Ritual & The Path to Freedom {part 2 of 3}

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Have you ever had one of these days –
you wake up late.
you spill coffee on your clothes.
your forget your cell phone and have to turn around.
you hit every.single.red.light….

me too. And, for me at least, the feeling I keep noticing on days like this is a feeling of ANGER. Any one of those little things would be nothing at all, but somehow when compiled it becomes a hot mess of “not okay” and one of our primary responses as humans is one of aggression.

Aggression is one of the three primary causes of suffering identified by meditators of long ago. Last week, we talked about grasping (another cause of suffering); grasping happens as we try to get things JUST RIGHT. The right job, the right house, the right income, and THEN I’ll be happy….

Aggression comes into play when amidst all our grasping we realize things still aren’t just right. They are off in some way so we immediately go into blame mood. “If I could just figure out WHY then I could fix it…”
But, trying to find a reason for the minutia of our lives is like trying to find a needle in a haystack.

Instead, it is helpful to address the aggression itself. To turn inward and listen. After all, our ability to be non-aggressive with others is directly related to our ability to be non-aggressive within ourselves.

Join me for today’s talk on aggression, the meditation ritual we will work with, and a 20-minute practice at the end.

Be sure to connect with me on social media to share your thoughts; does aggression come into play for you? When do you most notice it?

#meditatewithmeryl
Photo by Asa Rodger on Unsplash