Just staying with Thich Nhat Hanh to start this day, as his simple words can be one way of working with fearful thoughts as they arise. So if you notice yourself getting anxious, or the mind beginning to rush and lean forward, you might like to try saying these words to yourself, aligning them with the rhythm of your breathing:
I breathe in, I breathe out.
Deeper, gentler.
I become calm, I let go.
I smile, I am free.
photo: jamesjen
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
In our usual mind state, we are continually activating the process that in Buddhist terminology is known as “bhava,” which literally means “becoming.” In this space of becoming, we are subtly leaning forward into the future, trying to have security based on feeling that we can hold on, we can try to keep things from changing. We are continually out of balance in this state – in meditation we might notice that we even try to feel the next breath while the present one is still happening. When we speak about letting go, or unplugging, or renouncing, we are talking about dropping the burden of becoming and just returning our awareness to the natural center of our being, returning to a state of natural peace.
Sharon Salzberg, How Doing Nothing Can Help You Truly Live, Huffington Post
photo arcalino
The previous post suggests letting go as a way of negotiating the ups and downs of each day, and I got an early opportunity to practice this strategy this morning. I arose early and set out to get to College in good time. However a major accident closed the main road towards Dublin and led to diversions, traffic chaos, and added significant time to a normally carefree journey. So the planned early start at the desk did not materialize. It is good to work at being at peace with how each day starts and develops, how our life is actually unfolding in this moment, as this leads to being at peace with how our lives are in an overall sense.
Pleasant conditions change into unpleasant ones, and unpleasant conditions eventually become pleasant. We should just keep this awareness of impermanence and be at peace with the way things are, not demanding that they be otherwise. The people we live with, the places we live in, the society we are a part of – we should just be at peace with everything. But most of all we should be at peace with ourselves – that is the big lesson to learn in life. It is really hard to be at peace with oneself. I find that most people have a lot of self-aversion. It is much better to be at peace with our own bodies and minds than anything else, and not demand that they be perfect, that we be perfect, or that everything be good. We can be at peace with the good and the bad.
Ajahn Sumedho
By letting it go it all gets done.
The world is won by those who let it go.
But when you try and try.
The world is beyond the winning.
Lao Tzu
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