What the thunder said....

Holy Hell!! How about them thunderstorms last night?? I was in such a deep sleep when the first roar of thunder woke me I thought for a minute that my house was hit by a train. Don't laugh...anything is possible in your dreams...

Once awake, the worry began. Are the girls home safe? Is the sump pump working?
God, I hope that old tree in the back yard doesn't get struck by lightening. Should I make
the girls sleep in the basement in case that tree falls? It is the nature of my mind to obsess and worry. That's what it does.

When I realized that sleep wasn't going to happen I figured since I'm going to obsess anyway I might as well obsess over something more useful. That's when I get the brilliant idea that I'll think about the Upanishads. I'm preparing to teach an introduction to the Upanishads so it seemed like a logical thing to do. (since when is obsessing logical?)

It just so happens that there's a verse in the Upanishads titled "What the thunder said".
How perfect is that? Only problem was that I couldn't remember exactly what the thunder said. Which of course led to me obsessing over the fact that I couldn't remember the verse and how the hell am I ever going to "teach" the Upanishads.

"The heavenly voice of the thunder repeats this teaching. Da da da! Be self-controlled! Give! Be compassionate!" ~ Brihadaranyaka Upananishad

Eventually, the thunder stopped and my obsessing exhausted me enough that I was able to sleep. Now, in the light of day, I realized a few important things. Aside from the obvious things like, there's no way the house could ever get hit by a train, here's a few others:

* When the mind begins to obsess the only way to get any peace is to direct that
   obsessing to the mantra.
* Since I cannot control the thunder or the lightening it's simply a waste of energy to
   worry about it. Remember to consider the energy that is expended un-necessarily
   when we allow our minds to run wild. It's probably the cause of our feeling exhausted.
* The thought that I am "teaching" the Upanishads is false. The Upanishads ARE the
   teaching. I'm simply introducing these beautiful teachings to others. I am not teaching.
   Remembering once again that the teaching in more important that the teacher.

"The heavenly voice of the thunder repeats this teaching. Da da da! Be self-controlled! Give! Be compassionate!" ~ Brihadaranyaka Upananishad