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What we all experience at least sometimes
Jeffrey
Veteran
in Meditation
from shambhala@email.shambhala.com
July 26, 2013
YOU DON’T HAVE TO STRUGGLE
Staying with the discomfort is difficult. The mind keeps darting off to avoid the feelings in the body, primarily by trying to analyze why you feel the way you do. But you keep returning to the breath in the center of the chest and the physical experience in the body. At some point you then remember to broaden the field of awareness by including the environment—the feeling of space in the room and the sounds of traffic from outside. Awareness shifts back and forth between the internal bodily sensations and the physical reality of the environment, and gradually the somberness of mood begins to lighten. There is a sudden realization that you don’t have to struggle—that there’s nothing to do. It becomes clear that all of the struggle, the addictive craving, the need to fill the gnawing unease with activities and substances, are compulsions that you don’t have to follow. There’s a sense of freedom in realizing that even though the addictive tug may be strong, you don’t have to be pulled in by it. You see that by simply residing in what is, exactly as it is, the much more genuine experience of happiness can begin to arise naturally on its own.
July 26, 2013
YOU DON’T HAVE TO STRUGGLE
Staying with the discomfort is difficult. The mind keeps darting off to avoid the feelings in the body, primarily by trying to analyze why you feel the way you do. But you keep returning to the breath in the center of the chest and the physical experience in the body. At some point you then remember to broaden the field of awareness by including the environment—the feeling of space in the room and the sounds of traffic from outside. Awareness shifts back and forth between the internal bodily sensations and the physical reality of the environment, and gradually the somberness of mood begins to lighten. There is a sudden realization that you don’t have to struggle—that there’s nothing to do. It becomes clear that all of the struggle, the addictive craving, the need to fill the gnawing unease with activities and substances, are compulsions that you don’t have to follow. There’s a sense of freedom in realizing that even though the addictive tug may be strong, you don’t have to be pulled in by it. You see that by simply residing in what is, exactly as it is, the much more genuine experience of happiness can begin to arise naturally on its own.
8
Comments
August 2, 2013
AWARENESS OF ALL BEINGS
A botanist once came to the monastery to teach us about the plants around us. As he walked around the grounds, he kept exclaiming happily, “Oh, what a huge red huckleberry bush!” “Oh! I’ve never seen such a big patch of yellow wood violets.” I realized that everywhere this man went, his inner experience was that of being among welcoming friends. He was never alone, always in the presence of beings whose very existence gave him joy.
This practice, opening our awareness to all the living beings around us, can be an antidote for the pervasive feeling of loneliness that plagues so many of us. Even in the city there are animals, birds, plants, and insects all around us. Within our bodies are billions of living beings, most of them beneficial. Their lives are intertwined with ours, and they are necessary to our health and we to theirs. When our mind closes down tightly on the worries of “I, me, mine,” we create loneliness. When we open our heart into awareness of all those beings we are connected to, our loneliness melts away.