Equanimity: An attitude that involves having equal respect and concern for every being regardless of where they stand in relation to us.

sunset at Kopan<3

Sometimes you can hear things a thousand times. But never truly hear them.

Perhaps it's something you've been told countless times, but it's never really registered. And then one day, some way, you hear it. It makes sense. You see it and it's so obvious.

What's changed? It's the same information. Is it the person telling you it? Was there some shift in your mind? How is it that it's suddenly so clear?

I'm not sure if I can answer this. I just know that it's true.

During these last four months traveling, I can definitely say I've learned things-- entirely new things.  A new concept, a new idea, a new way of seeing things, seeing life. Things I never would have thought of. Ideas that blew my mind. People with lifestyles I never could have fathomed. 

This I definitely encountered.

But more often that not, I encountered things that I already knew... or at least thought I knew. Things that made sense, facts if you may. Ideas I clung to that just had to be true.

And then realizing they're NOT that way. . unlearning them. This has been the most powerful thing.

Realizing that sometimes you think you know things, but really you know nothing. 

Seeing things in a different way, this is the magic of traveling. Of meeting new people, new cultures, new ways of living, of seeing our world.

Realizing unity and that each and every individual you ever encounter is exactly the same in that they want happiness and they don't want suffering. And yes we may all attempt to find this happiness in various different ways, but when it comes down to it. We all want love, we want success. We all want to be happy. 

And from the beginning we know how to accomplish this. It's so simple. It's always there.

Yet we make it so complicated. We fill our minds with endless voices that drown out the one voice we need to hear. The voice of truth.

But then one day you wake up. You truly listen. You're able to hear that truth. That advice you've been told endless times that never truly registered. That love the world has been trying to give you but you just couldn't see.

Realizing the love is there, you can now accept it. 

It's yours. It's ours.

It's equanimity.