The belief is: Do more, and you'll get more. ProMind Complex Our society is one of "doers." Like worker ants, we take our morning coffee in a commuter cup, rush to work so we can produce, produce, produce-so we can hurry back home in time to gobble something for dinner, so we can get to the next activity on our agenda. At night, though we should be exhausted, we lay awake and rewind the problems of the day which increases our anxiety, until we have to resort to a sleep aid. Tomorrow morning, the cycle begins all over again.
Our society believes that being unproductive (what I will refer to from this point on as "being") is a drag on society. American philosophy is: if you want to get ahead, don't get caught standing still. So we madly rush ourselves and others, we push ourselves and others. In the quest to produce, we view one another less as human beings, and more as "objects" to be manipulated. We don't intend it maliciously; we're just trying to get ahead of the next guy.
Buddhists have a belief about how life should be lived, and it is encapsulated nicely in one word: equanimity. The word means: all things being held in balance. The dictionary defines it as: "Evenness of mind, especially under stress" (Merrium-Webster.com). The simplest synonym might be: even-tempered. Equinimity is the evenness of balancing perfectly on a balance beam, or treading water so you are buoyant. Perhaps you've seen a person balance a load upon their heads seemingly effortlessly? These are physical demonstrations of equanimity. Equanimity is not a physical term; it refers to a state of mind. It is a "being-ness" vs. a "doing-ness."