I’ve really been contemplating the different communities that are around us lately. It’s interesting for me to look at people’s lives, including my own and wonder how we function as a society. On an individual stand point we are all in search of that which fulfills us. Even those of us who may be working for the betterment of society in service or charity, even they still are in action to make their lives more meaningful and filled with purpose. Most people in the world are bound to creating enough money in order to get by and then of course fewer are in search of increasing the wealth they already have. And then there are those in between and again those who really have nothing and are in desperate survival mode. The world never ceases to amaze me. My husband often tells me that I think too much and I need not worry about things so much. But for me, this world is an internal and external ocean of plunging and investigating. I am in pursuit of getting to know myself and to grow more and more into the idea of consciousness and expansion day by day. What does that mean? Well really it means to become more and more happy and to be released from bondage of self doubt, thought and suffering.
The Buddha says that life is suffering and that we have the ability to transcend this state of suffering into nirvana, a state of equanimity and ultimate compassion. The constant of this ultimate state leaves me pondering. Can this state be honestly achieved and attained within the realms of our individual and collective moment to moment reality. Can the course of external stimulus and happening of struggle and on- going personal and environmental disaster leave us immune to suffering? And if not, is suffering a tangible and necessary requirement for existence? According to tantric philosophy, we can emerge through suffering by coursing through it. Is suffering avoidable or can we choose to turn what may be perceived as suffering into equanimity, without denial or repression. Many enlightened masters or people who have claimed this realized state explain that when the mind ceases to be filled with story of ego, judgement and attachment then reason and intelligence give rise to the ability for unconditional love where suffering can not exist. Intellectually this sounds promising, however, what is the likelihood of this state to remain intact and constant. I ponder on this. I really do believe we are all one within our unique individual expressions and creations, but a state of this absolute equanimity void of suffering as a constant? I hesitate to be fore or against either. We are all in a paradoxical way bound to one another.
My argument here is this. I do believe that the state of constant equanimity is possible, however, the collective climate of this state is relevant and bound not only to the individual but bound to the collective state of our relations towards one another. It’s like the old saying, one bad apple spoils the lot. Jesus, Buddha, Mahavira, Mohammed. Perhaps their state was not the entirety of ‘the constant state of equanimity’ but rather a more evolved understanding of how this state could exist given the collective notion of each one of us harnessing this to and for one another. Creating a society where we have the correct ‘climate’ and ’support’ to render this a reality. There it is, the paradox. Self realization as a constant only within a society which breeds equanimity and compassion on all levels and in all things. Meaning that nothing is mutually exclusive and really we are only as ‘good’ as one other. Does this mean that we must all be the same? No, it only means that there is all this crazy clang, bash and noise out there and if we were to work together more as a collective team in harnessing the positive attributes of kindness, understanding, acceptance and harmony starting within ourselves, then there may be a way to make that noise into a really unbelievable symphony. Each energy playing their instrument in the most incredible and beautiful way that only they know how. Then that noise becomes the music of the world and the idea of equanimity and compassion as a constant does become in effect tangible.
I ponder on the totality of equanimity and ultimate compassion as a constant state of existence and wonder who each of us is and where it is that we are going.
I am in awe every second I am alive and in the center of my heart there is a golden light which keeps the fire of my soul burning and laughing and crying and continually expressing.
In humble gratitude and in vast wonder of this miracle of life,
Chandanni 
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