A couple of nights during the retreat, a parade of images came up, each with an emotional charge, and I took the opportunity (not much choice, really) to be with each one of them in a wholehearted and heartfelt way. Each one wanted to be seen, felt, and loved, as it is.
Initially, most of the images were from my own life – present, past and possible futures, and they then expanded to include the many situations humans in general experience, include wars, torture, illness, tragedy, death and so on. There was a very clear realization that there is no difference there. It is all me anyway, no matter how I look at it (all my stories, all universally human). The emotions coming up were at first mostly grief, sadness and fear, and then moved into other ones such as anger. It all lasted for a few hours, with some briefer periods of calm in between.
With many of the images, there would be a brief initial response of terror followed by a heartfelt being-with and allowing. And it was very clear how resistance to the emotions was what created the emotions, in their form of sadness, fear, grief and so on. Even a subtle resistance makes them appear that way, the conventional way.
But when there is a wholehearted being-with them, even if they would last forever, resistance falls away and they are revealed without the previous filter of resistance. Now, they are revealed as a dynamic sweet fullness, open for a taste of Big Mind and Big Heart, and fuel a deepening clarity and stability of the mind.