Even-mindedness

the essence of yoga

Fewf. Even-mindedness is getting hard to come by, both inside and outside.

Samatvaṁ yoga uchyate, says the Bhagavad Gita (2.48). It is even-ness of mind that I call yoga.

What the Gita is saying here is that the essence of yoga, the keynote of personal transformative discipline, is even-ness of mind, sama in Sanskrit, from which we get the word “same.” Yoga means¹ that the mind stays the same—-calm, self-sufficient, clear— in all circumstances.

The Buddha also taught that even-mindedness was an essential discipline, calling it upekkha (equanimity). He taught that it was to be practiced in the face of the eight worldly winds which are pain and pleasure, status and disgrace, praise and blame, and loss and gain. This echoes Krishna’s first definition of evenmindedness in the Gita, which is to be nirdvandva or beyond such dualities.

The related concept of nirdvandva is celebrated throughout Indian yoga traditions, being, for example, an epithet of Śiva in the Śivapurāṇa, the goal of the nondualist (advaita) text the Aṣṭāvakragītā, and a quality of the ideal sage in the devotional Goddess text the Manthānabhairavatantra.

A couple of other uses of the word further hint at the power of nirdvandva: in some Vaiṣṇava texts it refers to being “without extremes” and in the Indian language of Marathi is is commonly used to refer to being “without strife and contention.” Are we sold on its being worth cultivating yet?

If the word nirdvandva emphasizes being beyond dualities, the word sama emphasizes how our mood, cognition, and contentment can be resilient and stable in the face of external changes. Nirdvandva and sama are obviously a tall order. As Spinoza² said, such attainments are “as excellent as they are rare.” It seems to me, though, that we all crave such evenmindedness, and that its importance has only grown in our current every-level crisis.

So how do we cultivate it? Let’s look at what Epictetus has to say, then we’ll return to look at Krishna’s own advice, including a second level of even-mindedness that he suggests which just might be the one of the most important therapeutic formulas in any yoga text for those of who are, well, humans. We’ll end with the suggestion of a simple tool we all can use.

Attending To The Right Thing

Seneca, the great Roman Stoic philosopher and playwright, in his De Tranquillitate Animi (On the Tranquility of the Mind), writes of the resonant concept of "euthymia" (εὐθυμία), a sense of inner calm and contenment in the self in the face of externals. Epictetus spoke of the Stoic virtues of ataraxia (ἀταραξία), freedom from agitation and suffering, and apatheia (ἀπάθεια), freedom from afflictive emotions³. Of the two of them, Epictetus, the Roman slave turned Stoic orator, focused more on nuts and bolts technique, so lets see what he had to say.

“It is not things themselves that disturb us, but our opinions about them.”
— Enchiridion 5

This is the essence of Epictetus’ advice. The perceptions, or phantasia, which arise in our mind, should not be accepted uncritically but rather examined. The fundamental error which our human minds so frequently make is that our true good— what is good for us— lies in external states of affairs. What do people think of us? How is the weather? How is our health today?

In fact what is truly good lies entirely in our own choices and character⁴. That is where we should focus our desire and our emotional life. We should not nurse the desires that arise that people or events outside of us are this way or that way, but rather refocus on desiring that we ourselves make good choices and have good character. That should be our joy and our rest.

Epictetus argues that we should do this because it will make us happier in both the short and long term. In the short term, our choices are up to us, so desiring our own choices doesn’t lead to frustration- unlike desiring things we can’t control. In the long term, improving our own choices and character leads to being stronger and so having a better life regardless of the state of our finances, relationships, or health.

As far as externals go, we should accept them.

“Seek not that the things which happen should happen as you wish; but wish the things which happen to be as they are, and you will have a tranquil flow of life.”
— Enchiridion 8

To really embrace that attitude might seem radical, but think about how much energy it would save. Energy for what? Well, for making good choices and cultivating our own good character of course. And who will that benefit? Everyone, and far more than our angst will.

No matter how extremely “wrong” we think external states of affairs are, directing our emotional desire and aversion towards them will accomplish nothing. If we are in a place where we can do something about them, then that is our “role” as Epictetus would say, or are “svadharma” as Krishna would say. We should fulfill our role ethically and well, but again that is where our attention, desire, and pleasure should lie: in what we do.

