The only thing that upsets me is...

“The only thing that upsets me is my mind,” is what my friend Kathie said to me just before I left to teach at Spirit Rock on New Year’s Day. I laughed. I taught it that day as an amazingly concise summary of the Buddha’s insight about the end of suffering.  I have been thinking about it ever since, mulling it over with pleasure, enjoying how the phrase echoes in my mind. At first listen, hearing the words, “The only thing that bothers me…” awakens the attention.  The word “only” sounds momentarily hopeful. I can think of many things that upset me. I am upset about wars, and inequality of wealth and resources, and climate change. The end of Kathie’s sentence shifts the meaning of suffering from external situations to the condition of the mind that meets them. We all have the shared difficult challenges of the world to address, to be concerned about, as well as our personal disappointments. I think that if I counted the times in a day that my mind accommodates itself to situations where I’d rather things (great and small) were other than they are, I’d see that it is an ongoing life challenge. That the mind can do that, and routinely does, is its great p “The only thing that upsets me is my mind,” is what my friend Kathie said to me just before I left to teach at Spirit Rock on New Year’s Day. I laughed. I taught it that day as an amazingly concise summary of the Buddha’s insight about the end of suffering.  I have been thinking about it ever since, mulling it over with pleasure, enjoying how the phrase echoes in my mind. At first listen, hearing the words, “The only thing that bothers me…” awakens the attention.  The word “only” sounds momentarily hopeful. I can think of many things that upset me. I am upset about wars, and inequality of wealth and resources, and climate change. The end of Kathie’s sentence shifts the meaning of suffering from external situations to the condition of the mind that meets them. We all have the shared difficult challenges of the world to address, to be concerned about, as well as our personal disappointments. I think that if I counted the times in a day that my mind accommodates itself to situations where I’d rather things (great and small) were other than they are, I’d see that it is an ongoing life challenge. That the mind can do that, and routinely does, is its great potential. That the mind can meet challenges with poise, with curiosity, with patience, with energy and with kindness is the promise of practice.

There are more elegant ways to state the Buddha’s wisdom than, “The only thing that upsets us is the mind” but I am still finding it disarmingly wry.

otential. That the mind can meet challenges with poise, with curiosity, with patience, with energy and with kindness is the promise of practice.

There are more elegant ways to state the Buddha’s wisdom than, “The only thing that upsets us is the mind” but I am still finding it disarmingly wry.