| The feeling tone of Dukkha (suffering) brings with it the idea: ‘I am not okay,' and this causes us to react in all sorts of ways. Yet it is only a partial perspective we take to be valid. In the immediacy of awareness a more spacious view is available; one that can bring compassion for the suffering of this very perspective, rather than perpetuation of it. Awareness is intimate but not personal, seeing the struggling derived from identifying, judging and reacting, yet not flowing down those familiar grooves.. In any moment we are aware, we weaken rather than strengthen such habit patterns. When suffering is not 'who I am' or wrong, we no longer need to be the one to fix it or reject it. Then a closer receptivity towards this feeling tone of suffering is possible, inviting us to discover the transformative power of awareness itself, and take refuge in it. |
