Rocks in the Box

A mind contains many feelings and emotions, both happy and sad, like a box that contains both gems and rocks.  When there are rocks in the box, we recognize them and accept their presence.  Then we take them out of the box.  They still exist, but they are now outside of the box.  If they come back inside the box again, we can recognize them, accept them, and take them out of the box again.   

We can deal with feelings and emotions on our minds the same way we deal with the rocks in the box.  It is okay to feel extremely sad and to feel like the world is falling apart.  We have to recognize our pain, accept that our pain exists, and allow our pain to exist.  We don’t need to get rid of our pain, but we can put it aside.  At the same time, while accepting our feelings and emotions, we don’t need to create a sad story about them, just like we don’t need to create a negative story for the rocks as we recognize them, accept them, and put them aside.  Adding the story of the unjust world will only enlarge the size of the rocks and expand the magnitude of our sad feelings. 

Sometimes life is so hard on us.  The rocks are so big and heavy, and we are in so much pain that we start to doubt whether the pain will ever go away.  But we have to have faith and remind ourselves that it will go away.  Like anything and everything else in this world, nothing lasts, whether it’s happiness or sorrow.  It always comes again and again.  And it will eventually go away, again and again. The most important thing is to remember that we always have "an option" to act, to remove the heavy rocks out of the box, "an option" to feel light and happy again, even though the rocks still exist...outside of the box.