Full Moon - Beyond Overwhelm

Published August 19, 2024

“By endeavour, vigilance,
restraint and self-control,
let the wise make islands of themselves
which no flood can overwhelm.”

DHAMMAPADA v 25

When so much of the world that surrounds us focusses on the opposite of restraint, it can be difficult to not feel overwhelmed by sense impressions. Where the Buddha highlights the need to develop restraint, it is not because he wants us to feel like a failure. Rather, he is pointing directly at that which is worth investing in. We have a limited amount of attention. In what do we invest our attention? The values of the ‘casual culture’ encourage us to invest in distractions which can serve the purpose of temporarily relieving us from fear and confusion. The values encouraged by our wise teachers serve an altogether different purpose. The virtues of vigilance and restraint, for example, equip us with resilience and stability, so that even when we do encounter chaos we won’t have to be defined by it.

(This post is also available to view at dhammakatha.org)