Finding Wisdom and Comfort Today

In the early days of the pandemic - probably for the first year or more actually - Tara Brach was my 'go to'.

I find her perspective so helpful.

She teaches Buddhist Psychology, and is just one of those people who is so nurturing, wise, gentle yet powerful. A wonderful teacher of meditation and mindfulness. She lives near Washington DC.

I found myself turning to her this morning (link below).

She talks of our world being on an edge....'the intense times we live in', the fear felt, and the violence.

How to be with this?

Many wisdom texts say: “Hate can not drive out hate, only love can do that”.

But...."the answer is NOT to try right away to love....? Because then we’d be skipping over what we’re feeling.....? The pathway starts with bringing a very courageous compassion to what we’re feeling....."

And she adds: "It’s the most difficult, powerful process that I know of".

So amidst our reactivity - the reactive feelings of despair, fear, grief, anger.....what can we do?

There is a Pathway from reactivity to love.?

The Pathway is about cultivating a courageous compassion.? Awakening through our vulnerability.

Being willing to feel what’s difficult to feel.?

And we're hardwired to not want to feel anything that is painful and vulnerability-inducing. We also REALLY don't like uncertainty.

BUT ....when we can find a way to sit with our difficult emotions (and we may need help here)....more often than not these emotions transform.

It's like they're the portal to other qualities - like compassion, courage, joy, wisdom - if only we can find a way to sit with them.

Tara leads a short meditation in this podcast episode, based on Joan Halifax's notion of 'strong back, soft front'. It's a very beautiful metaphor, and meditation. Linking us to our groundedness and rootedness to the earth, the capacity to 'hear all the cries' but also feel support, strength, warmth and tenderness.

"We live with the illusion that life is not supposed to hurt, that we’re not supposed to feel vulnerable; we’re supposed to be able to control and get rid of vulnerability. Vulnerability means we’re weak or deficient in some way....? and sadly that means that we resist it and then all the suffering persists."

I was reminded of the Japanese art of repairing broken objects - 'Kintsugi'.

Traditionally, gold lacquer is used to piece shards together again, creating a more beautiful object through the acts of breaking and repair.

So....the hard knocks we take, the cracks, fissures, the hard places of vulnerability ....when we lacquer these places with gold.....we create the most beautiful of objects.

Vulnerability can become the portal to everything we value.

Tara Brach's podcast episode:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/cultivating-a-courageous-heart-part-1/id265264862?i=1000674350180

'Til Next Time....Go Well

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