Beneath the Storms - Thich Nhat Hanh

It's funny how much our surroundings influence our emotions.
Our joys and sorrows, likes and dislikes are colored by our
environment so much that often we just let our surroundings
dictate our course.

We go along with "public" feelings until we no longer even
know our own true aspirations.  We come a stranger to ourselves,
molded entirely by society...  Sometimes I feel caught between
two opposing "selves" - the "false self" impose by society and
what I would call my "true self."

How often I confuse the two and assume society's mold to be
our true self.  Battles between our "two selves" rarely result
in reconciliation.  Our mind becomes the battlefield...

Without storms like these, simmering in my own thoughts
and mental formations,  I would not be who I am today.  I
am often on the verge of tears or laughter.  But beneath all of
these [storms] what else is there?  How can I touch it?  If there
isn't anything why would I be so certain that there is?

I understand then that I am empty of ideals, hopes, viewpoints,

or allegiances.  I have not promise to keep with others.  In that
moment the sense of myself as an entity among other entities
disappears.  I know that this insight did not arise from dis-
appointment, despair, desire, or ignorance.

A veil lifted effortlessly.

That is all.

...what is actually here will reveal itself...

Some life dilemmas [storms] cannot be solved...
We just live them...

Thich Nhat Hanh
1926-2022

From: Fragrant Palm Leaves: Journals 1962-1966

with thanks to The Beauty We Love

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering