Remember those beautiful snow globes that fit in the palm of our hands when we were young? We would shake them every chance we got, only to be delighted by the falling snow over the miniature scene inside. Now imagine a very big snow globe, a life-size transparent sphere, where the glass is the unconscious fear we were conditioned into and the falling snow is our thoughts about life. When we were very young, we had no attachment to the thoughts in our heads. We could watch thoughts, feelings and events pass through our experience like falling snow. As we grew up, we became trapped inside the snow globe of our minds, identified with our thoughts, and have been living there ever since.
Outside the snow globe, there is spaciousness, connection, understanding, and compassion. Inside the globe, there is struggle, fear, and endless suffering. Most everyone is caught inside the snow globe and not even aware they are in it. It is the place where the struggling self turns everything into a problem, constantly trying to fix, change, or rearrange life. When we were young, we got scared and have been desperately trying to figure it all out, but we don’t know how to figure it out, so we keep trying and trying. We are like fireflies in the bottom of a jar, pinging themselves against the edge because they desperately want to get out, but don’t know how. The fireflies at the bottom of the jar don’t realize that the cover is off and they can fly out at any time if they will only become curious. We are like the fireflies that don’t yet see there is a way out of the globe of struggle. Continue reading →