An Inside Job

Therefore the practice is like a key of meditation. If we have the right key on our hand, no matter how tightly the lock is closed, when we take the key and turn it the lock falls open. If we have no key we can’t open the lock. We will never know what is in the trunk.

365 Buddha, 111

Compiled by Jeff Schmidt

Ajahn Chah; Living Dhamma 

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It is odd that I should fear what I find there inside my mind’s house when my mind has been with me all of the time. I can't get anything done looking in the windows... it has to be an inside job. Once the door is opened through meditation, I find much in there that has worn out its use. Like a hoarder, I hang on to old tapes and junk that serves no one any good at all; least of all, me. Even the memory of the sweet laugh of a child can turn from a source of great joy into a grasping for the past that is so distorted it has become something like a sticky-gooey substance. The trick is that I don’t go in there alone. I need help sorting it all out… the good and the bad. This is where conscious contact with a Power greater than my self comes into play. A mentor of some sort is best to help organize my effort: anyone other than ego; preferably another human being, one that has cleaned out their own business. Emptying it all out, an inventory of what is there that is still useful, and discarding that which is not, takes a determined willingness to become a temple of God’s grace. The shades, once opened, allows the good I find to grow and the dark corners of fear to disappear. I become content in there and find peace.
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