Weather or Not, The First of Four

Weather and the Four Noble Truths*

Of all the teachings Buddha could have started with, he chose suffering.

The first noble truth says that we change like the weather, "we ebb and flow like the tides; we wax and wane like the moon." It stresses that there are no healthy reasons to resist that.   

Why not? Because we come to know ourselves by recognizing the way we respond to the world around us.  If we feel like the "fierceness of fire, the wildness of wind, the turbulence of water, the upheaval of earth" and decide that any of these is a problem, then we are resisting that energy and what it is like to be weather. We lose a connection to our being.

When we resist life's energies, we suffer and the reality of life becomes hell, unmanageable. Step One.

The hope of the first noble truth is that, if we are alive and can love  ourselves AND if we can be compassionate, THEN we can avoid resentment or resistance. 

See if this is true for you. "Weather" or not it helps you, feel free to share.

*Pema's title choice. (plus my understanding of her message in this "first bite" of the chapter)