Equanimity

Equanimity is a state of psychological stability and composure which is undisturbed by the experience of or exposure to emotions, pain, or other phenomena that may cause others to lose the balance of their mind. The virtue and value of equanimity is extolled and advocated by a number of major religions and ancient philosophies. From French équanimité, from Latin aequanimitatem (nom. aequanimitas) "evenness of mind, calmness," from aequus "even, level" (see equal) + animus "mind, spirit" (see animus). Meaning "evenness of temper" in English is from 1610s. In Hinduism the term for equanimity is समत्व samatvam (also rendered samatva or samata). In Chapter Two, Verse 48 of the Bhagavad Gita one reads: yoga-sthaḥ kuru karmāṇi saṅgaṁ tyaktvā dhanañ-jaya siddhy-asiddhyoḥ samo bhūtvā samatvaṁ yoga ucyate. Srila Prabhupada translates this as: "Perform your duty equipoised, O Arjuna, abandoning all attachment to success or failure. Such equanimity is called yoga." In his book Samatvam – The Yoga of Equanimity, Swami Sivananda states: An aspirant who treads the path to samatvam must make every effort to acquire the following essential qualities: Viveka, discrimination; vairagya, dispassion; shadsampat, the six virtues (shama, mental calmness and control; dama, restraint of the senses; uparati, sense withdrawal or pratyahara; titiksha, endurance; shraddha, faith and samadhana, mental balance); and an intense desire for liberation, mumukshutva. In order to possess the virtue of Samatvam, he will also need to dedicate himself to steadying the mind every moment of his yoga career... Another Sanskrit term for equanimity is upekṣhā. This is the term used by Patanjali in his Yoga Sutras (1.33). Here upekṣhā is considered to be one of the four sublime attitudes, along with loving-kindness (maitri), compassion (karuṇā), and joy (mudita). It is related to the idea of vairagya or "dispassion". The Upeksha Yoga school foregrounds equanimity as the most important tenet of a yoga practice.