When You get Knocked off your Zen Cushion

Have you ever had something made you so angry and upset that it knocked you off your Zen cushion? Well in my case it will be my Zen soapbox since I talk about meditation and the beauty of the practice so much.
I got knocked off mine recently and I fell so hard that I felt the reverberation through my body. I was devastated and my ego-mind took the opportunity to deride me by slyly commenting, “look at Ms. Zen, she got a dose of reality, she human y’all”.

This happens to all of us as we travel the path. Meditation keeps us grounded and provides solace and helps us to deal with the challenges we encounter on the daily. So when you feel anger to the core that you get knocked off your cushion, it can be quite disheartening.
When we meditate, we try to make the resultant sensation, the feeling of peace and universal love last the entire day. Sometimes it is easy to do, other times not.
Some like to say, “The Devil made me sin my soul”. There was no devil involved and the soul cannot sin but on a certain level, I understand the sentiment being shared, something disturbed their peace and disrupted their alignment with their Higher Self.

What do we do when this happens?
Do we let the anger consume us until we hardly recognize ourselves or do we breathe, slowly and deeply?
Do we decide that this path is not for us since we ‘failed’ or do we breathe, slowly and deeply?
Do we berate ourselves and curse our humanness or do we breathe, slowly and deeply?

We breathe slowly and deeply and soon the peace that passes all understanding envelopes us in its warmth and love.
We take up our cushion, dust it off, tuck it under our arm, and continue our journey.

In my case, I looked at my soapbox, decided it needed some repair, and left it by the wayside.
I am now in the market for a cushion.