The Ordinary Mind

One of the greatest Buddhist traditions calls the nature of mind “the wisdom of ordinariness.” I cannot say it enough: Our true nature of all beings is not something extraordinary.
    The irony is that it is our so-called ordinary world that is extraordinary, a fantastic, elaborate hallucination of the deluded vision of samsara. It is this “extraordinary vision” that blinds us to the “ordinary,” natural, inherent nature of mind. Imagine if the buddhas were looking down at us now: How they would marvel sadly at the lethal ingenuity and intricacy of our confusion.

Glimpse After Glimpse
Sogyal Rinpoche

~
When I first began practicing meditation I was under the impression that I would attain a state of bliss that would be extraordinary. I imagined that I could attain a higher level of consciousness and dreamed of somehow being above it all. The more I practice meditation the more I understand that the smell of a rose, the giggle of a child, the loving hand of my mate, the sight of the clear night sky in Northern Idaho was far more than enough for an awakened mind. What I was seeing before was more akin to seeing a beautiful sunset and saying, “It is a pretty as a picture!” Am I seeing the picture or am I “being there” in the beauty of the reality? The magic of the fleeting moment of it… do I wish I had a camera to capture it? Do I miss it by seeing it through the viewfinder? Meditation is being where I am, when I am and that is a powerful time and place to be because that is the natural mind of here and now.

geo 5,138