THE WORLD IS in a very challenging place right now!
WE ARE in a very challenging place right now!
The fierce winds of our internal weather blow us around and each one of us is subject to these winds. Sometimes we can feel the winds of anger, fear & despair and at other times winds of calmness, presence, happiness & joy.
How do we meet all these different winds, that move through our minds, bodies and hearts?
How do we meet all these different winds, which we can’t prevent from happening?
With this in mind, I would like to share a quote by Joan Tollifson from her book ‘Painting the Sidewalk with Water’, which I came across several years ago. I hope that you find this as inspiring as I did, and it continues to be a lovely pointer in my practice.
“Is there anyone inside this body-and-mind who is doing the talking, doing the hearing, doing the thinking, making the choices, performing the actions? Is there anyone in control of what is arising and appearing? Is there any owner of the so-called internal weather, someone who is responsible for it? Is there a fundamental difference between a thunderstorm and a burst of anger, or between a cloudy day and a wave of depression or a moment of anxiety?
When it’s the weather outside, when it’s the thunderstorm or the haze or the clouds, it’s clear no one owns it. We don’t take it personally. But when it’s the internal weather, then there’s a very old story that someone owns it, that there’s a “me” who has it, who needs to figure out what to do about it and how to fix it. It seems so personal.
In this moment, is there definitely a problem that needs to be solved, or is there only ever-changing appearance, endlessly solving and dissolving itself? In this moment, is there anything that needs to be different, or is this idea of a problem and search for a solution nothing more than passing thoughts, no more substantial than last night’s dreams?”
Please join us for practice and let us explore together, how we can apply this teaching to our unique life circumstances, whatever the weather might be!
