Miyoko Shida Rigolo starts with a feather. She is performing the Sanddorn balance.
The Sanddorn balance began about 20 years ago when Swiss theatre producer Mädir Eugster Rigolo created a balancing act for the stage production SANDDORN. The props are weathered ribs and coconut palm leaves, collected by Maedir Eugster from beautiful beaches around the world. Miyoko Shida Rigolo trained as a student of Eugster and has taken his name as a way of honoring her teacher.
What you witness in her performance is impressive, beautiful, elegant, even hypnotic. But while you are watching, you are also the subject of the performance. How does this performance connect with your real life? What does it mean for you as you cook, pick up your kids or take out the garbage? How can it impact on your joy and suffering?
Consider this riddle:
Where Is Your Suffering When You’re Not Paying Attention To It?
It’s not a riddle you solve by thinking. It’s a riddle you solve by directly experiencing the riddle in your life.
The riddle asks you about your suffering. What is suffering? It can mean your anxiety about your relationship. It can mean your worries about money. It can mean your fear about an anticipated event or task. Or your grief. Or depression. Your pain in your back or neck. Your suffering is your dis-ease.
Some suffering is intense. Some is mild.
Consider how you experience your suffering. In your mind? In your body? Both? How do you know that you’re suffering?
So here’s this question to investigate — not “figure out” but truly investigate.
Where Is Your Suffering When You’re Not Paying Attention To It?
This is an important riddle, because how you answer it will influence how you cope with your suffering as long as you live.
