Thank you for joining me in this guided meditation to cultivate equanimity.
Please sit comfortably in a quiet place with the spine up tall.
Close your eyes and start to bring attention to your breath.
Listen quietly and patiently in and out through the nose.
Recall that equanimity arises through continued mindfulness.
So be mindful right here and right now of the sensations in your body.
Mindful here and now of movement or changes in the breath.
And mindful always of activity in the mind itself.
Now take a moment to make a commitment to stay mindful of body,
Breath and mind.
And each moment as you contemplate the following pairs of words.
The first is praise and blame.
Contemplate the reaction in your body or your mind when someone compliments you.
In what ways do compliments throw you off balance?
And what would it feel like to receive a compliment yet remain stable in body,
Breath and mind?
How about when you receive criticism?
In what ways do you lose your balance state of mind?
And is it possible to receive criticism and with mindfulness remain present and undisturbed?
How does your body respond to praise and how does it respond to blame?
Be present with the sensation that arises as you sit with the concepts of praise and blame.
And now contemplate gain and loss.
What arises in body and mind when you reflect upon gain and loss?
Do you feel pushed or pulled in any one direction?
Reflect briefly upon an experience when you got exactly what you wanted or recall an experience when you lost something dear to you.
What would it feel like to hold space equally for both the joy and the suffering?
Notice in the body what it might be like to extend warmth and love equally to your wins and your losses and to all the emotions that those two things evoke.
And then think of the dual of pleasure and pain.
What arises?
Are you aware of an attachment to pleasure or an aversion to pain?
Or in some ways do you avoid pleasure and grasp to your pain?
What would it feel like in your body to equally welcome all sensations?
To allow for the fullness of your human experience without attachment to any of it?
What surfaces for you as you contemplate pleasure and pain?
And then turn your attention back to your seat,
Back to the connection between your hips,
Your legs or your feet and the earth below you.
Turn your attention back to the steadiness and the ease of your breath.
And with every exhale feel even more grounded,
More rooted and stable.
Like an old-growth tree in the forest,
You are firmly rooted.
Your foundation has grown stronger over time.
And the weather might change and the wind might pick up and you can be pushed and pulled to and fro but no wind is strong enough to uproot you.
You bend,
You sway but you keep returning to center.
Never angry at the clouds for passing through,
Never pining for a sunny day.
You accept it all as it is,
Understanding that you could sometimes use the rain.
All is welcome.
You remain stable,
Rooted in your own awareness,
Awareness as the home base from which you grow.
You are stable,
Balanced,
Strong and free.
Namaste.
