No Mud, No Lotus
“No mud, no lotus. Both suffering and happiness are of an organic nature, which means they are both transitory; they are always changing. The flower, when it wilts, becomes the compost. The compost can help grow a flower again. Happiness is also organic and impermanent by nature” – Thich Nhat Hanh
We’re living in a time of profound, earth-shaking uncertainty and change. It’s only natural for fear, anger, grief, helplessness and other feelings that can lead to suffering to arise. Sometimes in the spiritual community, there is an inclination to only focus on the love and the light of our journeys and avoid experiencing our suffering. We'd like to focus on the process of accepting these feelings, being in the difficulty of them and not judging ourselves for having them, and then responding to them with compassion and love for ourselves and others, using the RAIN meditation technique.
RAIN is an acronym for a practice specifically geared to ease emotional confusion or suffering. When a "negative" emotion or feeling comes up, we pause and remember four steps: recognize the feelings; acknowledge, allow and accept the feelings; investigate them (how is it making me feel, what is driving the experience, how is it impacting by body) and then non-identify, in which we consciously avoid being defined by a particular feeling. By allowing ourselves this simple recognition process, we begin to accept that we can’t control our experiences, but we can transform our relationship to them.
A new understanding of our emotions can help us then cultivate empathy and compassion for others who are feeling their own anger or fear, allowing this time to awaken our hearts and build more love and more compassion for others.
We can then focus on meditation and yoga techniques and tools such as crystals for more specific needs. One option to get more grounded is by working with red jasper or garnet. To bring in more positivity, try sunstone or citrine. Rose quartz or green aventurine can help open the heart and so can listening to music at the love frequency, such a 528 hertz. Spending time with loved ones, going into nature, anything that makes our hearts sing. Focusing on love and gratitude for our precious human lives can be enough.
As Thich Nhat Hanh once wrote, peace is present right here and now in everything we do and see. The question is whether or not we are in touch with it. We can smile, breathe, walk and eat our meals in a way that allows us to be in touch with the abundance of happiness that is available.
Sending love! Namaste