West London Buddhist Centre

Leaning left and right

Published on Apr 17th 2024, in Blog

Leaning left and right

Change can be so freeing… and so challenging.

While riding on the tube the other day, it really struck me how we can lean into change  – or grip and pull back from it, hanging on for dear life to what no longer is.

When the tube train departed, my body (which had been still) leaned away from the direction the train was moving in. Once it/I got used to the movement, my body moved back to centre. And when the train stopped, my body leaned into the direction I had been moving in. Then slowly my body settled back to centre when it recognised we were no longer moving.

So yes, there are the laws of physics at play here – and I am not going to pretend I have more than a cursory understanding of them. But this seemed such a mirror of how we can be around change. Whether it’s something changing around us (weather, jobs, homes…) or someone (you fall out with them, they move away, they become ill, they die…). How difficult or how manageable (even joyful) change might be can rest upon how much we can lean into that change, ‘go with the flow’ but not lose connection with our centre, our awareness of our hearts and minds in all this.

Change is inevitable. Can we surf those waves with lightness?

With a bow
Maitripushpa

from the WLBC Newsletter,  10 April 2024
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