This sunny Sunday morning I sat for about 30 minutes in my meditation room, cross-legged. My arm seems to be getting better.
I started with 36 breaths to calm the mind followed by Inner smile, this took about 10 minutes. Then I moved my attention to the belly button. Mind wandered quite a lot, to the channeling session tonight, to staying equanimous about my experience, to formulating this post.
Equanimity is a Buddhist term that is often mistaken for indifference. When you have a feeling or emotion and you label it ‘pleasant’ then there usually is attachment to it, you don’t want it to stop. So there is aversion to the inevitable stopping of that experience. When you have an experience that you label ‘unpleasant’ , there is aversion to having it and craving to the ending of it. Equanimity means that this aversion and craving is not present; the moment is accepted as it is. This does not mean that the person is indifferent or passive.
The above text was the result of the mind wandering so I might as well write it down…
In terms of sensations: I tried to stay equanimous to that. There was some warmth in the abdomen and that’s it. Towards the end of the session I did one old-fashioned cycle where I go from from one center to the next during a breath. I stayed at the heart again for a couple of breaths to feed the lotus. Then I finished off with the fist rotations.