EQUANIMITY AND REACTION
The Mind processes information like this
(Sadhguru: “see it is like Thishhh”)
The Mind (manas) takes in an input, And the Chitha,
Recognizes the input, And the Budhi, analyzes/judges the input.
Which leads to a sensation getting released in the body based on the judgement, And this
sensation leads to a reaction.
Because of this sensation, we PHYSICALlY react, or at least a sensational reaction
AAAnd…We React to the reaction By either making the Physical reaction Stronger, and other
ways of reacting…
Some people express their reaction, ( 🤬!) Some suppress (
….)
Expressing reaction is
Hurting oneself and others, and suppressing is Hurting oneself. People think the reason for
their reaction is the external object (e.g. Somebody spits on you by mistake, then you react)
But however, if the SAME spit landed on you, but a 2 yr old’s, then you would in fact smile
and wipe it off, it is the SAME spit material, but now the age of the spitter isn’t the same.
BUT, your reaction is different, This point is to prove that the reason for the reaction is not the
EXTERNAL source, but the INTERNAL sensation your body is supplying, and we talked about how
your body released those sensations. The key is to Study the INTERNAL, and NOT the
external object.
(When I say reaction, it includes: getting angry, hitting somebody, or even tiny ones, getting
up from a place with a start, sitting on a desk to work with a swag, are all also reactions)
any craving, any aversion, both are reactions)
“All this is fine, but WHY?”
What’s the big deal if we react? Obviously, you can have more peace with your loved ones
and all, but other than that, what’s the big deal?
Reaction makes everything you do meaningless, brings harm, (depending on the level of the
reaction the level of harm will also vary, I mean, if you accidentally dropped a pen because
of high key excitement, which is a reaction, then the pen will fall on the floor, and little
damage may happen, But on the other hand, if you had a gun in your
hand, and you got too angry, which is a reaction, you shot somebody, THEANNN, you know
what will happen.)
it is the same reaction because of which, the pen was dropped, and the person was killed.
(Now, I’m not saying don’t get excited once in a while, or such more common harmless reactions but, be aware, and come back to normalcy, once my dad got too excited with a heavy bag on his back, and jumped in the air and said yay! and he tore on of the bag straps, and he had to carry that bag for 21 days without one of the bag straps, why? because he got excited, I mean, he REACTED. )
So all that is to say developing a capacity to not react, makes you a
non-harmful, unmessy, calm, composed, person, and a person who can actually be of TRUE value to somebody.
only from a space of equanimity, can one take appropriate decisions, Do quality work, create value, etc.
You know those times where you behaved seriously not like you?
(E.g. pulled somebody by the shirt out of anger)
Or those times where you took absolutely stupid decisions?
“Oh my god that was sooooo stupid!, I couldn’t believe I was doing that!”
Those times where you got tremendously pissed off for such IMMATERIAL, INSIGNIFICANT, nonsensical, things…
and later reflected that you are so much more than this nonsense?
The maiiiiin reason for all of the above is really simple.
YOU REACTED. DOT.
The thing which went wrong here when you were being
pissed by the insignificant things is not because of the thing itself,
particular person, place, object, etc. none of that stuff is the reason for your reaction. When
a person insults you and that insult ruins your day it’s because YOU LET that insult ruin your day,
when an annoying friend speaks bad about your family and you get Furiously offended it’s
because YOU LET yourself feel offended
(no offense)
An’ I’m not sayin’ suppress the emotion either, now your probably not pointing at your screen and yelling
“Dude, you’re telling me not to express, AND your telling me not to suppress, then what DO I do?”
HOW TO DO ???
Now you will be thinking, “Oh my god, the reasons and benefits itself were 15 paragraphs,
now seeing how to do this is going to be another million paragraphs,
Arghrrghhh..
but NO! it is NOT! going to be a a million paragraphs, it is going to be 3-4
paragraphs. (3-4 )
Neither suppression, nor expression, the path here is
OBSERVATION.
When you observe, there is no reaction. Observation is a fantastic
no-nonsense way of
dealing with reactivity. most people try to use external ways dealing with reaction, such as:
“count till ten when your angry, and say: “I’m a happy boy!” “when you’re sad eat a black fore-“
but those are veaaaary temporary ways of dealing with this which will not actually help you In the long run.
WHAT TO OBSERVE ??
