Originally Posted by
Stephanie
A round for Shane, for putting it so well.
I experience apathy or something like it sometimes. It feels like something "turns off" inside. It's a sick, sick feeling. Very different from how it feels when I'm experiencing equanimity borne of zazen practice, which is just as fearless as apathy, but warm, compassionate, caring. There's a bit of a tender sadness that comes along with it for me--you watch people suffering and are moved; you feel the loneliness of your own position relative to them. But yet you don't freak out when you see pain and darkness and loss; you know that this is the way of things, and in your own tender, caring way, you accept it. I think the Japanese have a term for this--mono no aware.