Peaceful abiding describes the mind as it naturally is…
The human mind is by nature joyous, calm, and very clear. In meditation we aren’t creating a peaceful state—we’re letting our mind be as it is to begin with…
Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche
Tag: Be fully present
Sometime today drop into the calm beneath
The nature of the mind is comparable to the ocean. The incessant movement of waves on the surface of the ocean prevents us from seeing its depths.
If we dive down there are no more waves; there is just the immense serenity of the depths….
Pema Wangyal Rinpoche
There is a deep restlessness inside us….and it is ok
I have written before on how there is a fundamental restlessness at the heart of our being, or a fundamental loneliness, as some writers like to call it. Many are the strategies we use to get away from this, such as over-working, continually running, throwing ourselves into relationships. staying constantly distracted. And when those things are working for us, loneliness does indeed seem absent. However, what we come to see over time is that is that this loneliness, or restlessness, is something essential to human nature; we may succeed in covering it over for a while but it can never actually go away. As we can see in these two quotes from different sources, most wisdom traditions say the same thing: this feeling of restlessness, of having no real ground to stand on, is part of being human, because there is nothing in existence that can completely fill the human heart. And at the end of the day this shows us the core of our practice, nothing other than learning to stay.
There is a deep hole in your being, like an abyss. You will never succeed in filling that hole, because your needs are inexhaustible. You have to work around it so that gradually the abyss closes.
Since the hole is so enormous and your anguish so deep, you will always be tempted to flee from it. There are two extremes to avoid: being completely absorbed in your pain and being distracted by so many things that you stay far away from the wound you want to heal.
Henri Nouwen
If we are willing to give up hope that insecurity and pain can be exterminated, then we can have the courage to relax with the groundlessness of our situation. This is the first step on the path.
Pema Chodron
Getting places, one step at a time
Today is the first of March, the feast of Saint David of Menevia, – ‘Dewi Sant’ – the patron saint of Wales. He is celebrated also in the Irish calendar as he was a friend of many of the main figures in the early Irish Church. One of the teachings which he passed on is beautiful in its lucidity and its wisdom. He said simply, Do the little things in life. We are sometimes concerned with the “direction” of our lives, in working out how we can make an impact, how we can get to the top of the mountain. This can mean that we spend part of the time in the future, in imagining various scenarios, waiting for our life to begin sometime later. By doing this, we can miss all the possibilities that are right in front of us now, or allow moments go which will never return. David reminds us to concern ourselves with what is in front of us just now, to be mindful of this moment. We do not have to live tomorrow, or next week just yet. He reminds us to make the journey one step at a time. In keeping with a Welsh theme, we try to keep our focus on the path down in the valley, not on the heights we like to conceive for ourselves.
Reduce your stress today: Flow with what is
This is a nice practice to work with, taken from Pavel Somov’s book, Present Perfect: A mindfulness approach to letting go of Perfectionism and the Need for Control. Why not try it today?
By insisting on reality being a certain way, we get stuck. To get unstuck, downgrade your expectations to preferences. Whereas an expectation is an unwarranted entitlement, a demand that reality comply with your vision of how it should be, a preference is just a wish. Instead of expecting traffic to be light, allow a passing wish for traffic to be light and then go with the flow of what is. Instead of wishing for that perfect warm weather to go out for a walk, acknowledge your wish for the preferred weather, then layer up and go out anyway. Instead of waiting for the perfect wind, pull up the anchor of your expectations and sail the wind that exists. Practice expecting nothing and flowing with what is.
A practical way for working with strong emotions
Dense and intense emotional reactions can leave us feeling lost and overwhelmed. In these darkest moments, the practice is to bring awareness to the center of the chest, breathing the painful emotions, via the inbreath, directly into the heartspace. It’s as if we were breathing the swirling physical sensation right into the heart. Then, on the outbreath, we simply exhale. We are not trying to do or change anything; we’re simply allowing our heart center to become a wider container of awareness within which to experience distress.
Ezra Bayda, Being Zen
