Our agitated mind too often prevents us from realising our true potential.
But rather than calming the agitation, when life gets tough, we tend to turn even more towards external circumstance and put yet more energy into that circumstance, hoping it will change, hoping we will find a way. Does this sound familiar?
What do I mean by agitation?
Imagine a pearl diver. His/her job is to find pearls in the sea (oysters first of course)
But because the sea is very agitated, visibility is poor and he cannot find any oysters. So what does he do, he pops his head above water and deals with what he can see: the other pearl divers and so he gets involved and wrapped up in conversations with them, judgements about them and dramas involving them.
All the while, he is reducing his chance of finding pearls.
All the while, he is reducing his chance of finding pearls.
Now of course a pearl diver cannot calm down the choppy seas; but using the image of the sea as a metaphor for our mind activity and thoughts, the good news is we can calm down the activity and produce clarity and stillness in our mind. It is not so hard to do. So, rather than agitation being the default starting place for our mind, stillness and clarity become the starting point. And from there, pretty much any state of mind is readily available, on demand.
And when the mind is still and clear, we can more easily perceive the greatness and gifts within us. We find our pearls. We no longer become so distracted by our circumstances and no longer need external validation for our existence, because we clearly see and realise that the most precious gifts are already within us.
Learn to still the mind!
