So,
We have been exploring these areas where we take refuge,
Where we can rest or take shelter in the middle of our sometimes complicated lives,
Right?
And last week,
We explored mindfulness.
And,
Mindfulness is not only about being aware of what is happening inside us moment by moment,
But it also means remembering.
Sati is the Pali word and sati means remember.
Remembering that whatever is presenting in your life,
Whether it be the storms outside or the storms inside,
It doesn't last.
It's impermanent.
It's changing.
Remembering that whatever contraction or dissatisfaction you may be experiencing,
Maybe in this very moment,
That it's changing and you're not alone.
We all have things.
All of us have things that we contract around.
It's the nature of reality,
This contraction.
This is called dukkha in the Pali language of the Buddha,
Dukkha.
It's not just me that experiences contraction.
It's not just you.
It's all of us.
It's not personal.
So important to remember that it's not personal.
And when we remember these characteristics of our existence,
That things change,
They're unsatisfactory,
And they're not personal,
Those are the three characteristics of our existence.
When we remember them,
We can feel it.
We can actually feel.
Because what it feels like when we remember these characteristics,
It feels like allowing for whatever is arising.
Right in allowing is wisdom.
Like when we see,
Oh wow,
I am really triggered right now by what that person just said,
And then remember that this is their perception.
It is not about me.
It is about how they are perceiving.
We might feel the sting or the contraction,
That dukkha,
But we're also seeing,
Oh,
It's not me.
And that's wisdom.
The Buddha,
Or the Buddhist words,
Or word for wisdom is paññā,
It's the word in Pali,
Paññā,
And it can be translated in different ways.
Sometimes it's translated as discernment,
Sometimes as insight.
And the benefit of these translations into discernment and insight is that they suggest the idea of an understanding,
A seeing that happens in the situations that we're in.
Discernment implies that we've learned something about how things work,
And we bring that along with us in our life,
And we're ready to use it.
And that's valuable and important.
And the word wisdom,
For some people,
Can seem kind of lofty.
And for some people,
It may seem like it's out of reach,
You know,
Because only great wise people have wisdom.
This is the sort of idea in the mind.
Yet the faculty of wisdom is a capacity that we all have.
It's a natural function of our inner life.
And what practice shows us is that as we settle in and listen deeply,
We all have this capacity for real attention to what's going on,
Listening deeply to ourselves,
Deeply to the world around us.
And we establish and begin to see more clearly what is happening.
And we learn over time and practice and patience to respond wisely in ways that are useful and supportive.
The Buddha often compared wisdom to the light of the sun.
So the light of the sun is ever present during the day,
In the daylight hours.
Sometimes it's hidden under clouds,
But the light is still there.
And what happens for us is we take those clouds,
Those passing clouds as reality.
When really they're just obscuring our perception in the moment,
They're obscuring the sun.
But we take those clouds,
Those storms as permanent,
As happening to me.
So delusion and ignorance,
It's such an important area of practice.
And I think that there is a lot of resistance to even the word delusion.
Because we don't want to be seen as deluded or ignorant.
You know,
It has such a negative connotation in our culture.
So just to say that the mental activity of ignorance is more about ignoring than about not knowing something.
Ignoring.
Some teachers describe delusion as confusion,
Living in a world where we're not quite understanding what's happening,
Being confused.
And the root of all of the ways we describe delusion is really pointing back to not knowing the nature of reality.
And what is the nature of reality?
Things change.
There is dissatisfaction in this life.
And it's not personal.
It's all of us.
So if we stay with this metaphor of the clouds,
The clouds are not who we are.
They're passing weather.
And the clouds,
They take the form of wanting,
Like craving,
Or they take the form of resistance,
Aversion,
Pushing away.
They take the form of distraction and doubt.
Sometimes the clouds of desire say,
If only,
If only I had this thing,
Then I would be happy.
And sometimes the clouds of aversion say,
If only this would go away,
Then I would be at peace.
And the clouds,
You know,
If we like sticking with this metaphor,
They carry a mist.
And that mist settles over the mind as fog.
Delusion.
But when we bring a gentle awareness,
Just really gentle noticing,
Just knowing,
Oh,
It's a cloud.
This is just,
The mind is clouded right now,
Impermanent.
This is just an unsatisfactory moment in my humanity.
And it's actually not personal.
Then that mist,
It begins to thin out.
And then the light returns.
The Buddha didn't teach us to fight the clouds,
But to understand them for what they are.
To see that they come and they go according to causes and conditions.
And when we realize,
Oh,
I'm not the cloud.
I am the sky that knows the cloud.
Then we are seeing the truth.
Wisdom is not something to acquire.
It's what remains when confusion has been seen through.
It's the clear seeing that was always there.
Kind of waiting for that storm to pass.
So this is my offering for your consideration.
A refuge in the storm.
Thank you.
