Compassion and Equanimity

August 1, 2021 AURELIS Syllabus, Empathy - Compassion No Comments

Compassion and equanimity: two complex concepts that belong together in-depth.

Compassion is a kind of positive empathy.

Not: getting carried away in other people’s feelings, but: having and showing attention for them => feeling those feelings like the waves on a deep ocean and then inviting the others to go deeper with you.

Emotions are contaminating when a deep connection is felt.

For instance, between AURELIS coach and coachee.

This is especially true in compassion. Combine this with a good way of accepting, and you have a potent combination.

acceptingly apathetic ßà acceptingly equanimous

Equanimity = on the background, deep consciousness

“See, now I’m angry.”

is a form of attention, but says nothing about the kind of attention:

superficial: waves on the surface can become larger (such as anxiety + superficial fixation on the object of anxiety -> anxiety keeps increasing) -> flooding OR letting go of emotions (→ apathy/depression)
deep flow, real change (such as anxiety + attention to the underlying basis of equanimity) → deep acceptance/growth

Equanimity therefore also includes depth in feelings.

This does not mean bigger waves, but: a large stable current that makes many things possible. This is also a trait of a true leader ->