Dear Spirit to Spirit friend,
I was listening again to a teaching/practice given by spiritual teachers Craig Hamilton and Jeff Carreria from a program they offered together a couple of years ago. In the session, the focus was on the spiritual quality of Equanimity. Timely then...and especially now, isn't it.
Craig and Jeff describe Equanimity as a quality of the deep still center that is in us- that which never moves. A quality of our Essential nature, one that is available and accessible to us in every moment.
We don't always feel this or recognize this because as human beings, most of the time, our attention is focused on the level of our lives where there is movement. The level of our lives that is about experiences, interactions, events, relationships-the mind, the emotions, the body.
We can become focused exclusively on that level of our experience as we engage in life and forget to remember that deep within us there is an unshakable ground that does not move when the outer winds blow.
Once we begin to remember, once we begin to recognize the deeper Stillness that is within us- and live from it- we will find that we can experience all of the movements of life without being blown off our feet by them. We will be steady and engaged.
To quote Craig: "When we can see ourselves shift from the identification with those things that do move to that which is unmovable, we will find Equanimity and live it in our lives."
Can you imagine. Especially today as we are navigating our lives in a world that feels like it is constantly pulling us this way or pushing us that way. Can you imagine what it might feel like to be fully engaged in life and yet remain unmoved in our Core. Fully feeling, experiencing, and participating in life and yet residing in a steadiness that is unshakable.
How to begin always starts with opening to inner Stillness. Resting in it so deeply, so fully, that it becomes our natural harbor.
We can relax... finally. Knowing that we are in the steady center of our Being and that we have capacity to be- in Equanimity- and with everything that comes our way in life.
In Gratitude & Love, Joanna