04/07/2025
The United States of America turns 249 years old today. Pantanjali wrote the yoga sutras around 2000 years ago. According to one of those sutras (1.33)
maitri karuna muditopeksanam sukha duhkha punyapunya visayanam bhavanatas citta prasadanam
By cultivating attitudes of friendliness toward the happy, compassion for the unhappy, delight in the virtuous, and equanimity toward the non-virtuous the mind-stuff retains its sense of tranquility. This is kind of a mix of words from a variety of translations, yet the premise is the same.
This is not the American way. America is a teenager, a little more egocentric and driven by novelty. The American way is more about competing to be happier and richer and healthier than your neighbor. Letting go of compassion is written into our laws. Discerning who gets to be happy and who gets to be unhappy was written into the American way of life from the very beginning. Over the short 249 years of their existence American values have yet to come to a consensus of what is virtuous and what is wicked. And yet, despite her foundation of greed, she has woven generosity into her fabric. Despite the foundation of oppression, she has left some room for equity to be woven in. Despite her insistence on hate, she has created a space where love, too, can thrive. Despite its individualistic backbone, her people keep showing up for one another in ways that supersede her own expectations to do so. Today I’m reaching back to the yoga sutras for some advice. I’m cultivating friendliness toward the happy, compassion for the unhappy, delight in the virtuous, and a sense of equanimity toward the not-so virtuous. This isn’t complacency, It isn’t acceptance, it isn’t apathy, it isn’t giving up or closing the curtain on all of things I stand in opposition to. In fact, it’s less about my values and choices and more about how I approach each of them. I don’t have control over a lot of outcomes, but I can take agency over how I show up for a world that is full of both happiness and suffering, both pleasure and pain, both compassion and hate. Today I choose equanimity.