Keep Equanimity Even When Worldly Conditions Shake
As we live, we meet many conditions that shake the mind. Gain and loss, being known and being disgraced, praise and blame, pleasure and pain come to us in turn.
In Buddhism, these changing conditions of the world are explained like eight worldly winds. When something good happens, the mind rises high; when something bad happens, it falls deep. This is the ordinary human pattern.
But if we steadily practice meditation and mindfulness, we can observe the mind even within those changes. When joy comes, we do not become excessively excited; when hardship comes, we do not completely collapse. Such strength begins to grow.
Equanimity is not a cold mind without any feeling. It is a wise mind that clearly knows the conditions that arise, sees that they arise and pass away, and does not get swept away by their flow.
Today, in front of praise and blame, gain and loss, pleasure and pain, may we not lose the mind, and may we keep equanimity through awake awareness.
In life, gain and loss, praise and blame, pleasure and pain come in turn. If we do not keep mindfulness, we are shaken by those conditions, but if we observe with wakefulness, we can keep equanimity. Today, may we not lose the center of the mind amid the winds of the world.
