A Place Safe from Heat and Cold

A Place Safe from Heat and Cold
By Dr. Stephen Ruppenthal
Author of The Path of Direct Awakening: Passages for Meditation

I believe it was the French saint Therese of Liseux who once predicted that snow would come in the middle of June. Sure enough, a day came in June when snow did fall, and her miracle happened. But I am wondering, with all the extremes in weather patterns today, if snow in June would seem that weird anymore.

In my home in northern California, the first week of May was cold and rainy without letup, much like January. So was the second; and when it rained two more inches in the third week, winegrowers got very nervous about fungal disease. We got over five inches of rain in a month that is usually the warm, flower-strewn staircase to a lovely summer. But why was that unusual—western states are experiencing a drought worse than any in the past 200 years. Hurricane after hurricane devastated not just the Caribbean and the southern US last year, but all the way up to Ohio. Heat was so intense in New York City last summer that older people were warned not to go outside.

The whole world is enduring great extremes in heat, cold, wet, and dry. This is hard not just on our bodies and our living environments, but on our emotions. So rather than speculating on what truly is behind such wild extremes of weather, I would like to ask, how can we learn to stay calmly centered in ourselves, whether it is bitterly cold or blisteringly hot? Can we stop the feelings of shock and panic and replace them with ease and peace? Here are five things everyone can do:

Begin your day with a spiritual practice
Some people practice prayer or deep personal contemplation of the supreme. In my case, I practice passage meditation before I get up and involve myself in the events of the day. This means, choosing a passage of verse from scripture or poetry and going over it silently in the mind for half an hour. If it is going to get hot later on, I get up when the cool night air still is an influence. I sit calmly going through great words like those of the Zen master who was asked what to do in very torrid weather. “Journey to that place within you that is beyond the reach of heat and cold,” he said. As the mind slows, entering deep within yourself, you realize you can take with you throughout the day that place of peace that you find within you in each and every meditation. This peaceful corner is not affected by anything that happens on the outside, whether the worst hurricane or the severest drought. With a mind moving slowly, you can register and receive events more calmly, responding intelligently rather than reacting automatically. This is not to say that the body won’t suffer in extreme cold or in sweltering heat, but you will not add to that suffering with a pain-causing, overemotional reaction.

Drink plenty of liquids
The body craves pure, health giving water. In freezing weather, hot liquids lubricate the whole system, and in the heat, cool (not cold) water keeps our metabolism at its highest level of adaptivity to the hot conditions. The more water we drink, the more life can course through us and renew us at the level of every single cell. Again, this will not give us immunity to physical effects of extreme cold or heat, but peace amidst them.

Eat right
A diet of healthy nutriments from all the food groups will help our body cope with extreme heat, cold, or wetness at its very highest level. Junk food clogs the system with globs of unhealthy substances the body must deal with in addition to the blistering heat or shivering cold. Ultimately, the body is made up exactly of what we eat, and when that is substances like power veggies, protein-packed legumes, flours, and nuts, and luscious fruits, we can handle anything the outside thrusts upon us a whole lot better.

Healthful exercise
The body was meant for motion. Don’t let the weather keep you from it; just adapt your exercise times to conditions. Vigorous exercise cleanses and renews the body and reinvigorates our life and feelings. If the day is very hot, put on protective sunscreen then try swimming avidly in the lake or pool, or walking freely in the hills or on the beach. Whether in the cold or the heat, the body needs to move with the natural rhythm it craves. Pulsating with that rhythm, we can adapt better to weather conditions by coming closer to our native state of life lived in the body, not enslaved by the mind. As our body gently moves, more slowly on a hot day and quicker on a cold one, we can relax in a vastness deeper than ourselves and not be brought down by the sweltering heat or the bitter cold. Whether we swing our arms in the bracing wind or feel the harmony of our breathing with our footstep, we perceive in our humble happiness an opening through which we can speak to our original self, that place deep within ourselves that is beyond the reach of heat and cold, free from whatever weather is happening on the outside.

Live clean
The quality of a hot day on the beach or in the desert is different from that same heat in a smog-filled city. In the end result, we are the creators of what we live and experience. I myself try not to do anything that contributes to more impurity in the air, because I sense that we five billion beings on this planet ultimately lead our destiny, both inner and outer. When I need to take a trip, I ask myself first if I can walk, and if not, can I bicycle or take the bus, rather than drive. If all of us try with our lives to minimize pollution and greenhouse gases, we will create a world where if things have to sizzle, they will do so more bearably, and we will be able to breathe healthily and freely. So whatever weather is in store for us this summer and in the coming winter, know that by practicing these five steps, we can all find a peace within ourselves that will also create an environment all will share in pride and love.

Dr. Stephen Ruppenthal is the author of The Path of Direct Awakening: Passages for Meditation. He is also the co-author of Eknath Easwaran’s edition of The Dhammapada and the author of Keats and Zen. He has taught meditation and courses on Han Shan at UC Berkeley and San Francisco State University. Dr. Ruppenthal is an international workshop leader in passage meditation and in courses for those looking for end of life spiritual care and for the spiritual step component of twelve step programs. Visit Stephen’s work at www.directawakenings.com.

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