This, too, shall pass…

I've been having a difficult personal time recently. Crisis and chaos have been my constant companions. (Them and Alliteration). They do nip out for a pint from time to time - if I am to be perfectly honest.

I randomly found a link to my friend Mikael Aldridge's blog. Mikael is a planner and runs a division of Ogilvy in Auckland. I have known him since we were kids at high school. He is probably also the smartest guy I have ever met. He referred to this story in his blog and it resonated with me:

A student went to his meditation teacher and said, "My meditation is horrible! I feel so distracted, or my legs ache, or I'm constantly falling asleep. It's just horrible!"
"It will pass," the teacher said matter-of-factly.

A week later, the student came back to his teacher. "My meditation is wonderful! I feel so aware, so peaceful, so alive! It's just wonderful!"
"It will pass," the teacher replied matter-of-factly.

Exactly.

Something else to think about (aside from the grand finale of Gray's Anatomy that is:

The Buddha was quiet for a moment and then nodded his head. "Dighanakha, that is a very good question. My teaching is not a dogma or a doctrine, but no doubt some people will take it as such. I must state clearly that my teaching is a method to experience reality and not reality itself, just as a finger pointing at the moon is not the moon itself. An intelligent person makes use of the finger to see the moon. A person who only looks at the finger and mistakes it for the moon will never see the real moon. My teaching is a means of practice, not something to hold onto or worship. My teaching is like a raft used to cross the river. Only a fool would carry the raft around after he had already reached the other shore, the shore of liberation."

Namaste