Read time 3 minutes. Easing Inner Turmoil is a stand alone article in our Everyday Zen series.
A Zen practice is not about eliminating every thought or silencing every emotion. It is aimed—indirectly—at easing inner turmoil. Three quotes say it best:
“The mind is a beautiful servant, but a dangerous master.” — Sadhguru
“…there is no such thing as peace of mind. Mind means disturbance, restlessness itself is mind.” — Nisargadatta Maharaj
“You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn to surf.” — Jon Kabat-Zinn
Misconceptions of mind
The mind is an imperfect tool. It plans, calculates, and solves—but it also agitates, spins, and disturbs. To fight with the mind is only to hand it more fuel.
Like any powerful tool, skill comes not from battling it, but from handling it properly. That means learning to look at thoughts and emotions with a neutral glance. Done well, that glance contains peace. But instinct pushes us to fight, to push away, to want things different. And that is exactly the cycle that keeps the turmoil alive.
Go with the flow
The ocean has waves. Surfers would not have it otherwise.
So how will you enter the ocean? Tossed and tumbled? Fighting to push the waves away? Wishing them gone only multiplies their force.
Riding them is not effortless—but endlessly struggling against them is impossible. And riding them is far more interesting than thrashing in resistance. It takes commitment. It takes courage. You will be knocked from the board at times—sometimes hard. But with practice, you fall less. You learn balance. And eventually, the same waves that once drowned you can be ridden with grace.
Easing inner turmoil: You are the ocean
The inner glance is one way we learn to ride the waves rather than fight them. Are we easing turmoil—or simply changing our relationship with it?
Surfing does not shrink the size of the waves, but it transforms how we meet them. In the same way, changing our stance toward thoughts and emotions—riding them instead of resisting—calms the waters of the mind.
The focus is not elimination, but navigation. Balance, not suppression.
This is where the qualities of Zen come alive: calmness that resists the pull to fight, faith in our innate capacity to endure, fearlessness to face what arises. Acceptance becomes our footing, balance our board.
Riding the wave is practice. It is art. And it is the way forward.
Explore more:
Jon Kabat-Zinn is well known for his work in stress reduction and mindfulness. Matt Karamazov takes a deep dive into Kabat-Zinn’s book Wherever You Go, There You Are. “Give more than you think you can, trusting that you are richer than you think.” This is radical thinking. Can you begin to accept that having enough is the same as having it all?
“At its core, there is no giver, no gift, and no recipient; just the universe rearranging itself.” When you accept this idea at an experiential level, you become the ocean.
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