• The Shelter of Dhamma
In the outer world, clouds roll through the sky; winds blow in the fields and gardens; trees bend before each gust. Branches sway; leaves flutter; each blade of grass quivers. Everywhere, there is impermanence, instability. And in the inner world as well, see how everywhere there is instability, change, tumult, agitation, oscillation, movement every moment.
Outside on the rocky face of the mountain to the north of Dhammagiri, waterfalls are flowing. Inside, as well, flows the Ganges of the awareness of anicca from head to feet. Outside, all the earth pulses beneath the steadily falling drops of rain. Inside, sensations throb throughout the body. Outside are ripples on the flowing streams. Inside as well are ripples, wavelets, arising and passing away.
Outside, at times, threatening storm clouds darken the sky. Inside too, a heavy fog of emotion may arise. The clouds without are driven away by the wind, and inside the wind of the wisdom of anicca dispels the solidity and intensity of emotions. When the clouds outside pass away, you can gaze into the infinity of space; and when the clouds of sankhāras within are removed, all illusions evaporate and you see the reality of the Void (suññata). The sky, at last, is liberated from obscuring clouds; within, the mind is liberated from defilements. Washed in the rainwater of Vipassana, it becomes freed from all impurities.
Observing thus the nature outside can give inspiration to discover the same reality within. And when a meditator becomes established in the practice, he finds that he has a matchless shelter amid the storms of life.
Goenkaji
http://news.dhamma.org/wp-content/uploads/1988-15-2-VNL-en-A4.pdf
