As a solid mass of rock Is not stirred by the wind,
The Buddha on Equanimity, Dhammapada 81-83
So a sage is not moved by praise and blame.
As a deep lake Is clear and undisturbed,
So a sage becomes clear upon hearing the Dharma.
Virtuous people always let go.
They don’t prattle about pleasures and desires.
Touched by happiness and then by suffering,
The sage shows no sign of being elated or depressed.
Today is March 14th. Two years ago today I was sitting in the sun sipping on a glass of port at the Taylor’s facility in Porto, amused by a peacock strutting around a tranquil garden. It was a surreal moment, as I and the others around me already knew the world was closing in around us and discussion among those in that garden was of how and when we were flying back to our respective countries as the pandemic lockdowns began.
The pandemic remains with us at differing levels of severity around the world, showing us more and more how interlinked we are around the globe. We now also face Europe at war, as well as massive human hardship in Afghanistan and so many other countries and arenas.
In business, many leaders have faced real challenges over the last two years and even now in supporting their people while keeping their business moving forwards.
On individual levels, we all face personal challenges at different times in our lives, from mortal illness as an extreme to other forms of challenge to ourselves or those we love.
Sometimes it can feel hard to keep our balance amongst all this, it is easy to drop into fear and then overthinking, anxiety, powerlessness.
For me, a practice for me for well over a decade has been, in different ways, to focus on maintaining my equanimity, or, in very simple terms, keeping my balance. Equanimity is an English term with close links to certain practices of Buddhism and goes beyond tools such as mindfulness to be a state of being (for more, see this long read from Tricycle: “A perfect balance“).
Equanimity and our ability to maintain it can be built upon layer by layer, enabling us to remain calm in the face of any storms that face us. Let’s connect to the idea of facing storms for a moment.
First, we all face our own storms, sometimes predictable, sometimes they are even “black swans”, (extremely rare events with very high impact, as, hmm, I wrote about in a post on the coming pandemic on Marc 8th 2020 in “Act Now“).
Let us use two scenarios to feel such possibilities. First, imagine you are going about your daily life and you get a phone call and a “black swan” happens, a close family member has just been arrested for a major criminal act. Unbelievable, unpredictable, unfair perhaps, but how do you react? Alternatively, another scenario. You are going through life and all is smooth, then your closest friend calls you out of the blue and tells you they have just had a life-threatening illness diagnosed.
If such a scenario has happened in the past, how did you react? How would you react if it happened now? What response or reaction would best be of service to that person you love?
I put it to you that though it may feel right to become emotional, and while that may be an instinctive response, what is far more useful is, if you can, to maintain an almost divine calmness, to a state of equanimity where you can be genuinely solid and unmoveable.
As for me, equanimity is a practice and one I continue to invest in on a daily basis. “Black swan” and other “storms” are part of life, being able to be of equanimity within any storm is key to me so that I can support others and myself as needed. I am already known to remain almost preternaturally calm at moments of crisis. This is not an accident. it is a result of practice. I continue to focus on that and hope I can maintain it in the event of the inevitable storms to come.