Session 4, The Sovereign Mind: This Opening to Life

When we erect internal granite walls to resist the discomfort of our emotional waves we risk being swept out to sea.

Enough. These few words are enough.
If not these words, this breath.
If not this breath, this sitting here.

This opening to life
we have refused
again and again
until now.

Until now.—David Whyte

Many visitors at Acadia National Park in Maine, USA, take in Thunder Hole, a narrow inlet along the shore of the Atlantic Ocean. The “hole” is surrounded by granite walls on three sides. During high tide, the Atlantic puts on a dramatic display as it crashes into the immovable granite.

The park service has set up safe places to view the spectacle, but there have been deaths and injuries when tourists think they can edge closer on rock ledges above Thunder Hole, only to be washed out to the ocean by a giant wave.

Thunder Hole provides a perfect metaphor for what Harris teaches us about the consequences of resisting our emotions.