Does this mean that we should be indifferent to external injustice, neglect our duties, or not care for others? No, not at all. Epictetus’ point is that our desire and aversion should always be directed at the quality of our own actions. This means fulfilling our roles ethically and well: being a good mother, or taxi driver, or politician. In a modern context, it also means fulfilling our duties as a citizen of a democracy. The point is that we do not rejoice or suffer because of what is outside of our own control. That would only distract us from making a difference where we actually can. As Krishna says, our responsibility is our own actions, bot not their results.

Back To The Gita

A less well known verse of the Gita gives us some useful advice on relating to our minds and experience which complements what we’ve discussed so far. Bhagavad-gītā 3.42-43 says,

Superior, they say, are the senses; superior to the senses is the mind; superior than the mind is the wisdom-faculty, what is superior to the wisdom-faculty is verily He.

Thus having awakened to what is superior to the wisdom-faculty. stabilizing the self by the Self, slay, O might-armed, the enemy in the form of desire, difficult to conquer ⁵.

This challenging verse is suggesting that one rest in that which is beyond the senses, the mind, and even the intelligence. The senses are flunctuating, the mind is the source of instinctive perceptions and reactions, and the intelligence, though it can and should be trained, is vulnerable. The Self (atman) we are told to rest in here is the awareness that transcends the fluctuating states of our senses, mind, and thoughts.

This transcendence is a core aspect of the Self in yogic thought⁶. This is the “He” in the verse which is thought to refer to the Self due to the verse that follows. The senses, mind, and even intellect are so easily corrupted by desire (kama) the difficult enemy mentioned in the verse. Desire wants pleasure and not pain, praise and not blame, gain and not loss….. and so keeps us dvandva, at the mercy of dualities and prone to unsteadiness, changeability, extremes, strife and conflict.

To rest in the Self is to rest in the awareness beyond the intellect, awareness which due to its transcental aspect is incorruptible. When attention rests in this alert, equanimous, non-identified awareness, the intellect is actually freed to be more, not less discerning. Attention is not kidnapped and controlled by the winds of the senses and storms of the mind. These storms are the afflictive emotions, rooted in desire.

This is something that be practiced simply by taking the stance of the witness, or observer, of oneself. Simply practice watching one’s actions, feelings, and thoughts without identifying with them. Identifying, here, means “struggling with, taking on, welcoming, or pushing away.” Just observe peacefully, trying to see whats happening and understand it. The more one does this, the more one sees the deceptive patterns of one’s own thoughts and reactions, and the more on automatically chooses— at least sometimes, and increasingly more and more— not to be reactively or mindlessly sucked in by them. The intellect actually begins to function in a way that is less controlled by the mind and the sense. One is beginning to “stabilize the self by the Self.”

Higher Sama

The Bhagavad-gītā contains several profound verses about another kind of sama-ness: equal vision (sama-darśinaḥ), which is seeing the same Self in all beings regardless of external differences.

Bhagavad-gītā 5.18⁷:

"The wise see with equal vision a brāhmaṇa [priest] endowed with learning and humility, acow, an elephant, a dog, and a dog-eater."

Bhagavad-gītā 6.29⁸:

"The yogi, established in union, sees the Self present in all beings and all beings in the Self. They see with equal vision everywhere."

Bhagavad-gītā 6.32⁹

"They who see all as equal through comparison with oneself, whether in pleasure or pain, are the highest yogi, O Arjuna."

For the master class, reflect on the sameness of self and other. Reflect often on how everyone is as valuable as ourselves. Their desires are just as compelling as ours, their pleasure and pain just as real. All people are of equal reality and value, and their own concerns and feelings have just as much weight as one’s own. As much as these things are truisms, in practice we forget this, treating other people as objects, as less real than us, or believe their opinions and experiences to be less compelling than ours. This is expecially true of those we don’t like (like, for instance, dog-eaters).

Regularly pause and look at people, truly taking them in, and reflect on the people you come across and their equal value and realness to yourself in every way.

