Defining

What is a definition but a holding space for the ego to rest into.

It needs to hold a concept within itself. Defining itself by the concepts and definitions it made up in the first place. Well, it made up by virtue of being born into a collective social context and the nurturing of our perspectives through the associations we make.

Life is pushing us beyond the borders of self-imposed boundaries. Things you think you need in order to be happy, in order to be content, they are like shifting sands on the screen of awareness. Neti neti - not this not that. Resting into the awareness of all arising phenomena without holding onto needing or wanting a concept of a situation.

Melt into what is right in front of you. The client who has asked for your services - serve in the moment. The friend whose eyes meet yours in communion - commune in that moment. A deeply held embrace honoured and cherished in that moment; then get ready for work.

If we drop our concepts and allow the felt-sense of this moment meet us fully we realise there is no need to crave, to be averse, to struggle with our reality. It requires a brutal honesty with the heart of the world we so want to surrender to.

Surrender is not another act that we try and do. It is the ultimate non-doing, an intense letting go of our needs. The tantrums of the ego dim themselve into a small hum in the distance of our consciousness as the universe is made our centre.

So I choose this moment: surrender. Not as an act of will but as an act of faith that there is nothing to fear in being no definition; absolutely nothing at all.

Touching Enlightenment

This morning the hurricane of my mind was buffetting this poor man sitting on his cushion trying to find some PEACE AND QUIET!! Alas.



This got me to thinking; what is it that we are doing when we make the commitment to sit with ourselves each day? It is a bit like the US postal service (let me not get into our postal service: in a queue yesterday for 30 minutes to mail a letter and practice non-attachment to it arriving at all). So...US postal service, rain or shine, good or bad; we deliver. Meditation: hurricanes, criticism, praise, boredom; we non-attach.

Most mornings I use a blend of shamatha practice (calm-abiding) focusing on the breath and body sensation. Our body being completely present in the nowness of experience. The mind flitting through the froth of make-believe future and nostalgic past. Unless we anchor our experience in the rich darkness of our lived bodies we are off on tangents. Intersecting reality only when we take a moment to breath and re-centre in the vastness of our somatic being.

To touch enlightenment, to allow the marrow of it to surround our lives must be rooted in an embodied self. So many of us doing anything to not feel. Our bodies floating like kelp in the sea of awareness, all we need do is to allow ourselves to be held in awareness. To allow this very moment and this moment and this moment. The rise and fall of the ocean waves don't change the nature of wetness ie. of awareness.

Waves crash, life hurts, waves rise, passions swell. Each and every breath surfing the depth of the ocean of awareness. You look to see who is watching...and you feel that there is nothing but the breath, the sun, the waves and a moment stretching into infinity.

So take this very moment to touch enlightenment. This very moment you are whole, you are complete. It was just a fog that has lifted to show you the huge expanse of oceanic awareness that you drop into.

Namaste.

Stories...oh those old refrains

Today, or to be honest for the past few months I have been talking to alot of friends (and other poor bystanders who get caught in the maelstrom of my conversational gravitas) about the stories that our egos like to spin. These long-winded currents that we get swept up into and float along the river of old refrains. Not the truth. Certainly not very useful. Unless you happen to like the story but that is another story altogether. How fickle this judging mind.

Meditative practice is all about sitting in non-judging awareness. The preliminary ground of all phenomena that arise out of just this very witnessing awareness. We make friends with this ground that all states arise out of. We become familiar with our own basic nature that can hold all things, good and bad.

Where do stories fit in with all this malarky you may ask?

What would it be like to be able to watch your story but not buy into it? Meditation allows us the resting capacity of this. Many times I have seen the act of my mind latching onto a simple phrase, and like a spider spin it into crystal lined webs for me to ravel myself up into. If you sit in that space that allows even the story and your part in it suddenly you see that it is all made up. It is all illusion. Illusion in its truest sense - not this reality. Another alternate universe where you are wronged or you are a saviour or a glorious ego-king almighty and powerful.

Each moment is its own truth. When you can detach from the story and witness it you begin to see the truth of it. It has no independant existence. It is like an ethereal mist. You can get lost in it or you can sit and watch it til it passes and make your journey through the wood of life free from blindness. It is all in how you hold it. All in how you practice coming back to this very moment and seeing the truth of it. This is all you have.

And if any of you get it right for more than 5 % of the time...please give me a call and tell me your secret. Practice makes, not perfect, but just right, as it is.