Evenings With Aaron November 2013

There’s a beautiful story told by Thich Nhat Hanh. He was taking care of young boy, four or five years old. The boy was outside playing, came in and said, “Uncle, I’m thirsty.”

So, Thich poured him a glass of apple juice. This was not your bottled apple juice. This was literal apple juice with a lot of sediment in it. The child looked at the apple juice and said, “No, I don’t like that. It’s filled with sediment.”

Thich said, “Well, I’ll leave it here on the counter. When you come back, if you’re still thirsty, it will be here.”

The child went back out to play, and came in 15 minutes later, looked at the apple juice, and all the sediment had settled to the bottom.

This very wise child said to Thich Nhat Hanh, “Ah, it’s been meditating!”

This is what happens in you as you meditate. The angry energy, the frightened energy, it’s still there. But you breathe and remember your immensity, your limitlessness.

Instead of that angry energy being compressed into this small space, as you breathe out and open to your full being, there’s just a little angry energy here, a little bit here, a little bit here, a little bit there. Gradually it goes. It goes because you’re not perpetuating it by, “I shouldn’t be angry. I won’t be angry.” which is just more contraction and anger.

So we practice kindness by remembering that inherent heart of kindness, and the intention to live with that kindness rather than get caught in the repetitive stories of anger, fear, greed, and whatever.