Either observe the sensation in the body in great detail,
(My heartbeat is really fast, I feel a lot of tension in my arm…, this area of my head is vibrating…)
OR, observe your breath in great detail, (it is extremely fast and hot right now…. it is coming from the left nostril, the breath is very short,)
Such great detail is Necessary,
WHY BREATH OBSERVATION?
Breath, is something that gets affected in every action or reaction you do, when you ran 2km continuously, your breath is fast and hot, when you just
woke up in the morning the breath is normal and very relaxed, it is something that gets affected by EVERYTHING you do,
because it gets affected by everything you do, the opposite is also true, YOU can affect the quality of everything you do by observing the breath. Just try it, when your angry next time, observe your breath and see what happens to the anger,
when your agitated next time, observe your breath.
Please understand what I said clearly,
I said OBSERVE your breath, NOT CHANGE the charecteristcs of the breath, observe it AS IT IS……ASS IT IS.
Though initially (maybe for the first 1 month if done diligently) it may be difficult, to imediately catch yourself when your reacting, in fact, when you get better at this,
what will happen is,
when you successfully remind yourself to observe, (Which itself is rare given your reactive mind),
your beautiful mind will have a reaction for THAT too, it will react as ;
“Such an unacceptable thing is going on, and you want me to observe my breath??, what the heck? I don’t care!”
But in these situations it is important not to react, take control over the mind, and make
yourself the master of your mind, don’t let it be the master of you, of course, when I say
“you” what I actually mean is the mind only, you have to control the mind, WITH the mind,
(it may sound ridiculous but it is very much possible.)
Now, when you are in a space of EQUANIMITY, Equanimity means neutrality, neither in a state of craving, nor in a state of aversion,
neither in a state of pleasure, nor in a state of pain,
but in a state of FULL BALANCE.
When I say full balance, I don’t mean external balance, I mean internal balance,
the person who is in a nice, peaceful, harmless state, may not be a equanimous person, he may be only being neutral at that time
because the EXTERNAL situation is very pleasant, if the same guy
where to be in a situation of high traffic, loud irritating noises, and this person reacts, and does not have an intention to Equanimify himself, then he is not an equanimous person.
an equanimous person, is a person who remains equanimous no matter the external condition,
he will always remain balanced given any situation,
If two friends are fighting madly and about to kill each other, this equanimous guy can come in and appropriately contribute to the situation, he will know how to calm down
fighting friend A, he will know how to soothingly rub it in on fighting friend B, This equanimous guy
is able to do this because he is in a state of balance where he can
SEE THINGS and JUDGE things clearly ; Why can’t a reactive person do the same?
Simple logic: you run fast without seeing where your going, you will bang your head and die.
The nature of reaction is that, it is blindingly fast and damaging, I will give you a mundane example:
a person needs to go into a crowded room filled with sharp objects, (and there is very tiny spaces for walking)
and needs to get an object, and get out of the room,
an equanimous person, would carefully enter the room carefully bypassing all the stuff without toppling knives or anything, gently pick up his object, and carefully go out of the room.
The reactive person on the other hand, would runnn into the room,
smash himself on a few items and cut himself, step on some fallen items, cut his feet, run
towards the object he wants, grab it and drop it on the way, pick it up, smash himself on a knife and die.
This theory applies EVERYWHERE, Be in a balanced state of mind, 24/7. it is veaaary hard, but you’ll get there.
WHY IS COUNTING TILL TEN, OR THOSE KINDS OF THINGS
NOT THE SAME AS OBSERVING MY BREATH? WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE?
These external methods of dealing with reaction, are not addressing the SOURCE of the
problem. it is merely giving a temporary distraction, Counting till ten does calm you down by distracting you, but, You will have to keep counting till ten forever, you will keeep reacting,
and keeep counting till ten, Your reactions won’t reduce,
one may argue that your LEVEL of reaction may reduce by practicing counting till ten,
Which may be true, but that is damage control,
addressing the situation after it has manifested, why try to find a cure,
when prevention is better than cure? By practicing observing your breath/your sensations, you are not only preventing yourself from reacting
but also PREVENTING The next you react by a little.
THANK YOU!
thank you so much for taking the time and reading this!
please don’t just read it and forget it in the next 5 minutes,
I request you to actually try this in real life,
🙂
– Aum Sathva
the pause effect 