We have come to the fourth of the four immeasurables: meditation on equanimity. It might be the most important of the four, as without it we can easily lose our balance or direction.  Whereas the previous three meditations on love, compassion and joy have a soft, heart opening quality, this meditation is, as Roshi Joan Halifx puts it, the “strong back that supports the soft front of compassion.”

Equanimity is the quality of mind that allows us to capacity to be in touch with the suffering of others when we are doing the compassion meditations, and at the same time not be overwhelmed or become undone by what comes up for us.

Equanimity gives us a stable, quiet calm, and a sense of trust that allows us to meet the world in all its naked force and sublime beauty and at the same time to fully let go of the world.

The main work of equanimity meditation is a kind of radical, open and healing acceptance.

Jon Kabat-Zinn describes this healing aspect of acceptance very nicely:

Healing does not mean curing, although the two words are often used interchangeably. While it may not be possible for us to cure ourselves or to find someone who can, it is always possible for us to heal ourselves.

Healing implies the possibility for us to relate differently to illness, disability, even death, as we learn to see with eyes of wholeness. Healing is coming to terms with things as they are.

Equanimity comes as a pivotal juncture. In earlier meditations we practiced reflections on impermanence and karma. Now we take the mind that has practices these reflections and apply it to fully be with the whole enchilada of life as it is, the unknowable and the immediate, and trust the moment to moment unfolding as it is without clinging or aversion?

The traditional reflections on equanimity meditation from the Theravada tradition allow us to integrate the truth of impermanence and karma with these phrases:

Theravada equanimity phrases

All beings are owners of their karma.  Their happiness and unhappiness depend on their actions, not on my wishes for them.”

The Perfection of Equanimity

For some people this may feel a little too hard-hearted, and clinical. But we have to remember these series of reflections happen after much work has already been done in the three previous meditations on love, compassion and joy.

Joan Halifax Roshi says that equanimity is “ruthless compassion.”