The Buddha Project 
Equanimity is the natural abiding of the mind
Ven. Gendun Equanimity is the natural abiding of the mind in the absence of disturbance. Some meditators asked: “I can’t feel it, can I move on to the other brahmaviharas?”.
How could we meditate on joy, love, and compassion, when we have still difficulty experiencing peace within ourselves; when our mind still struggles with discontent, judgement and instrumentalization of others?
Equanimity is the basic note, the carrying melody of what life itself feels like, when we return to ‘what is’ rather than ‘what should be’. It’s one of the tragedies of samsara that it obscures life’s music itself.
Equanimity is an intense intimacy with ‘what is’. It is the surge of fresh air when we open the windows of our heart. It is an expanding limitless sense of space, when we let go of the cramp of anger, instrumentalizing desire, and prejudice. It is luminous presence in the absence dullness and inattention. It is abiding without a center. It’s the wisdom of non-discrimination.
It is worth cultivating it. Like with training for a marathon, you don’t move on to another sport when on your first day you can’t run 40 km. Equanimity is the special sauce of joy, love and compassion. They are like matryoshka dolls, one wrapped in the other. Equanimity opens the door to joy, joy opens the door to love, and love opens the door to compassion. Equanimity is the warranty that joy, love and compassion are not just expressions of the eight worldly concerns, but are truly divine abidings that are Refuges to ourselves, as well as others.