In a world that is so full of exploitation and violence, how is it possible for any sensitive person to maintain equanimity? Does one need to be insensitive to maintain equanimity? Any sensitive person would be concerned about gender injustice, exploitation of the poor by the rich, mass killings in the name of religion, exploitation of the vulnerable, gross inequalities, people dying of hunger, and the pain of a kid burdened by the expectations of society and parents. Any sensitive person will have concerns. There would be a natural reaction when a sensitive person sees exploitation or injustice. However, does concern mean that there is no equanimity?
Equanimity can definitely not be equated to insensitivity. Equanimity, to the best of my understanding, comes with higher awareness. Suppose a friend of us pushes us and we fall down and hurt our knee, we get angry naturally. We are sensitive and therefore would like to protect our bodies. The same reaction would come when a stranger pushes our friend and the friend hurts his knee. We would naturally get angry. The reaction in the first case may be termed by the few as necessary and self-defense. However, there may be some "Pseudo Philosophers" who may term this reaction as aggressive and may advise us to maintain equanimity. Somebody needs to ask these pseudo-philosophers does that mean that one should come in a vegetative state? I feel love and compassion does not exclude self and one can not love and have compassion with others unless one loves oneself. That means we will not allow ourselves to be harmed if we do not harm others.
In the second situation when a friend of ours is harmed, a few of the pseudo-philosophers would jump immediately to say that in such a situation, one should come to the rescue of the friend and react. However, there would be still few who maintain that even in these situations, one should be calm and non-reactive. I feel that equanimity is altogether a different concept. When our awareness grows and we realize that everything in this world has originated from the same source, we feel connected to everything and the strong division between good and bad goes away. In that state of awareness, Devas and Danavas both are the manifestations of the same nature and there is no conflict between them. That is the level of awareness of Shiva and that is the reason why he blesses the Devas and Danavas equally. That is how nature operates and whenever a person does hard work, be he a crooked or generous person, he gets the rewards.
However, when it comes to matter and creation, there is a balance. For example, the tiger kills the deer, but only for his hunger. The moment the tiger starts killing the deer for his lust or to demonstrate his powers, it will disturb the fine balance of nature. Similarly, if a boss takes action against his employee for the sake of maintaining the discipline of the organization, there is no harm. But if the boss tries to penalize the employee to assert his powers, that is exploitation. Similarly, when in a relationship, if one is in a giving mode and the other person is in a taking mode, the giver may get exhausted after a certain time and may decide not to give further and the taker may feel exploited in this situation. Is it the insensitivity of the giver or the taker? If students do not listen to a teacher and he stops teaching one day, is he exploiting his students? If a child does not want to grow and keeps demanding money from the parents and they decide to stop giving any further money, are they exploiting their child?
I feel that sensitivity means being sensitive to whatever inputs we receive. Any aware person moving along the spiritual path would always be sensitive. If we deny the sensory inputs, we can not stay aware. Living in some imaginary utopian world, shutting our senses down, is not at all equanimity. Any aware person would have a realization that every creature has the same source and therefore he would value not only others but also himself. In the process, he would be sensitive, when somebody pushes him or his friend and rush to help. However, at the same time, he would be aware of two things at least. First, there may be some genuine cause that he or his friend was pushed and he would not close his mind to receive such input and would always be in an open mode reanalyzing all the sensory inputs. Second, there would be an awareness of a higher level of existence where form does not matter and all the creatures share the same consciousness. His reactions would therefore more be in the nature of worldly solutions and he would not carry any hatred against anybody. Higher awareness would give him a chance to feel compassion even with the exploiter. However, that does not mean insensitivity, inaction, or supporting the actions of the exploiter. Rather it means love and compassion with the exploited because their right to grow and explore is being denied and with the exploiter because he is falling into the trap of ignorance. Awareness and not insensitivity brings equanimity. In fact, insensitivity is just an escape mechanism for unrealized souls.
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