Gil Fronsdal of the Insight Meditation Center (IMC) gives this dharmette, a brief dharma talk. It starts from an image of Thich Nhat Hanh's about a boat in rough seas, and talks about the difference one calm person can make, for children and for ourselves.
Thich Nhat Hanh said if challenging sea conditions, if one person on the boat can stay calm, the boat will stay safe.
With young children, how important it is for an adult to stay calm. The challenging situation gravitates to the person’s calm, and they get sense of stability, they get the sense of things are okay enough, it is not necessary to get alarmed. A parent who gets alarmed at everything, teaches the child that there’s a lot of fear in the world, and that doesn’t work so well for growing up. That’s the concept of the message.
So a parent that stays calm, makes a big difference to their children.
If we can be chaotic we can have a lot of things going on for us inside and externally in our life. If we can have a place of calmness inside, that can keep us from sinking. It can make a huge difference for us. Knowing Noting and Calm.
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