Breather: Adding a New Element

I woke up much too early and couldn’t get back to sleep. There was all sorts of rage and discouragement about all sorts of things that I don’t even remember now.

Then later when I went out on the street I felt uneasy. I used my reflection of the four elements and the elements of life, but even this was not enough.

So then, I thought of this from the Pali Suttas:

Develop meditation that is like the earth: as the earth is not troubled by agreeable or disagreeable things it comes into contact with, so if you meditate like the earth, agreeable and disagreeable experiences will not trouble you. Develop meditation like water, like fire, like air and like space: as all of these are not troubled by agreeable or disagreeable things they come into contact with, so if you meditate like water, fire, air or space, agreeable and disagreeable experiences will not trouble you.—MN62

And, at once I began to relax.

I had felt surrounded by the disagreeable, but this reflection dispelled my discomfort, and I was able to continue on with my tasks.

On my way back I encountered a dog wandering by itself off the leash, and thought how foolish people are to let their dogs roam, but then I reflected that considering people are just air, water, earth, and fire, my expectations were way too high. For how could these elements be intelligent?

After that, it seemed pretty foolish to bother getting upset about such trivialities, and I strolled along the rest of the way home sporting a silly grin.