Joe makes a striking observation: “I know people who have equanimity and are depressed.” Through nondual or awakening practices, a person can achieve a stillness that never leaves—an eye-of-the-storm peace that’s always accessible. But this doesn’t guarantee joy.
The distinction is that equanimity comes from recognizing you are awareness, not the ego. This creates peace in the system but doesn’t create joy—not without emotional movement, without emotional fluidity. For some meditators, the practice has become “an emotional management tool as well as a tool for equanimity,” suppressing emotions rather than allowing them to flow.
Joe references his teacher Adyashanti, whose own teacher would show up at meditation retreats with tears streaming—emotions moving fully. Joe himself had many retreats where “a huge amount of emotion moved through me.” This is what creates joy: the emotional fluidity, not just the recognition of awareness.
The implication is that meditation and contemplative practice can produce deep peace without producing joy if they’re used to manage rather than allow emotional experience. Both capacities—equanimity and emotional fluidity—are needed for a genuinely joyful life.
Related Concepts
- Emotional fluidity defined
- Downregulation is not resolution
- Somatic bypass domesticates instead of liberates