This winter it seems that I can't go anywhere without hearing a lot of hoopla, whining and complaining about the weather. I can actually see and feel the suffering and mental anguish people are experiencing due to the unusual cold and snowy weather we are experiencing here in Michigan.
I thought it would be fitting and important to share these words of weather and suffering and how we live our lives to bring us a different perspective.
In the 4 noble truths - Buddha talked about suffering.
The first noble truth says it's part of being human to feel discomfort. Nothing in its essence is one way or the other. All around us the wind, the fire, the earth, the water, are always taking on different qualities: they're like magicians.
We ourselves ebb and flow like the tides, we wax and wane like the moon. We sometimes fail to see that like the weather, we are fluid, not solid and so we suffer.
The second noble truth says that resistance is the fundamental operating mechanism of what we call ego, that resisting life causes suffering.
Traditionally it's said that the cause of suffering is our narrow view, which is to say, we are addicted to ME.
We resist that we change and flow like the weather, that we have the same energy as all living things.
When we resist, we dig in our heels. We make ourselves really solid. Resisting is what's called ego.
The third noble truth says that suffering stops when we let go of trying to maintain the huge ME at any cost. This is what is practiced in meditation. When we let go of the thinking and the Story Line, we're left just sitting with the quality and the energy of whatever particular "weather" we've been trying to resist.
The essence of the fourth noble truth is that we can use everything we do to help us realize that we're part of the energy that creates everything. If we learn to sit still like a mountain a hurricane, unprotected from the truth and vividness and the immediacy of simply being part of life, then we are not this separate being who has to have things turn out our way.
When we stop resisting and let the weather simply flow through us, we can live our lives completely.
It's up to us.
This excerpt is from Pema Chodron's book Comfortable with Uncertainty. I would recommend you put this book high on your priority list.
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