You Are IT

Nature teaches us simplicity and contentment, because in its presence we realize we need very little to be happy. Since we are part of the animal kingdom, our senses are naturally more alive in the outdoors. The rustle of leaves or the rapid flight of birds could indicate the presence of a mountain lion or bear. Hiking in places where we are not the only predator helps us understand that all of life is intimately interwoven and that we are a part of that web.

Meditation training, on the other hand, provides the tools to steady the mind so we can be open to receive the jewels of nature. Through meditation we learn how to work skillfully with thoughts and emotional patterns that interfere with simply being able to rest wherever we are, with full presence.

– Mark Coleman, from A Breath of Fresh Air

We could say that meditation doesn’t have a reason or doesn’t have a purpose.  In this respect it’s unlike almost all other things we do except perhaps making music and dancing.

When we make music we don’t do it in order to reach a certain point, such as the end of the composition.  If that were the purpose of music then obviously the fastest players would be the best.

Also, when we are dancing we are not aiming to arrive at a particular place on the floor as in a journey.  When we dance, the journey itself is the point, as when we play music the playing itself is the point.

And exactly the same thing is true in meditation.  Meditation is the discovery that the point of life is always arrived at in the immediate moment.

– Alan Watts

We all know what it’s like to get trapped in dark, constricting states of mind—and how useless it is, in terms of awakening, to dwell there. That is exactly what the Buddha taught: we don’t need to stay stuck in greed, hatred, and delusion. Life can be lighter, more workable, even when it’s challenging.

This lightening up, which I see as an aspect of joy, is the fruit of insight into anatta, the selfless nature of reality, and anicca, the truth of impermanence. When we are not attached to who we think we are, life can move through us, playing us like an instrument.

Understanding how everything is in continual transformation, we release our futile attempts to control circumstances. When we live in this easy connection with life, we live in joy.

– James Baraz, “Lighten Up!”

If we speak with the language of Christianity then mindfulness, concentration, and insight are the energy of God. With that energy we are able to stop, to be with the Kingdom right here, right now.

– Thich Nhat Hanh

Through consistent practice we develop the skill of mindfulness, which allows us to detect with great precision the often subtle self-referential ideas and body sensations as they arise in each act of perception.

We also develop equanimity so that we can allow these ideas and body sensations to expand and contract without suppression, interference, or clinging.

Eventually, contact with the sense of self becomes so continuous that there is no time left to congeal or fixate it.

The self then becomes clarified in the sense that it is no longer experienced as an opaque, rigid, ever-present entity, but rather as a transparent, elastic, vibratory activity.

It loses “thingness.” We realize that it is a verb, not a noun; a wave, not a particle. According to this paradigm, what is let go of is the unconsciousness and “holding” associated with those ideas and body sensations which produce a sense of self. The sense of self becomes a home rather than a prison. You can come and go freely.

– Shinzen Young, “What Does Being a Buddhist Mean to You?”

Life passes like a flash of lightning
Whose blaze lasts barely long enough to see,
While earth and sky stand still forever.
How swiftly changing time flies across our face.
You who sit over your full cup and do not drink,
For what are you waiting?

– Li Po