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A storm is coming. The warnings about Storm Eowyn are real and urgent, but it’s seemed for a while that a metaphorical storm is blowing through the world. Gabriel Gatehouse described it in his electrifying Radio 4 series ‘The Coming Storm’ which traces the conspiracy theories that have run rampant in the lead up to a second Trump administration. And it’s not just US politics that’s changing dramatically. It’s the climate emergency, the wars, the economy, the challenges faced by public services and so much else that feels to many of us like a powerful and overwhelming storm breaking over our heads.

But feeling overwhelmed doesn’t help much, and the Buddhist tradition is a rich source of guidance on how we can respond. Firstly, we need to recognise that we can’t control what life throws at us. As Buddhism says, ‘the worldly winds’ sometimes bring things we like, and sometimes they resemble a hurricane or a tornado. One image in Buddhist literature compares the truly wise person to a mountain that remains unshaken however hard the wind may blow.

An important practice for Buddhists in achieving that sort of strength is what we call ‘guarding the gates of the senses’. One reason the news can feel overwhelming is that we absorb it passively, without a break, as we browse the web or scan social media. Guarding the sense-gates means becoming intentional about our information diet, and deciding more consciously what we consume.

We can also increase our mental and emotional capacity. One Buddhist scripture says: ‘Placing a portion of salt in a cup of water makes it undrinkable but if the same salt is cast into a river, you can’t even taste it.’ To absorb more we need practices and activities that make us bigger. That could be meditation, art, prayer, being in nature, or something else works for you. From a Buddhist perspective, the practice is less important than the difference it makes to our experience.

Whatever caused the storm that’s blowing through the world, and whatever damage it’s wreaking right now, it won’t stop blowing any time soon. The question is how we respond. For me, political problems are also emotional, psychological and spiritual problems because human beings caused them, we suffer their effects and only we can solve them. The stronger the storm is blowing, the more important it becomes to strengthen the gates and become more like a river or a mountain.

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