As An Island Onto MySelf,
Sangha is My Five Skandas working in harmony.
Taking Refuge In MySelf; Coming Back To MySelf
I Am Free.
From: Thich Nhat Hanh (2011) peace is every breath,Harper One, page 37
In a beautiful dharma talk today by the late Thich Nhat Hanh I was reminded that we are often like waves looking for water. As waves we are upset and tired as we go up and down, blown around my storms, caught up in the whirl pools of external and internal turbulence and desperately seek some solidity, some peace...some calm water to rest in. Of course, as waves, we are the very water we are searching for, the very solidity and stability, the spaciousness or emptiness we are seeking refuge in. We need to come back to the water we are emanating from by simply realizing we are it. It is in us.
In the above gatha we are encouraged to bring this truth, and therefore the awareness of God's peace, back to our our five skandas: Body, Feeling, Perception, Mental Formations { thoughts, emotions, moods, mind states} and Consciousness...so we feel that liberation, that freedom. Waves will continue to go up and down as waves do. Life will continue to offer us the impermanent and unpredictable but every time we remember we are water, that we are "islands onto ourselves", we will feel peace and deal with Life through that peace. Hanh refers to this as "Resting in God."
As waves, great peace will come to help us deal with Life once we realize we are the very water we are looking for.
All is well!
Plum Village App (August 2020) Resting in God/Thich Nhat Hanh https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6t_jXu6P70
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