Peace Is Facing Sorrow (from Cultivating Inner Peace) - a podcast by podcasts@pariyatti.org

Chapter 17 - Peace Is Facing Sorrow
fromCultivating Inner Peaceby Paul R. Fleischman, M.D.

If a reader were using this book as a practical guide to cultivating inner peace, he or she might now be thinking: I know that mere situational adjustments won’t essentially improve my life, which gains its trajectory only from my own actions and feelings. I want to sail toward peace, easy in the currents of myself, harmoniously related to people and circumstances, and to achieve this I have to consciously steer with peace as my polestar. When life storms and batters me, my goal is to return to course, and the will to do so creates the dynamic resilience I need. I’ll limit myself to sail light andtrim. I’ll absorb the wise directions of those who’ve already negotiated these straits, soaked in the soothing sounds of peace, and my own words will add to this score. I’ll befriend all I meet on wing and wave, an unwalled, welcoming life.

But you might feel confused to find, having taken these steps, that you are oppressed by a cloud of sorrow. Yet this would be a good sign, because impersonal and surprising
grief is the harbinger beyond the known world of yourselfto the horizonless peace you seek, as the story of the Buddha
will show.

Dr. Paul Fleischman
Massachusetts, USA
2020
33 minutes

Download Audio (16 MB)

Copyright, 2020 Paul R. Fleischman

There is more information about vipassana meditation at Dhamma.org, and books and audio resources available for purchase in the Pariyatti bookstore.