Tami Simon has a quarrel with a metaphor. In meditation circles, emotions are often described as weather passing across the sky of awareness, and she finds that incomplete. Tears and grief do not feel like weather to her. She has been drawn instead to the goddesses of Tibetan Buddhism and to the work of Marion Woodman on emotional wisdom, and she wants Tara Brach's view. Are emotions only weather? Tara does not want to take the sky and weather too far either. Emotions, she says, are the juice. They are the soul's language, the way spirit moves through us. That is a different thing from the wounded reactivity of a defended self, and it deserves a different relationship. Grief for people we have lost, in her experience, is some of the purest being there is, a full expression of love and beauty and the caring at the heart of everything. She works with deities herself. Kuan Yin, Green Tara, and Sekhmet, the lion-headed Egyptian goddess, who she says is sometimes sitting there on her chest with her. What she means by that is precise. When we enter spontaneous compassion rather than self-focused reactivity, what is actually happening is life loving life. It is an aspect of the intelligence of the universe, and that, she suggests, is what the deities are. None of which means every emotion is pure. They get entangled. Anger has grief underneath it more often than not, and vengeance, she says, is a really lazy form of grief, what happens when the sorrow beneath the anger never gets felt. Being with an emotion, and seeing through it to what is underneath, is a whole path in itself. Spirituality, in her account, involves the whole spectrum of feeling, and some of the most sacred moments of a life come from truly being with what is there. Tami closes by describing her own experience of this, a wave of feeling that arrived in the small hours, and the freedom she found by staying with it rather than pushing it away. Want to go deeper with Tara Brach? Join Sounds True One for more teachings like this. Get your first month FREE at https://bit.ly/4ctecMn Subscribe to Sounds True's YouTube Channel ► https://bit.ly/SubscribeSTYT Sounds True is a mission-driven learning and media company, and a recognized leader in wellbeing, personal growth, and spiritual transformation. Partnering with the world’s foremost wisdom teachers and best-selling authors, the company reaches millions worldwide with its unique programs, digital learning experiences, and worldwide events. The company also features a variety of original series, weekly shows, and live online experiences on Sounds True One, its global platform and community with members across more than 125 countries. Sounds True is a Public Benefit Corporation and also the home of the Sounds True Foundation. Connect with us: ▪️Facebook: http://bit.ly/2XFIIeE ▪️Instagram: http://bit.ly/2UlEoiH ▪️Website: http://bit.ly/2tOl02d