Stress

2025, December, Issue 181

Mind embroiled, taking on too much

Agitating each moment,

worried to the core, heart pounding

sweat, pressure on each moment,

mind controlling body with so much angst,

feeling threatened by each moment,

each thought,

each event going somehow wrong,

not the way it was intended;

When stress comes your way,

relax;

When stress distracts,

remain at ease, go back

to your most precious possession,

your awakening mind!

A poem by Robert Aho © 2025

With the holiday season upon us, I dare say that it is unlikely that you will encounter anyone who is without stress. Even great Spiritual Practitioners are prone to experiencing stress this time of year. We have many demands upon us, as well as expectations, that make it difficult to remain at ease. Gifts to buy, office parties, panicking shoppers, family get-togethers, changes in the weather and lack of light in the northern hemisphere, all sorts of things converge this time of year that make it stressful for many people.

Years ago, my physician told me to either start getting my stress under control or go shopping for a coffin. He recommended meditation. So, being the focused workaholic madman that I was, I went to the local bookstore and purchased every book they had on Buddhist meditation. This, I believed and still believe, is the best of the best for meditation. When we meditate, we look at mind, we settle our disturbing emotions, we methodically discover who we really are. It’s much more than changing, it’s discovering what does not change. This task of awakening may seem daunting; however, it is the best way to prepare for death and it improves our lives, no matter what we believe or who we are. We learn to get stress under control.

Oddly enough, I had forgotten that I had already been meditating on a regular basis when I was just a toddler, and for most of my early years into my early twenties. It was only when I had a family, needing to get serious about making a living, that I somehow let that most important element get pushed aside. When my health started to decline dramatically, all due to far too much stress in my life, my root practices came back to rescue me. This actually saved my life; and, when I died, my experiences in the death bardo were no problem whatsoever. The advice of my physician had been the catalyst that knocked some sense back into me. For that I am most grateful.

When we have stepped onto the Spiritual Path by aspiring to awaken, we are able to gain mastery over such things as stress. This is not so easy, as we need to delve into the root causes of stress by deeply examining mind, as well as our disturbing emotions. This takes effort, and this effort is essential until you are capable of going beyond effort. Many people don’t understand this most essential point, having initially misunderstood some very profound teachings that they weren’t yet ready to hear.

Mind takes effort. The Nature of Mind takes no effort. Awakening takes even less effort than that, as true awakening cannot even be named or labeled or described in any way—it is beyond effort!

When you step onto the Spiritual Path, do not avoid effort. You, as a beginner, are still in mind, and mind takes effort. Apply every meditation technique that you can, gathering up as many practices as you need from wherever you can find them. If something works, stick with it. If something has no benefit, let it go, set it aside, maybe taking it up again later. We don’t limit ourselves if we wish to awaken, we expand our horizons, gaining clarity and maintaining focus. This helps us to become ready for our own enlightenment.

When you become more advanced, it becomes obvious that you are working with Enlightenment Mind, and have been doing so, ever since you first aspired to awaken. When you become more advanced than that, having realized the Nature of Mind, you begin working with enlightenment itself. You maintain your awareness throughout the day and night.

Stress seems to be a necessary component on the Spiritual Path. Without discovering the futility of this stress filled life, we would have no reason to make this most Precious Aspiration. It would be impossible to fathom any reason to awaken, if we did not first see this life for what it is, discovering this terrible cycle of eternal stress. I think this is just one reason that awareness holders see the world as All-Good, no longer making judgements of good and bad in everything that we see, as is true with all ordinary beings. When everything becomes the Path, when we truly experience the equanimity of all appearances, then we shed this hard shell that has been poisoning us, this state of ignorance, attraction and aversion.

Stress, it turns out, is a propellant, giving us, upon close examination, all the reasons we need to step onto the Spiritual Path. We gain wisdom through our own misfortunes in life. By truly understanding that we have nothing to gain through worldly pursuits, through stress, we benefit.

Please engage your Enlightenment Mind in your life. Find peace. Discover unlimited potentiality.

Please Awaken,

Rigdzin Robert Aho