23 Nov Sailing through life
Imagine being out at sea in a sail-boat without having any knowledge about sailing. We would be completely at the mercy of the elements. They may be lots of places we wish to go but in the end we would go wherever the winds, tides and waves took us. Unfortunately it would be much more likely that we would end up dashed against sharp rocks, rather then on a beautiful tropical island.
It is the same situation with our minds. We are not born understanding how our minds work and
controlling our minds feels as challenging as controlling the winds and the tides. Even if we decide to stop thinking thoughts, thoughts enter our minds anyway. We can try to feel no emotions but we experience them anyway.
These thoughts and emotions blow us around just as a strong wind or wave does a small boat. There are things we want to do such as lose weight, revise for exams, exercise and get fitter, but if our our thoughts and emotions oppose us it can feel like an impossible task. We frequently end up doing the opposite of what we want and then blame ourselves for being weak.
In the West we often assume that we possess complete unfettered free-will. If someone suffers from depression we tell them simply to cheer up. If they suffer with negative thoughts, we tell them to have positive ones instead, as if they haven’t thought of that themselves!
If we had to sail across a vast ocean in a small boat to get to where we wanted we would study the wind and tides. We would devote plenty of time to practising sailing until it was second nature to us.
To become who we wish to be and to guide our lives in the direction of our own choosing we need to study the winds and tides of our minds. We need to practice meditation until we can navigate our way through tidal waves of negative thought and gale force traumatic emotions.
Then we can chart our own course and make our lives an adventure rather then a fight to stay afloat.
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