Having more than one string to your bow

As the pain that afflicts us grows stronger, our mental universe contracts. Events and thoughts continually rebound off the walls of our circumscribed inner prison. They speed up and gather force, every ricochet  inflicting new bones. We must therefore broaden our inner horizons to the point where there are no walls for negative to bounce off of. When these walls, built brick by brick by the self, come tumbling down, suffering bullets will miss their mark and vanish in the vast openness of inner freedom. We realise that our suffering was simply forgetfulness of our true nature, which remains unchanged beneath the fog of emotions. It is essential to develop and sustain this broadening of the inner horizons. External events and thoughts will then emerge like stars that reflect of the calm surface of a vast ocean without disturbing it.

One of the best ways to achieve that state is to meditate on feeling that transcend our mental afflictions. If, for instance, we gradually let our mind be invaded by a feeling of love and compassion for all beings, the warmth of such a thought will very likely melt the ice of our frustrations, while its gentleness will cool the fire of our desires. We will have succeeded in raising ourselves above our personal pain to the point where it becomes almost imperceptible.

Exercise : When you feel overwhelmed by emotions

Imagine a stormy sea with breakers as big as houses. Each wave is more monstrous than the last. They are about to engulf your boat, your very life hands on those few extra yards in the rushing wall of water. Then imagine observing the same scene from a high flying plane. From that perspective, the wave seems to form a delicate blue and white mosaic, barely trembling on the surface of the water. From that height in the silence of space, your eyes see these almost motionless patterns and your mind immerses itself in clear and luminous sky.

the waves of anger or obsession seem real enough, but remind yourself that they are merely fabrications of your mind; that they will rise and also again disappear. Why stay on the boat of mental anxiety? Make your mind as vast as the sky and you will find that the waves of afflictive emotions have lost all the strength you have attributed to them.