So the intelligent way of working with emotions is to try to relate with their basic substance, the abstract quality of the emotions, so to speak. The basic “isness” quality of the emotions, the fundamental nature of the emotions, is just energy. And if one is able to relate with energy, then the energies have no conflict with you. They become a natural process
Chogyam Trungpa, The Myth of Freedom and the Way of Meditation
Maybe it is because it is windy here in Ireland, that I post a reflection on the wind to help us deal with moments we are afraid, feeling deficient, or burdened with the need to “become”, to be better, as Sharon Salzberg described this morning :
It is essential to understand that an emotion is merely something that arises, remains and then goes away. A storm comes, it stays a while, and then it moves away. At the critical moment remember you are much more than your emotions. This is a simple thing that everyone knows, but you may need to be reminded of it: you are more than your emotions.
Thich Nhat Hahn, Healing Pain and Dressing Wounds
The strong winds in Ireland this morning remind me of this teaching on being shaken and standing firm
When you look at a tree in a storm, you see that its upper branches move more violently in the wind. But if you look at its trunk, you see that it is very solid and still. Your belly is the trunk of your being. It is important to allow everything in your head to move down to your abdomen. Place your hands on your abdomen and practice your breathing. After five, ten, fifteen minutes the storm will pass and you will be ok.
Nguyen Anh-Huong and Thich Nhat Hahn, Walking Meditation
If we don’t grasp hold of the snake
it won’t bite us.
If we don’t grasp onto the moods, the feelings, the thoughts
they won’t bite us.
Ajahn Jayasaro.
photo DVIDSHUB
Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world’s grief.
Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly, now.
You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it.
The Talmud
Water does not resist. Water flows. When you plunge your hand into it, all you feel is a caress.
Water is not a solid wall, it will not stop you. But water always goes where it wants to go, and nothing in the end can stand against it.
Water is patient. Dripping water wears away a stone.
Remember that, my child. Remember you are half water.
If you can’t go through an obstacle, go around it. Water does
Margaret Atwood, The Penelopiad
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