New Year message Dec 2024

Now that the days are getting longer and before the new year begins, I thought I would send a message to dharma friends.  It's a personal reflection about acceptance, gratitude and love in the face of health challenges, that I hope may be meaningful to others.

It's been a challenging year for my health, with the Parkinson’s tremor and weakness getting worse. This means that sleep is patchy, and sitting practice can be very difficult because when I am still, the tremor kicks in. For me, this is a major issue as my meditation practice is so important and so central to my life.

But...in terms of life lessons it has been a very fruitful experience. I can't say that it doesn't get me down sometimes, but most of the time I remain mentally balanced and still deeply happy to be alive. I put my resilience down to two things, acceptance and gratitude.

Acceptance is hugely important as inevitably, sooner or later, we either get what we don't want, or don't get what we do want. Our choice is to fight this, roll over and be a victim, or work with it.

Fighting makes it worse as anxiety builds and we experience an internal civil war.

Being a victim and bemoaning our lot spirals us downwards into depression.

So the only path is to work with it.

To do this we first need to step back into naked awareness, beyond the perception of the thinking mind. Tuning-in to this spacious, pure awareness is at the heart of meditation, and is why regular practice is key (sooner or later we'll discover it, and the more we rest there the easier it is to access).

The second tool is to employ curiosity, recognising judgement and letting it go, so that we avoid engaging in the old response patterns of fight or flight. We just allow the experience to unfold.

Thirdly, we strip the experience of its name and the storyline that it may bring. What's left is a moving energy.

At this point I find that the trump card is to meet it all with loving kindness, by bringing back to mind that feeling or using a tool like a mantra. Just let compassion soak into everything.

Supporting this is gratitude practice, that recalibrates the mind towards a positive perspective. It makes all the above come more easily.

So... huge thanks to you, my friends, family, loved ones, students, colleagues and community. Your love, support and validation is invaluable. Thanks to this miraculous Earth for its generosity, to the air we breathe and the water we drink. For good food, warmth and light. For all the cultural richness, diversity, creativity, and positivity of people everywhere. To all my teachers, parents, ancestors and fellow travellers on the path of our evolution.

And so I'll finish by wishing you and all beings heartfelt wellness and joy for the coming year. Let’s see what it brings and meet it with love, and be a beacon and refuge for others.

Simon