Cattāri Brahmavihārā

Despite the title, I want to let everyone know that I’m fine. With that out of the way, it seems to me that disasters, both large and small, have a way of replicating and reverberating throughout one’s life. At the moment I’m pondering the environmental crisis facing humanity I can and, often am, simultaneously enduring a painful stomach ache, the misbehavior of my kids and my wife’s vocal displeasure with whatever I’ve done in the last ten minutes. No, everything except the first is not much of a tragedy but it is interesting how dukkha pervades every level and regime of existence. It’s easy to imagine how much worse it would be with the death or sickness of a child or partner.

What is the point of my writing this? Maybe to share the realization that there is no refuge here. That our time to practice well is short and getting shorter by the day. May we practice in sickness and health. May we practice when we are sleepy and well rested. May we practice to the best of our ability.