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Every bit of rubbish is a jewel
Jeffrey
Veteran
Approaching Meditation in a Busy Life.
Summary: Lama Shenpen responds to the question of how do we approach meditation when our lives are so busy?
A student writes:
I have found a difficulty with my meditation practice. For some months I have been going along doing about 20 -35 minutes daily. I create a quiet space and I focus on the breath and try to watch over the processes going on. A recent weekend away from the distractions of everyday life was a real boost.
With so little to have to do, my meditation seemed to go very deep on one occasion: I sat and experienced how the breath is so incredible, carrying to and from my blood what needs to be brought and taken away, so that blood goes to my brain and helps sustain it. It goes to my muscles and keeps them strong and energised. All this comes from the breath. And the breath can be an object of my awareness and seem so beautiful, like a pure drink, like a light. This meditation made me feel the temporariness of the wonderful arrangements of my body very keenly. The steps I took as I stood again and went about life felt miraculous, and I could see how we all walk around in this miraculous way.
Lama Shenpen:
It is indeed quite miraculous!
Student:
But then we came home to a busy and stressful life. I found myself wishing to escape: the idea of retreating into meditation, of just opting out, began to seem attractive. I felt irritated that we have accumulated such a complex life around us. And how it is typical of many western lives: like a great treadmill turning, with so little time for peace.
Lama Shenpen:
Yes - it is not just western lives - it happens everywhere.
Student:
And suddenly my meditation is like a huge effort and my mind so full of rubbish, full of nonsense thoughts, impossible for me not to keep constantly getting carried along with them. So irritated and dissatisfied so much of the time! I feel back at the whole start of the process again.
Lama Shenpen:
Yes - that is how we all experience the path - it seems the more we practice the more we notice how much of the time we are not! Well, noticing that kind of thing is practice actually. Before we just went along with all that thinking that was just life - then we experience something more genuine and real and it highlights the rest as rubbish. But it is important not to just treat it as rubbish. Every bit of rubbish is a jewel. Whatever is happening is a Dharma opportunity - however bad and negative it seems. Once we have noticed it the transformation process has begun. It often seems that we are back at square one but that is because reality is right here in every experience - it is like a gate - we keep stepping in and out - when we are in a good space it seems like that is all there is and always will be and when we step out it seems like to get back into the space is a huge effort. It is as if there are guardians around the gate telling us its all much too difficult to step out again. But actually it is a lie. It is actually easy to step right back into the space of the path to Awakening. The problem is our habit of believing it is hard. We believe the voice that says this is all some kind of big deal and that we have regressed and that we cannot stop and wake up even for a few moments. So when you catch that lie, just stop for a few moments and see. Just see if it really is that difficult or not - just allow a short gap and just see. What bubbles up when you do that?
Student:
I felt that the meditation on the short holiday away was a luxury and only achieved because I had torn myself away from my normal life. How to start the practice? I tried to get the idea of spaciousness back. But the space is very hard to imagine, very hard.
Lama Shenpen:
That is because you are approaching it with some kind of anxiety - the important thing is to approach it fresh as if you had never experienced space before - just gently wondering what it could mean - as if you had no idea at all.
Student:
My breath seems to come and go into such a small, confined space, and I cannot get any sense of a larger space, only this little claustrophobic space around me.
Lama Shenpen:
So gently explore that little claustrophobic space - how big is it actually? Three feet all round? Or just in front? Above? Then what? What is the other side of that boundary? What is that boundary in fact? Is it inside or outside?
Are you sure it is such a tight space? Or is it a feeling? Turn towards the feeling and be gentle and interested in how it relates to space - just keep wondering in a gentle and interested way.
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Comments
it still contributes to your progress.
Also, hopefully, you have not posted the entire article. This is potential breach of copyright.
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I hope you understand my concern.
Sometimes, people post whole articles lifted from other websites or links, and this can prove to be tricky if author and source is not also addressed.
good of you to supply reference.