When we meditate on the equality of all beings on the spirit level, it helps us stay grounded and balanced in our interactions with them. It helps us stay alert and alive to life. It helps us stay empathetic and compassionate. It helps us be non-violent. It also puts things in perspective, helping us not to get lost in a world of objects to be desire or pushed away, one which we forget is actually a world composed almost entirely of vibrant living souls equal to ourselves.

Mantra

One of the greatest tools for cultivating even-mindedness, and possibly the one that’s been most useful to me over the years, is also the simplest: mantra. When one repeats a mantra internally, gently aware of the sound repeating in one’s mind, it has three main affects: it is calming, it provides an anchor outside of thought, and it reduces the number of thoughts. All of this helps with even-mindedness. Next week I’m going to write a detailed guide to working with mantra, but for now, if you’d like to try, here are two simple steps:

1. Choose a mantra, or “meditation phrase.” This could be one from a spiritual/religious tradition you practice or resonate with, or could just be a word you find calming. Examples of the latter are “calm” or “peace.” Ram Dass recomended “I am loving awareness,” which as well as being a clever double entendre, produces interesting effects.

2. Recite it every chance you get, even when engaged in other activities, and see what the effects are. Make sure to do this when you feel yourself being swept away by distressing emotion or thinking.

Bringing It All Back Home

To review, here are some steps for cultivating sama:

1. Reflect on the benefits of being less impacted by the eight worldly winds.

2. Direct your desire and joy to your own choices and character alone, not externals.

3. Whenever you can, begin observing your experience and thoughts without identification, simply watching its flow. This leads to an experience of being “above” these things which allows intelligence to operate more clearly. We are less taken in by our desire and fooled by our biases and complexes. You might begin by committing to do this for short periods of time througout the day.

4. Practice consciously meditating on the inner experience and equal value of other people. “Sonder.”

5. Experiment with internally reciting a mantra and giving yourself an anchor outside your senses, mind and thoughts.

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Photo by Johannes Plenio: https://www.pexels.com/photo/island-during-golden-hour-and-upcoming-storm-1118873/

1. Of course there is actually more to yoga than that, and Krishna goes on both to offer another definition and to teach four different approaches to yoga in the text. Krishna is employing a kind of rhetoric here where one equates one thing with another for the sake of punchiness, but it is not meant literally. Examples: “Love is forgiveness” or “Compassion means action.”

2. Baruch Spinoza, renegade Jew and philosopher who taught a comprehensive discipline of the mind and actions in his Ethics.

3. This literally means freedom from passion, a word which meant emotional suffering (as in the Passion of Christ) until the European romantics elevated it into a virtue, and then eventually it came to mean a kind of ambition or joie de vivre in modern parlance. It resonates with the Sanskrit idea of klesha, or afflictive emotion, much discussed in Buddhism and Vedanta.

4. This advice dovetuils with Krishna’s famous teaching about giving up the results of action, which I discuss here:

5. This is Georg Feuerstein’s excellent hyper-literal translation.

indriyāṇi parāṇy āhur
indriyebhyaḥ paraṁ manaḥ
manasas tu parā buddhir
buddher yaḥ paraḥ saḥ

evaṁ buddheḥ paraṁ buddhvā
saṁstabhyātmānam ātmanā
jahi śatruṁ mahā-bāho
kāma-rūpaṁ durāsadam

6. Different schools of Yoga, Vedanta, and Tantra regard the atman differently. Some see it as pure awareness but individual (like a monad of consciousness); some see it as pure awareness and not individual (ontologically united with all other atmans as the ground of being); some see it the atman as being made of consciousness but as a soul with individual character capable of activity. Some see it as ontologically independent, others as part and parcel of God. Some see it as one with the impersonal conscious ground of reality.

vidyā-vinaya-sampanne
brāhmaṇe gavi hastini
śuni caiva śva-pāke ca
paṇḍitāḥ sama-darśinaḥ

7.

sarva-bhūta-stham ātmānaṁ
sarva-bhūtāni cātmani
īkṣate yoga-yuktātmā
sarvatra sama-darśanaḥ

8.

ātmo-pamyena sarvatra
samaṁ paśyati yo 'rjuna
sukhaṁ vā yadi vā duḥkhaṁ
sa yogī paramo mataḥ

9.