These 8 “Worldly Winds”, described in the Lokavipatti Sutta (Anguttara Nikaya 8.6) provide a framework for noticing life’s up and downs. They point towards the themes of “impermanence” and “no inherent self.”
Throughout our days, we are blown and swept along by these gusts and gales of change and identity:
Pleasure and Pain
Loss and Gain
Praise and Blame
Disrepute and Fame
Each set names qualities that bend and shape us. Unfortunately, we aren’t as flexible and resilient as the proverbial willow tree which meets strong winds with resilience. Our attachments and tendencies to cling can lead towards rigidity, clinging and avoiding tendencies.
When we meet challenges and adversity with greater ease, perspective and equanimity, we increase the odds for Sailing With the winds, and enjoying what life brings.
These winds remind us that change and impermanence are forces that create our lives moment to moment and day by day. There’s no denying it. Just when everything is going smoothly; we’ve paid the bills, emptied the trash, prepared food for the day, and have some free time to enjoy being with nature or a favorite book or project….we are met with a request, or a printer which needs ink, or the insistent inner voice reminding us of something we need to fix, buy, or reschedule.
It never stops! There’s no escape! The cycle of acquiring (things, status, experience) and losing (time, initiative, inspiration, resolve, prestige, a head start on a project) is like a revolving door. It can keep us trapped and feeling confined to a life of tedium and dullness.
This teaching of the Worldly Winds can be liberating. It reminds us that these are forces of Impermanence, and that we can meet them as such without taking it personally. Its not about us. Things happen. “Its like this now” is one way we can meet it. When we don’t get caught up in reacting, or in becoming identified with, or averse to, any one of the qualities, we have a chance to realize the possibility of more spaciousness.
I invite you to explore for yourself. Choose one of the pairs as your theme for a day or two. When things happen, notice: “this is pleasant, or this is painful” and choose not to get carried away by, or identified with “the Story”. Simply “its like this now’.
What is possible as you Observe from a witness standpoint, rather than react from an enmeshed point of view? According to the Lokavipatti Sutta, this can lead to release from suffering and stress to freedom and liberation.