Let Your Life Settle
Life is full of troubles. Like dust falling on water, however, we can let them settle to the bottom, leaving the water clear and our minds untroubled.
If we’re always shaking around, even a little debris can turn the water muddy and our minds anxious, affecting our judgment and mood. This is the reason some people struggle through painful lives and others seem perpetually happy—they have different attitudes towards pain and anxiety. If we leave the water still, everything will settle back to a clear and transparent state. The same goes for sorrow: If we let it settle to the bottom of our hearts—even if it doesn’t disappear completely—it will take up only a small amount of space, leaving the remaining area to be filled with happiness. In the past, we’ve been swallowed up in daily troubles and anxiety, throwing our lives into quiet turmoil. Without a second to settle, our lives have become muddied and our happiness has become tangled up in pains and discontents. Especially when we’re agitated, it’s easy to lose control and shake everything around. This sends the debris swirling, and fills us with anxiety. We feel discontent not because suffering outweighs joy, but because we let our suffering run unbridled across every corner of our lives.
Learn to let your life settle. Learn to let your experiences and mood settle. Learn to let yourself settle! Let your life find silence in motion; let your spirit find tranquility in agitation. Treat trifles and anxieties like daily sprinklings of dust, and let them settle slowly and quietly to the bottom. Embrace them with an open heart. Settle your way to a pure spirit, an open mind and a thoroughly happy existence.
