A person who has mastered peace of mind has gained everything
Rav' Simcha Zisel Ziv (Alter of Kelm)
Alan Morinis -- With Heart in Mind, p. 76-78
At times, the mind is as clear and calm as a remote lake early on a windless morning. And then, along comes a distraction no bigger than an ant, or weightier than a thought, and that settled frame of mind is gone in a flash leaving us churning in consternation in its inner wake...
The things that unsettle your mind are seldom random. Each of us is prone to certain kinds of disruptions and distractions. In workshops and retreats, I sometimes assign people to do a simple, mid-focusing meditation that involves concentrating on a single word or image. After the assigned time has elapsed, I ask all those who are willing to say what distracted them. One person may report having a sexual fantasy. Another might say she was thinking about lunch. A third could tell of warming up old embers of envy, and someone else admits to getting lost planning their whole week.
When the group discusses these distractions, in short order it becomes clear that what unsettles the mind is none other than one's personal spiritual curriculum...Distractions of mind are not like trash or dirt to be swept away. Rather, they call out a crucial truth about priorities for spiritual practice...
Alan Morinis -- Every Day Holy Day p. 225
When someone falls prey to the illusion that they are the sole master of their life, their inner experience will bounce up and down according to the degree to which reality happens to correspond to their wishes. In truth there is no real basis for linking our happiness to the changing fortunes that feature in everyday life. The Mussar teachers counsel us to replace that win-lose mentality with an inner attitude of trust in the creator.
Cultivating Equanimity -- Rabbi Nancy Flam
from a talk given at the IJS/Or Ha-Lev June 2017 Meditation Retreat excerpted on the IJS (Institute for Jewish Spirituality) website http://www.jewishspirituality.org/november-2017-newsletter/#Practice2
Shiviti Adonai l’negdi tamid. I place the Divine before me always. (Psalm 16:8)
Equanimity suggests balance, centeredness, not being pulled internally too far in one direction or another.
Here’s what Joseph Goldstein, a well-known mindfulness teacher writes: “A mind suffused with equanimity is poised and balanced with whatever may be arising in its experience. We feel soft and spacious as things come and go; an equanimous mind does not move reactively at all” (Insight Meditation: The Practice of Freedom, p. 14). What he means here is that the mind does not react with craving or aversion; rather, it responds with wisdom.
This is a high level. And it’s not unlike what the Ba’al Shem Tov teaches. This is from Tzva’at HaRivash, a compendium of hasidic teachings attributed to the Ba’al Shem Tov:
I place the Lord before me always” – ‘shiviti’ from the verb ‘equanimity’. Regardless of what happens let everything be equal for you, whether people praise you or despise you, and so for every other way they might treat you. So, also, regarding the food you eat, whether it is the finest cuisine or just grub -- let it all be the same in your eyes. Once you have removed the yetzer hara completely from within you, regardless of what happens you will be able to say, ‘Is not this also from the Holy One? If it is good in Your eyes…’ Let everything be for the sake of Heaven, such that there is no difference between your intention and that. This is a great spiritual attainment.
(Tzva’at HaRivash #2-3)
I’d like to unpack this a little bit: I think Joseph Goldstein and the Ba’al Shem Tov are basically talking about the same quality of mind. It’s not a mind that doesn’t notice the difference between praise and blame, it’s a mind that doesn’t react through craving or aversion, what is known in rabbinic literature as the yetzer hara. It’s not that chocolate actually tastes like sauerkraut. It’s not that everything becomes grey. It’s that whether we experience – sweet or sour, pain or pleasure, gain or loss, praise or blame, fame or disrepute – we don’t react through a mind of pushing this away or pulling that toward us. We still taste all the flavors of life, if you will. But a mind that is not pushed around by wanting or not wanting is a mind that keeps its center, that stays equanimous.
Here’s how Alan Morinis talks about it from the Mussar perspective:
Equanimity in Mussar usage does not suggest that feelings are idling in neutral. It isn’t a kind of numbness. You still register the ups and downs of the feelings – those are the waves – but you stay awake to the experience from an undisturbed place. When you are submerged in your feelings without at least a flicker of self-awareness, the light of consciousness is extinguished, and the doors to connection and choice are closed. But if awareness is calmly present, even amid the storms of life, your soul maintains its connection to others and to the divine source and your free will is preserved…All sorts of feelings will come, as they do in all our lives, but when you are possessed of equanimity, your inner core is not left open to being whipped around by external experiences. You are freer than that.(Everyday Holiness: The Jewish Spiritual Path of Mussar, p. 100-104)
Equanimity is closely associated with acceptance. It is a way of acknowledging: This is what’s happening now.
But acceptance of what is happening in the moment does not mean passivity in our lives, the refusal to take action. It’s not resignation. It’s being with what’s happening right now, accepting that yes, this is happening in this moment – not creating an adversarial relationship with our experience. From there wisdom arises. For instance, if we see that what we experiencing right now is anger at injustice, we sit with the anger, feel it, accept it, investigate it, know it; and then we resolve to do something about it. We write that letter, we go to that rally, we give that donation, whatever it is. The acceptance is in the moment.
In the mindfulness tradition we talk about the near enemy and the far enemy of the beautiful qualities we want to cultivate, the middot. The far enemy is what’s 180 degrees on the other side of the beautiful quality. So the far enemy of equanimity would be reactivity (reacting with craving or aversion/pull or push). It’s easy to see that that’s the opposite quality of mind.
The near enemy of equanimity is indifference or passivity; it can look similar to equanimity but it isn’t the same at all. Passivity tells us we cannot act when we can. It is “stupid equanimity”. Equanimity maintains a quality of deep connection to life; passivity disconnects us.
Equanimity helps us act, and to do so with clarity and compassion. It helps us know what’s going on inside so we can see our intentions clearly; we can see the motivations, the impulses from which we are acting, what kind of mind state moves us forward. Equanimity allows us to stay before we leave, to be present in an embodied way, to really receive our experience; it allows us to see the attitude in the mind. It helps us see clearly and respond wisely, compassionately. When we act, we want to do so with a mind that is not filled with anger or greed. Do you see the difference?
Rav Kook - Ein Ayah part 2 quoted in Every Day Holy Day by Alan Morinis
God created the soul of the human upright, happy in life, and enjoying tranquility in its feelings; any time that a person directs his life to the life of Nature in general, he will find happiness and gladness of heart: the sound of the song of the birds from among the branches that give forth song, the sight of the splendor of the Carmel and the Sharon with their beautiful flowers, the smell of the lilies and every delightful fruit that is in the Garden of Hashem, the Earth that He gave to human beings. These are the creations that restore a person to Nature after he has become removed from it by the culture and society that distanced him.
QUESTIONS:
Why is equanimity important to wisdom? Happiness?
What is the opposite of equanimity? What is the difference between passivity and equanimity? Between resignation and equanimity?
What are the items/tendencies on your spiritual curriculum that regularly disturb your peace of mind?
PRACTICES:
Chant, Meditate, or Study texts on Equanimity or "Settledness"
Spend time in the natural world
See the IJS website for suggestions for other chants, phrases, texts, and embodied meditations.
Count the Omer after sundown
Write for 10-20 minutes at the end of each day reflecting on equanimity, what disturbs it, and what restores it.