How to Remain Calm in Tough Times

 

Photo Credit: Anglican Alliance | Troubled Waters

How to Remain Calm in Tough Times

Bhagwad Gita (2:48) says – ‘Be steadfast in the performance of your duty, abandoning attachment to the rewards of actions while steadfastly remaining equipoised in either success or failure.’ I am sure all of you have seen jugglers in a circus – someone is throwing them balls, plates, knives and what have you, they catch one throw it, and so on, when the number goes beyond a point then the juggler has to either ignore the object or catch it and gently place it aside; in doing so he remains focused on his act, if his attention is lost even for a fraction of a second, he will drop or miss his object thus ruining his show! This act of his requires focused attention just as it does in real life situations. But we don’t work in circuses and don’t juggle objects for a living, hence practicing to do this is not on.

A person with an equanimous nature can help cultivate the presence of mind to juggle objects or to tackle life’s challenges without being disturbed or losing one’s cool. A person with an equanimous nature is a person who maintains his/her calm and composure, especially in difficult, tough, challenging situations. We all at varying points in our life feel pleasure and pain by experiencing happiness and sorrow, respect and disrespect, interest and lack of it, cold and heat and so on. When we are confronted by such conflicting emotions and we still manage to live in a spirit of harmony and peace with a balanced mind then we are said to be equanimous by nature.

There is a Buddhist saying, “If your mind becomes like a rock and no longer shakes, in a world where everything is shaking your mind will be your greatest friend and suffering will not come your way.” Meditation helps us achieve this goal of equanimity where we live life in a constant, calm and content state. It helps us remain balanced and focused without letting the waves of daily life throw us off our boat or allow the emotions of others around us destabilise our spirit.

Equanimity protects us from the 8 worldly winds as defined in Buddhist scriptures – praise, blame, success, failure, pleasure, pain, fame and disrepute. When we become attached to or are excessively elated with success, fame, praise of pleasure we unknowingly set ourselves up for suffering when the winds change direction! We need to understand that our sense of inner well-being is not dependent on these winds; once we understand this then our equanimity is assured regardless of the wind changing direction.

Most of the time, most of us are not wired to remain in this equanimous state and it is hugely difficult to get rid of emotions of ecstasy and misery! When we walk the spiritual path, we learn that everything is transitory and both the good and the bad times will pass – time takes care of everything. But, maintaining equanimity is a very individual thing that each one of us has to learn to adopt, because that is what will help keep us sane in an increasingly insane world.

Like Krishna told Arjuna as we wade through the ocean of life, it throws up all kinds of waves that are beyond our control. If we continue to struggle to get rid of negative situations there is no way we can get rid of unhappiness. If we learn to accept both the good and the bad in everything that life throws at us with equanimity -  just like the master juggler – without sacrificing our best efforts, that will be truly blissful for us!