I have always referred to inner equanimity, thinking of equanimity as an inner quality of being or state of consciousness. Composed, balanced, smooth, vital, and elegant, but a recent comment on the webinar I gave on July 2 has evolved my sense of equanimity.
The equanimity that I intend to imagine and begin to embody in myself and the participants in the retreat this August is not a mood or a quality. It is a way of living, an objective reality. This is an existential equanimity present in soul and cell, underlying our thinking, feeling, and willing as beings of our times.
Everyday we find our existential equanimity challenged by events inside or outside our skin. From the function of our liver, the racing of our heartbeat or a memory of a hurt, to the annoyance of a fly. your husband’s lie, or the media’s attention to terrorism. Relationships, work, health all challenge us and sometimes we find ourselves in moments that call forth a self that must take hold of life with the greatness of soul that arises out of the presence of existential love, the absence of existential fear and full access to the wisdom of our emotions.
The Relaxing Into Inner Equanimity: The Art of Empowered Relaxation will give you four days to build your understanding of and capacity for equanimity, empowered relaxation, and greatness of soul.
Since I am keeping the group to the intimate number of twelve, I want to share with you and all my readers this new distinction of existential equanimity beginning with the definition of existence.
existence
noun
the fact or state of living or having objective reality
• continued survival
• a way of living
• any of a person’s supposed current, future, or past lives on this earth
• archaic a being or entity.
• all that exists.
ORIGIN late Middle English: from Old French, or from late Latin existentia, from Latin exsistere ‘come into being,’ from ex- ‘out’ + sistere ‘take a stand.’
Existential Equanimity as a way of living, a potentially constant reality…I can go for that! But what does existential equanimity consist of?
I am always learning, unfolding, deepening my understanding of myself, the cosmos, the soul, reality, ideas, all the “stuff” I write about, teach, and mentor. Inspirations for this come from so many resources.
When I gave the webinar on The Twelve Elements of Equanimity (You can watch it here…https://theimagineselfacademy.com/courses/24/events/11) ten days ago, I found inspiration in a comment posted by one of the listeners regarding the four basic emotions.Here are the three sets of four elements that establish existential equanimity:
The four vital energies:
I am alive with light ether, warmth ether, tone ether, and force ether
The four essential states:
I am safe, I am calm, I am awake, I am nourished
and
The four basic emotions:
I feel anger, I feel happiness, I feel fear, I feel sadness
Here is the comment:
“I had heard in other courses that we actually only have 2 emotions: love and fear – and that anger and sadness were offshoots of fear, while joy and happiness were offshoots of love. Eager to hear your expansion of the twelve elements.”
The quoted comment focuses on the emotions, but led me to understand the others, the energies and the states, and led me to the notion of existential equanimity.
I do not agree to love and fear in this context as being ordinary emotions. They are feeling states, not e-motions. Yet, there is truth to this if we see them as existential feelings…existential love and existential fear. Let me explain.
EXISTENTIAL LOVE
The full presence of the light ether, the warmth ether, the tone ether, and the force ether flood us with eros or uninhibited, undistorted life energies which create an oceanic feeling of existential love — the love of the creator gods from whom all love/life flows into existence. We experience being one with the flow that includes all created things: human, animal, plant, and mineral. It is existential love.
EXISTENTIAL FEAR
The full presence of the states of safety, calmness, wakefulness and nourishment protect us from any existential fear — love/life cannot be threatened, diminished, or destroyed in any way when we are safe, calm, awake and nourished. The feelings of danger and enmity, of agitation and anxiety, of ignorance and exhaustion, and of starvation establish an existential fear. This fear then casts us out of love. Existence becomes uncertain, painful, and hostile.
THE EMOTIONS
So then, what is the role of the four basic emotions in establishing existential equanimity? If you listen to the webinar, you will learn that the emotions are storytellers and our way of responding to all events and environments. Anger tells us when our selfhood is being challenged, gives us the power to say NO and our sense of boundaries. Happiness says yes, offers sweetness (sometimes bittersweetness) and brings us into conscious and creative joy. Fear develops courage and steadfastness by alerting us to danger and the potential to move into the unknown. Sadness brings the awareness of loss and newness, the two challenges that live in the presence of sacrifice and evolution.
Without these four basic emotions we would lose our individuality and our biographical reality.
The four vital energies are the furthest from our ordinary consciousness because they are so deep in the core creative reality of our sense of self. They are ethereal and cannot be materially perceived or measured, but our souls need them to bring spirit into existence.
The four states relate to the embodied health of our four great biological realities: the immune system which activates to sustain safety; the endocrine system which activates a sense of regulated calmness; the nervous system which communicates the experience of wakefulness and awareness; and, the digestive system which functions to provide us with life-sustaining nourishment. All four must be healthy to give us a sense of wholeness and aliveness.
The four emotions reveal our personal and social responses to challenges and reveal our personal shadows and struggles. Our emotional life is full of lessons when we resist dramatizing it which requires us to regulate our four essential states and feel the alive presence of our four vital energies..
The Value of the Retreat
In the gathering of two or more wisdom seeking souls an opening can appear that draws in great gifts of imagination. With up to thirteen human souls all seeking through wonder the meaning, significance and purpose of existential equanimity and empowered relaxation something so beyond the ordinary becomes possible. The collective and open heart forces of the group leap far beyond the potential of the individual. Come benefit from this experience.
Our times will also benefit from your participation. The experience of Love and the eradication of Fear mean the future of all is supported by the courageous development of the individual…of you. This is not a time when it matters what group you connect with but rather how you know yourself and want to know others!
If you have been thinking about attending but hesitate, please schedule a call with me. I want you to be here in Chapel HIll, August 6- 10. If you have financial concerns, again, let me know. If you want to be here, I will make it possible for you to attend.
August 6th, the first day of the retreat, is the Feast of the Transfiguration – unplanned, but not surprising. Esoterically, this is a deeply significant festival for the individual who sees equanimity as essential for the manifestation of their individuality. Who are you? what is your destiny? How do you transfigure through your existential experiences?
The retreat is not just about feeling good. It is about being able to elegantly overcome any obstacles to you doing good and manifesting your destiny.
The retreat is about graceful work, not rest. It is about maturity and wisdom, not pleasure. It is about you as an evolving and manifesting individual beyond your age and your stories.
And we will have fun and laughter, enjoy expressing ourselves, and find real nurturance and inspiration in each other.
The retreat is only open for registration until Midnight Eastern, Thursday, July 17. Sign up now!
Bonus: all those who register for the retreat will receive a post-retreat 1 hour consultation with me worth $120.. This is a very empowering conversation as it will support you in establishing a real image of your as a being moving toward existential equanimity.
Learn all about the retreat and register here.
If you cannot attend the retreat and you have questions or thoughts about anything in this post, leave a comment or signup for a complimentary 20 conversation with me here.
