You can throw away the ideal of the “calm, cool, collected and rational one” right now, friend. You can let the image of the “perfectly peaceful stone Buddha” burn on the fire. It is a terrible lie. It is healthy to sob, to scream, to moan, to sigh, to laugh hysterically, to tremble, to feel fear, anger, profound sorrow, ecstatic joy, deep and powerful desires and longings. •
There is a wild Buddha in all of us and she will not be tamed. The more you try to suppress her, the louder she gets. The more you try to shame her, try to make her feel crazy, ‘irrational’ or ‘overly emotional’, the angrier and more powerful she gets. The more you run from her, the more she runs after you. She will not be defeated with clever words and sophisticated philosophies. She will not be silenced; you will not be able to escape her, for you are only trying to escape yourself.
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We all must eventually turn to face the Wild One inside, become curious about our natural feelings, urges and impulses, both pleasurable and painful, both gentle and intense, give them the gift of our mindful attention and breath, give them our love and understanding, give them a permanent home in ourselves, a place to roam freely. When we befriend our own wildness, we can befriend it in others. When we no longer fear our feelings, we will no longer – in vain – try to control the feelings of others, and we will have much compassion for our wild playmates. We will sob, scream, moan, sigh, laugh hysterically, tremble, feel fear, anger, profound sorrow, ecstatic joy, deep and powerful desires and longings together, and we will celebrate all of these as divine expressions. •
The Buddha sobbed like a baby sometimes, felt righteous anger at the injustice and abuse in the world, feared death but stood fearlessly at the heart of that fear. Here was the source of the Buddha’s power – an infinite and unbreakable love for the wildness inside.Jeff Foster
