We are often instructed to surrender to the present, but what does it mean really? When we surrender, we are relinquishing our demand that the present be something other than it actually is and we are fostering a willingness to be present with what is. Surrendering to the present entails surrendering to our current limitations, both internal and external.
Philipp Moffitt, Surrendering to the present
A skillful reflection is: ‘This is the way it is’. Venerable Buddhadasa Bhikkhu, the renowned Thai sage, said, “If there was to be a useful inscription to put on a medallion around your neck it would be ‘This is the way it is’.” This reflection helps us to contemplate: wherever we happen to be, whatever time and place, good or bad, ‘This is the way it is.’ It is a way of bringing an acceptance into our minds, a noting rather than a reaction. The practice of meditation is reflecting on ‘the way it is’ in order to see the fears and desires which we create.
Ajahn Sumedho, The Way it is
Sitting alone in peace before these cliffs
the full moon is heaven’s beacon
the ten thousand things are all reflections
the moon originally has no light
Han-shan
The mind’s preference to fix things into a permanent form even applies to how we see our “flaws”. We easily see ourselves as having enduring negative aspects to our personality – “I am very bad at ….” rather than recognizing the changing nature of our weaknesses. That things are always changing is one of the fundamental truths which we try to understand at a deep personal level. The line from the Dhammapada – Anyone who understands impermanence ceases to be contentious – reminds us of a fundamental way to stop fighting with reality and with ourselves. We are continually changing. Our life path is continually changing. Sometimes agonizing about it only makes things worse.
The expounding, practising and realizing of impermanence
by the impermanent
themselves all must be impermanent
Dogen
The Western mind likes to categorize and put labels, defining what is and what is not. In Eastern approaches to life we often find that this “either-or” division is not as strong, and that a more seamless acceptance of opposites is the preferred way of seeing things. In this approach, contrary energies and ideas can be seen to be complementary or interdependent. If we grow in this, we develop a mind which does not need to form an evaluation of an experience immediately, to come to a quick conclusion about how things are going in our lives. Most experiences are never clearly just black or white, and yet we long always for conviction, for things to be definitive, for solidity. However, it can be richer if we come to an edge in our lives and work at staying there, in the present moment, holding an open space for how things will turn out, not fixing on a particular outcome. This challenges us to find a sense of coherence that is not based on a necessary result but on a relational sense with whatever is happening. This flexible open space is what leads to greater freedom.
Things are not as they appear to be, nor are they otherwise.
The Lankavatara Sutra
With thanks to Patrick Choucri at the Yakushido Centre in Geneva for prompting these thoughts.
Mindfulbalance 