A Drive from Darkness to Light | A Visual Masterclass | Today ❤️

Just Look Up! | What the Clouds Taught Me Today

#incampustoday #intothewoods

8th May 2026

Driving down the State Highway towards Campus today, I found myself captivated by a silent companion who was tailgating me all along! - a stunning cloud formation that followed me all the way to Campus! 😊

This lovely sight impulsively brought to my mind two things –

Firstly, it took me back to 2018 - to our blog discussions HERE on our blog, on The Cloud Appreciation Society and their vibrant Manifesto!

I couldn’t help but think of Gavin Pretor-Pinney’s lovely categorisation of the sky’s inhabitants. Even as I was driving, I kept watching out for his three distinct tiers 😊

The Low Clouds: Those “cotton wool tufts” that bloom on a sunny day.

The Middle Clouds: Looking like endless “layers of bread rolls” across the horizon.

The High Clouds: Those “delicate streaks of falling ice crystals” brushing against the edge of space.

Secondly, what struck me the most, was the dramatic transition! In no time, the heavy, brooding dark clouds transitioned so quickly to a vast, graceful and luminous sky blue!

In fact, it was a stunning visual masterclass on the “Philosophy of the Passing Clouds”.

This quick transitioning from darkness to light made me ponder about this profound philosophy behind the “passing clouds”.

Like the clouds over Tambaram, our emotions – be it happiness, sadness, fear, disgust, anger, surprise, etc., - are also transient by nature!

They are visitors, not inhabitants! True peace happens only when we treat them as passing clouds rather trying to “fix” them!

Mindfulness helps us cultivate this art of detachment! We don’t have to engage with them or be controlled by them!

By recognising the transitory nature of our emotions, we can stop trying to hold onto the mist! 😊

It is a truth, universally acknowledged, that while the weather keeps changing every hour of the day, the sky remains - vast, blue, calm, cool, and unaffected.

Your essence is the sky, not the fleeting clouds passing through it! 😊

So whenever negative thoughts or emotions arise – which is quite natural - you don’t have to invite them over for a cup of coffee! 😊

Instead, just place those anxieties onto a cloud and simply watch the wind carry them away. You don’t have to engage with them; you can just let them pass!

Cos, as the renowned Buddhist teacher Pema Chodron says -

“You are the sky. Everything else - it’s just the weather.”

Would love to end this post with the immortal lines of Tagore –

“Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add colour to my sky.”

Cool! Ain’t it? 😊