Tag: balance

A Bank Holiday in Ireland. One of the nicest images to use when sitting

Suppose someone is holding a pebble and throws it in the air and the pebble begins to fall down into a river. After the pebble touches the surface of the water, it allows itself to sink slowly into the river. It will reach the bed of the river without any effort. Once the pebble is at the bottom of the river, it continues to rest. It allows the water to pass by.

I think the pebble reaches the bed of the river by the shortest path because it allows itself to fall without making any effort. During our sitting meditation we can allow ourselves to rest like a pebble. We can allow ourselves to sink naturally without effort to the position of sitting, the position of resting.

Resting is a very important practice; we have to learn the art of resting. Resting is the first part of Buddhist meditation. You should allow your body and your mind to rest. Our mind as well as our body needs to rest. The problem is that not many of us know how to allow our body and mind to rest. We are always struggling; struggling has become a kind of habit. We cannot resist being active, struggling all the time. We struggle even during our sleep.

It is very important to realize that we have the habit energy of struggling. We have to be able to recognize a habit when it manifests itself because if we know how to recognize our habit, it will lose its energy and will not be able to push us anymore.

Thich Nhat Hanh

The fundamental nature of mind flows with conditions.

Awakening is only peace.

When there is no obstruction in worldly affairs or principles,

Then birth is non=birth

Mazu Daoyi, Chan Master, 709–788

Wisdom is the capacity to see things as they are, without the obscurations of fear or desire. It’s not about knowing more but seeing clearly. When I remember that everything changes – pleasure, pain, even my own life = I stop clinging. This isn’t resignation; it’s liberation. The Buddha didn’t say, ‘Life is suffering.’ He said, ‘Clinging to life as if it were solid and permanent is suffering.’ Wisdom is the antidote to that clinging.

Sylvia Boorstein, It’s Easier Than You Think: The Buddhist Way to Happiness

The Eastern tradition frequently encourages flexibility, adaptability, and flowing with the natural order. A Bamboo bending with the wind is a frequent image. 

People are born soft and supple;
dead, they are stiff and hard.
Plants are born tender and pliant;
dead, they are brittle and dry.

Thus whoever is stiff and inflexible
is a disciple of death.
Whoever is soft and yielding
is a disciple of life.

The hard and stiff will be broken.
The soft and supple will prevail.

Tao Te Ching, 76

In meditation, we are not trying to become something or get somewhere. We are allowing the mind to settle into its natural state The practice is not about controlling or forcing but about letting go, observing, and trusting in the inherent stillness and wakefulness that is always present.

The breath is a wonderful anchor for this process. It requires no belief system, no special ideology – just the simple, direct experience of the body breathing. We are just noticing it as it is: the rise and fall, the coolness at the nostrils, the movement in the abdomen. This simplicity is where wisdom begins to arise.

Thoughts will come and go, sensations will shift, but the key is to remain the knowing space in which all of this unfolds. 

Ajahn Amaro, Small Boat, Great Mountain: Theravadan Reflections on the Natural Great Perfection