I think it’s fair to say that nothing I ever say or write is very original – today the repackaging seemed futile, so instead, here is an excerpt from “Chapter 5: Mindfulness” from The Seeker’s Guide by Elizabeth Lesser:

The mind is like the sky: clear and crisp at one moment, cloud covered and confused at he next. Full of hopeful thoughts now, despairing of the future later.  Angry and agitated, and then kindly, calm. It is a landscape of changing, shifting thoughts. The mind is not our thoughts, just as the sky is not the weather. Mind and sky are containers for life’s continual, creative impulses…

Meditation does not make things miraculously different. It doesn’t give us control over the weather. It doesn’t get rid of a stormy mood and replace it with a sunny one. Meditation does something much more subtle and even more magical. It wakes us up and leaves us standing tall in any weather…

Knowing, understanding, and accepting that life is difficult is spiritual work of the tallest order…

An ocean of ignorance, misunderstanding, and fear lies between our rejection of suffering and our acceptance of it. Crossing that ocean is the spiritual journey…We need a boat for this journey – a snug, elegant craft. Meditation is such a boat.

Do you have the boat for your journey?