The three tenets of meditation

There are three tenets of meditation: awareness, clarity and equanimity. These are the principles of meditation. They are also the practice of meditation and beautifully, at the same time, they are the benefits of meditation. 

When we sit and meditate we sit with awareness. This is the invitation. We practise by bringing our awareness to our breath, our body, an object, visual or mantra. In doing so we cultivate awareness and afterwards, when we are walking in the world, we see and engage in our lives with this fostered awareness. Awareness becomes a tenet of life. A principle. A practice. A gift. 

On our meditation cushion, we are also invited to sit with clarity. With our awareness in our breath we have clarity of breath, so too with our body and wherever else we are resting our awareness. It is not uncommon for clarity of situation to arrive in a meditation. Clarity in a feeling or sensation, not necessarily as thought. Cultivating clarity in meditation gives us more clarity in our lives. Such is the medicine of meditation. 

Equanimity is a word not often used in daily interactions, nor is it easily understood. 'Equanimity' is not to be confused with the term 'equality', however, it does have the same word root. Equa or equal, comes from the latin aequus. Whereas this is the total sum of things for the term 'equality', for 'equanimity' it extends; it is equal paired with animus, the mind. Equanimity, therefore, is equality of the mind. A mind-state of balance and evenness. The qualities of equanimity are non-judgment and acceptance. It is in this state we cultivate the witness. The observer. Simply watching without trying to analyse or change anything. When we sit in meditation with equanimity, we sit with all these qualities and in doing so, we foster them and bring them into our lives. This is the splendid nature of meditation and how it magnificently touches us and our lives. 

Meditation is like a glorious flower with three petals. Like an orchid, one of the few flowers that can bloom with three. You are at the centre of the orchid, your heart lifting up to the sky, your energy drawing down into the earth, connected by wispy but strong roots in the dirt. Orchids symbolise beauty, strength and fertility. They are both delicate and resilient. 

Through meditation, and the three tenets of awareness, clarity and equanimity, we birth ourselves over and over, to begin again. In meditation we foster the practice of living gently, with a durable adaptability and sense of sturdiness from deep within.

This is the invitation.