Tag: Present moment

Nowhere to go

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What we are seeking is right here. But we persist in looking south to find the north star. Any kind of speculating is just the discursive mind doing its habitual thing – creating scenarios in the mind that block us from discovering what is right in front of us.  This moment is not some narrow, tiny point but is actually everything.  Right now includes memories of the past, fantasies about the future, judgements about the present, emotions and sensations of all kinds.  As soon as we say, “I’m living in the present,”  we’ve made a significant cognitive error, and created another barrier for ourselves.  Meditation practice ….. brings us into the direct intimate experience of this moment.  There’s no room for speculating.  We feel fully alive.  There’s no place to go, and yet, we are continually moving through space and time.  The path is never blocked if we can realize that we are always on it, going in the only direction we can go.  We’re always heading for here, here, here, here.

Melissa Blacker, Trail Temporarily Closed

Not a series of chores

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Mindfulness meditation is a wonderful tool for making each day, each moment of our life count. Paradoxically this is achieved by not doing more, but by doing less. We may feel that we need to do the things  have to be done faster so that we have time for doing more things. Mindfulness practice goes the other way. I may need to go to the store to get a carton of milk. The way to make the experience more satisfying is not doing it as fast as possible while thinking of other things, but to enjoy the walk to the store by paying attention. This way, we make every moment count. We are not sacrificing the means for the goal., Otherwise, our day becomes a series of dry chores. When night comes we may feel that we haven’t lived.

Joseph Emet, Buddha’s Book of Sleep

The mind as an empty room

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sun windowAn image that is often given to help us develop the right understanding of practice is that of a vast empty room with an open window, through which a shaft of light is passing. In the shaft of light we can see specks of dust which, although floating everywhere in the empty space, are highlighted in the light. The shaft of light is the light of attention. The vast empty space is the mind. The specks of dust are the experiences of sights, sounds, smells, tastes, touches and mental impressions. The dust floats through empty space and if there’s right awareness, right mindfulness, we see it in perspective.

Ajahn Mumindo, Unexpected Freedom

Working with things as they are

Karl Duffy2 Comments

These are the things we can contemplate. We can’t control what arises in the mind, but we can reflect on what we are feeling and learn from it rather than simply being caught helplessly in our impulses and habits. Even though there is a lot in life that we can’t change, we can change our attitude towards it. That’s what so much of meditation is really about—changing our attitude from a self-centered, “get rid of this or get more of that” to one of welcoming life as it is. Welcoming the opportunity to eat food that we don’t like. Welcoming wearing three robes on a hot morning. Welcoming discomfort, feeling fed up, wanting to run away. This way of welcoming life reflects a deeper understanding. Life is like this. Sometimes it’s very nice, sometimes it’s horrible, and much of the time it’s neither one way nor the other. Life is like this.

Ajahn Sumedho

Keeping here

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daffodils11

Oh, give us pleasure in the flowers today; 

And give us not to think so far away 

As the uncertain harvest; keep us here 

All simply in the springing of the year.

Robert Frost

Why we look for attention

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P1000418Underneath our nice, friendly facades
there is great unease. If I were to scratch below the surface of anyone I would find fear and anxiety running amok.

We all have ways to cover them up.
We overwork, over-drink, overeat;
we watch too much television,
we look for relationships.

We are always doing something to cover up our basic existential anxiety.

Charlotte Joko Beck