Thinking About Equanimous Joy
Just got back from Vibecamp. On the very last day when I was relaxing on a the grassy hill outside of dining cabin, somebody handed me a bubble wand, and I played with it while watching the people around me.
Right before Vibecamp, I spoke with a pretty devout Buddhist, and have been thinking about that conversation a lot.
While blowing bubbles by myself at Vibecamp, I experienced a lot of equanimous joy, and there was something I really valued in it. It seemed to me that a moment of equanimous joy is equal to hours of excited joy. Equanimous joy feels sustainable, while excited joy (think about the likes of going to a rave) stems from a large amount of expectation, which I think is the same thing that leads to much of our suffering.
Buddhism attests that all emotions are suffering, and I think equanimous joy to be a sort of sweet point in terms of positive emotions to strive for. Maybe it's the case that I prefer it now over hours of ecstatic joy, and that it's what I might look for in events and chats going forward.
— Categorized under: #philosophy, #buddhism, #interactions