The goal and
the fruit of mindfulness practice is equanimity.
It’s not a word most of us use regularly, it’s not a condition most of us
experience much of the time. Equanimity means ‘calmness and
composure—especially in a difficult situation.’ It comes from the Latin word, aequanimitas. The two Latin words that
make aequanimatas are aequus (equal) and animus (mind or spirit). Aequanimitas
suggests balance—a mind and spirit that a difficult situation doesn’t throw off
balance. When we encounter difficulty, we don’t automatically tip one way or
another.
Composure, a synonym for equanimity, comes from com + pose, to put together. Composure is defined as ‘the state or feeling
of being calm and in control of oneself.’
Mindfulness
is composing, like writing and music are. Or like gardening, putting good seed together with good earth. Mindfulness practice, bit by bit, facilitates equanimity, it cultivates it, like planting seeds.
Sowing seeds takes work and skill, and waiting for things to grow takes patience. And patience is of course wonderfully helped by unshakable trust that, most of the time, what is sown is reaped. Imagine that--anxiety, twitchiness, social vertigo supplanted by equanimity.
Sowing seeds takes work and skill, and waiting for things to grow takes patience. And patience is of course wonderfully helped by unshakable trust that, most of the time, what is sown is reaped. Imagine that--anxiety, twitchiness, social vertigo supplanted by equanimity.
