We must sense that we live in a world which in some respects is mysterious; that things happen and can be experienced which remain inexplicable; that not everything which happens can be anticipated. The unexpected and the incredible belong in this world. Only then is life whole. For me the world has from the beginning been infinite and ungraspable.
A sense of Mystery can take us beyond disappointment and judgment to a place of expectancy. It opens in us an attitude of listening and respect. If everyone has in them the dimension of the unknown, possibility is present at all times. . . . Knowing this enables us to listen to life from the place in us that is Mystery also. Mystery requires that we relinquish an endless search for answers and become willing to not understand. . . . Perhaps real wisdom lies in not seeking answers at all. Any answer we find will not be true for long. An answer is a place where we can fall asleep as life moves past us to its next question. After all these years, I have begun to wonder if the secret of living well is not in having all the answers but in pursuing unanswerable questions in good company.
Rachel Naomi Remen, My Grandfather’s Blessings
All of these [meditation] instructions apply the perspective of bare attention to whatever experience arises. “Bare” here means simple, direct, non-interfering and non judging. Attention refers to mindfulness, awareness,not forgetting. So bare attention is simple, direct, non-interfering awareness. Alert and relaxed we are not looking for any experience in particular, we are simply awake to what presents itself. Observing in this way opens up worlds we may have never noticed ….
Sometimes the simplest things are overlooked because they are so simple. A profound aspect of bare attention is its natural capacity to include everything. When we are just being with what is, nothing falls outside of the way of awareness. A mirror doesn’t choose what to reflect; its nature simply reflects whatever comes before it. Can we practice this same mirror-like wisdom of mind?
Joseph Goldstein, One Dharma
Drop into the moment that is now.
No need to judge, no need to have an agenda as to what will be, no need to say, “I am meditating”.
Just be here, drink in all that this moment has to offer as if it is the only one that you have – because it truly is.
Words stand between silence and silence:between the silence of things and the silence of our own being. When we have really met and known the world in silence, words do not separate us from the world nor from other men, nor from God, nor from ourselves, because we no longer trust entirely in language to contain reality.
Thomas Merton
