't get involved, get entangled, and start thinking about things. Just a bare recognition: 'Oh, this is what's happening now. This is what's available to experience. This is what's being experienced now.' Just steady, steady, steady.

Like when I went on a walking pilgrimage a good number of years ago. It was only two weeks, but the idea was: just keep walking. When we walked, just keep walking and walking and walking. It didn't matter what the experience around us was, you just walk and you walk. So we are mindful, we're aware. We're aware with equanimity that allows us to just continue without getting sidetracked, without stopping for something and getting entangled in retrospective thinking.

Meditation Practice

To begin this pilgrimage of mindfulness, a pilgrimage where we don't walk, we sit. We remain stationary in a stationary posture that works for you.

Tenderly close your eyes, and maybe tenderly in your heart, open to yourself. Closing your eyes and opening your heart. Taking a few moments to appreciate yourself and value yourself. Perhaps that is why we're meditating, because we value our well-being, and this is a way of finding a valuable, important form of well-being, happiness, and freedom from suffering.

Take a few long, slow, deep breaths. Exhale, really settling in here with yourself. In yourself, for yourself. Here in this body, here in this heart, here in this belly. Then let your breathing return to normal.

Because of a sense of self-care and self-appreciation, as you exhale, continue to relax what can be relaxed in your body. Face, shoulders, stomach, belly. Then settling in just to your breathing.

No walking pilgrimage; it's the feet that walk. It is a stationary pilgrimage of meditation. Can it be your breathing? Breathing in and breathing out.

Have the simplicity of breathing be something that we allow to come into our awareness. The simplicity of breathing is where awareness lands. Two metaphors for awareness: awareness which receives and allows, and awareness which lands and connects. Whichever is most useful for you.

Then with equanimity that doesn't get alarmed, caught up, or annoyed, or think that something is unique and not part of the practice. Everything is part of practice. Everything is for the next moment of awareness. Trust it's enough just to be aware. Trust to just take the next moment for what it is, even if it's very similar to the previous one. Just stay. Stay.

The equanimity that allows a steady continuation of the practice. Come back to that continuity. If things are challenging, breathe with it, so that your awareness rides on the currents of breathing. Relaxed, available, and present for the experience without getting entangled.

As you meditate, nothing is extraordinary enough to stop, to think about, or get involved in. Everything is ordinary enough that it's just one more thing to be aware of, to be mindful of. In a steady, ongoing receptivity of awareness to what is. One breath at a time.

Dedication

Then, as we come to the end of this sitting, tenderly, calmly open up to the sufferings of the world. And to do so equanimously. Meaning that we care. We feel for the suffering, we're concerned with it, and there's no need to give up the steadiness of our mindfulness. Steadiness and confidence in remaining rooted in awareness, so that we don't get pulled into our reactivity, our thinking, our predictions, our sense of obligations, and what should and shouldn't be.

Equanimity allows us to stay open, so that care and goodwill^[2], respect and kindness can flow through that awareness, through the field of mindfulness.

May it be that as we learn how to be more aware and more mindful with equanimity, with calm, with balance—may it be that we can show up for the challenges of this world and stay close to our goodwill, well-wishing, kindness, friendliness, and compassion^[3].

May all beings be happy. May all beings be safe, peaceful, and free. May my heart and mind have this goodwill, this well-wishing for others, so that in some way or other it spreads from me. Spreads from each of us into the world that we encounter today.

May our love and compassion spread from this meditation session out into our communities and out into the world. May all beings be happy.