subject: Sadness Isn't Your True State, No Matter How Sad You Feel - The Little Prince Series [print this page] Sadness Isn't Your True State, No Matter How Sad You Feel - The Little Prince Series
What do you do when you are sad?
I'm not talking about the occasional moment of sadness because of something that has happened, but about that background sadness so many of us feelthough generally try not to feel, but that surfaces overwhelmingly at times.
On one of his sad days the Little Prince simply sat and watched sunset after sunset, which on his tiny planet wasn't difficult to do. One day he watched forty-four sunsets!
The pilot friend of the Little Prince asked if he was sad on the day when he saw forty-four sunsets in a single day. Says the author, "But the Little Prince made no reply."
What do you think the story is telling us at this point? Ponder it, see what comes to you.
Moving on, the author tells us that for a long time the Little Prince found hisonlyentertainment in "thequiet pleasure of looking at the sunset."
When we are sad, if we go sit quietly in nature in some form or otherit could be a sunset, a lake, the ocean-side, a stream or river, a garden, or a foresta quiet pleasure arises in the midst of our sadness.
This quiet pleasure doesn't remove the sadness, but sits side by side with it.
In nature, we feel connected to the heart of being. Though it doesn't take away the sadness we are experiencing, we become aware that there is something much more substantial to life than our sadness.
The story is telling us that beneath our background sadness is a joy that is never taken away by whatever may happen in our life to trigger this sadness.
In other words our inherent joy can be eclipsed, but it never goes away. It's there in the worst of times, even if we can't access it.
This is a life-giving insight because it furnishes us with hope. If we once know that our fundamental state is one of joy, it changes how we approach sad times. If we can't feel our joy for a time, that's okay. We know that it hasn't gone away and in due course we will feel it again.
The key with sadness is to sit with it in some manner that simultaneously connects us with nature. Whatever in nature you feel particularly connected withand it will be different for different peoplebepresent with it, truly "there" with it as the Little Prince was with his sunsets. The connection will in due course evoke the joy that's bedrock to your being.
What most of society does is try to escape sad times with busyness. But then we never really face the background sadness that's evoked when something disappointing happens in our life.
Events that trigger sadness aren't to be fled, but to be felt.
Neither is sadness to bewallowed in however. Notice that the Little Prince doesn't justmope around in misery when he feels sad. He sits ina very present state in that dimension of nature to which he most feels connected.
The way to handle sadness is tofeel it in all its immensity,without allowing it to become our identity.
When we do this, something amazing happens. The background sadness we have carried in us for so many years slowly begins to integrate, until it is no more. Then only joy remains.
When this happens, sad events occur and we can feel their sadness, but we don'talsoget walloped by the background sadness that's already in usbecausethis sadness has gone.
It has been transmuted into energy that fuels a joy that can tolerate sad moments without robbing us of our wonderfully ecstatic inherent beinga joy one of the followers of Jesus described as "joy unspeakable." It's such a state of rapture that there are no words for it.
Tomorrow I'll share with you how I made the permanent shift from background sadness to background joy. I think you'll find it encouraging.
