It's Mighty Noisy in Here

From the Ellis Deck, the High Priestess; from the Brownies Oracle, "Entanglement:"

[The real mind] is intrinsically pure. Within itself it's already peaceful. That the mind is not peaceful these days is because it follows moods...That gladness or sadness is not the mind, but only a mood coming to deceive us. The untrained mind gets lost and follows these things, it forgets itself. Then we think that it is we who are upset or at ease or whatever. But really this mind of ours is already unmoving and peaceful... really peaceful! Just like a leaf which is still as long as no wind blows. ~ Ajahn Chah 

I have a head full of barking sea lions and screaming sea gulls. Similar to the poor Brownies caught up in the May pole ribbons, these thoughts (sea lions) and emotions (sea gulls) can create a reality that feels intensely authentic. Like becoming tangled in sea weed, they keep me anchored so that the waves of life rock and toss me around. I don't realize until I become still and quiet that beneath the waves lies Original Mind, a calm, spacious place of clarity. The High Priestess reminds me how useful meditation practice is for turning down the volume knob. Then I can realize, as Pema Chodron put it, I am the sky, and everything else is just the weather.