The Search For Enlightenment

It has been pretty cold for the last week, yesterday I even had frost on the car first thing, and the days are so short. The mornings are dark, the evenings are even darker, and it feels natural to get home after a long day at work, and curl up like a bear in his cave.

This morning wasn’t so cold, though the car was still covered in a fine dew. There was no breeze and because the children have finished school for the holiday, it felt like I was the only one not to be still tucked up in bed. But as with most things in life, and particularly in Buddhist life, every cloud has a silver lining. Every drop of poison can be turned into a drop of medicine and so it was this morning.

Driving down the Blandford road, the headlights of the oncoming cars and trucks were so bright against the velvet blackness of the early morning. The traffic was slow and I was wondering whether I was going to get to the office on time. Then very suddenly every thought changed, and my worry turned to wonder.

As the first rays of the sun peeped over the horizon they created a majestic and awe-inspiring sunrise, illuminating a beautifully sculptured high bank of clouds. It was amazing, the colours were stunning, and the whole spectacle changed second by second. It was so huge, completely filling the sky, it was impossible to take in the whole. It transformed my journey and in fact my whole day. Of course, the sun comes up every day, but some days it does it in much more wondrous ways than others.