Radical Equanimity

Theme for January: Abundance

Sunday, January 17, 2021

These words caught my attention this morning. They are just a few, but they overflow with power for me:

“Sitting in radical equanimity, we let all of life be just what it is and our resistance drops away. Whether it’s cancer, problems at work or in a marriage, our broken dreams or dashed hopes—all the ups and downs of life are “just as they are” when we are sitting. Our problems and fears remain but, somehow, by dropping resistance to them, everything is okay. We let them be, we leave them behind, in our equanimity during the minutes of our sitting. After sitting we had best work to fix that marriage, solve the problems, cure our cancer. However, during the minutes of sitting, we put aside all need to fix, solve, and cure. By assuming a balanced, stable, and comfortable physical posture—as comfortable as our health will allow—we facilitate a balanced, stable, and easy heart. Then, we just let be.”

– From The Zen Master’s Dance: A Guide to Understanding Dogen and Who You Are in the Universe by Jundo Cohen © 2020.

And here’s a poem I wrote a number of years ago …

FULLNESS
Braelyn J., 52, Blessings, CT
 
One day, she felt fullness in her life,
and in all of life. 
There was wholeness
in all of her thoughts, 
as if each thought
was brimful and perfect. 
There was a profusion in her feelings, 
almost a swelling, 
like the sea swells 
in its graceful comprehensiveness. 
The small book she was reading 
seemed vast on this immeasurable day, 
as though she held a universe 
as she turned the pages, 
or as if dollars overflowed 
in all the sentences.
Everything seemed complete,
even the dust she saw 
on the bedside table – 
a prosperous and finished dust it was, 
like this day that, 
for some reason, 
released its riches for her.