When faced with the difficulties and realities of life, a person’s emotions can become engaged. The problem is that our emotions don’t serve us well in stressful situations. As a family law attorney I have sought out strategies to help other people solve their problems. In the work I do finding inner peace for myself and my clients is essential. I offer here a meditation from a well known master.
Thich Nhat Hahn teaches that we are more than our emotions. To illustrate this point he draws upon the image of a tree in a storm.
When during a storm you observe a tree, you will see that it’s branches and leaves sway in the wind. When we let our emotions control our behavior, we are like the branches and the leaves. However, when we observe more closely, we see that a tree consists of more than the leaves and the branches. We can see that there is a trunk, and we are aware of the roots that go deep into the soil.
So we are a kind of tree. Storms take on various forms–financial difficulty, illness and divorce, to name a few. This meditation works to help us realize that we are more than our emotions, and within us is a vast store of strength. When we come to this awareness, fear and anger subside and we realize we can weather any storm.
by Patrick Gaffney
