Loving the World without Attachment

I know I’m not alone when I say, I’ve been having a very hard time with our political situation lately. There have been feelings of anxiety, anger, fear, sometimes approaching despair. And then it hit me: I have had very little equanimity about the upcoming election, and that’s been causing me to suffer a lot. I feel very attached to the outcome, and a lot of aversion about what I see going on. Attachment, aversion, and delusion are the main sources of our suffering, according to the Buddha.

Equanimity does not mean indifference, it doesn’t mean that what’s happening in the world does not matter. It’s a recognition that there are things we don’t have control over. We don’t stop loving, caring, and acting - but we accept that we don’t have control over what we love, care about, and act on. The primary lesson of one of the oldest spiritual texts, the Bhagavad Gita, is to wholeheartedly do what is ethically called of you. And know that the outcome, the fruits of your actions, are not in your hands.

I think of equanimity as love without attachment. Anyone who has had a loved one experiencing a violent relationship or addiction, for example, has faced the need to learn how to love without attachment: we don’t stop loving, but we have to accept that we ultimately don’t have control over someone else’s life. In her book Loving Kindness, Sharon Salzberg recommends some phrases for practicing equanimity:

• “All beings are the owners of their karma. Their happiness and unhappiness depend upon their actions, not upon my wishes for them,” 
• “I will care for you but cannot keep you from suffering.” 

I’ve had to cultivate a lot of equanimity in my life, through some very difficult circumstances. But the state of the world right now has been especially challenging to meet. Part of it is how much I care - about our planet, about people who are hurting and experiencing harm. It’s also hard not to  be affected by the overwhelming collective energy around all of us that is so full of attachment and aversion right now.

Human history has seen times of great turmoil and injustice. The path of engaged practice is to cultivate peace, compassion, and wisdom within, in order to bring these qualities to the world. The road may be winding and long. Equanimity helps us to be able to continue walking on that path, even if we can’t see its end, without burnout and despair.

Just recognizing how my attachment to outcomes has been causing me suffering, and breathing into the tightness of that, has been helping me to suffer less. And that helps me to care and engage from a place of more solidity and peace, which is truly what I want to bring more of into the world.