West London Buddhist Centre

Like attracts like

Published on Sep 19th 2024, in Blog

Like attracts like

Feeling quite put out the other morning by deadlines, finicky printers, poor sleep and one challenge after another, I found myself quite cranky.

Deciding that getting outside and routing around in the garden might lighten my mood, I donned gloves, went out and began cutting (hacking?) away at a bush. But not just any bush – a very prickly (if atmospheric) holly tree. After a few minutes of  ‘ouch’ or ‘ggrrr’ or less polite sounds, I stopped and heard myself continuing to be as cranky outside as I was inside (in both senses).

And it struck me: like attracts like.  And laughed.

How easily we can get carried away with the momentum of a bad mood, an irritable
attitude, a critical mind, a sense of despair. Or an intoxicated state, a runner’s high, the buzz of performing. In either case, we are losing our grounding, Our sense of perspective that things aren’t all hideous nor are they all wonderful. Hopefully, we notice that extreme attitude in ourselves (well, sometimes). Then it’s time to pause, take a slow breath in and release out, reconnect to our body and, eventually, move towards our version of the middle way, opening to ALL that is here right now. That broader perspective that holds both yuck and yay, so we don’t tip into endless muck or shoot into a recipe for a crash.

May today’s journey be one of all that lives between the yucky and buzzy. Hopefully without too many scratches.

With a bow
Maitripushpa

from the WLBC Newsletter, 22 August 2024
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