Awake to Your Beauty as well as Mine

Tuesday, August 27, 2013:

 Sometimes, when I meditate, I don’t use any particular method. I just allow my mind to rest, and I find, especially when I am inspired, that I can bring my mind home and relax very quickly. I sit quietly and rest in the nature of mind; I don’t question or doubt whether I am in the “correct” state. There is no effort, only a rich understanding, wakefulness, and unshakable certainty.

            When I am in the nature of mind, the ordinary mind is no longer there. There is no need to sustain or confirm a sense of being: I simply am. A fundamental trust is present. There is nothing in particular to do.

Glimpse After Glimpse

Sogyal Rinpoche

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Yes, there are times when I get up late and have to be somewhere that I can only give a few minutes to meditation. But it doesn’t take much time or effort on the way to an appointment to simply breathe. When I make a big deal out of anything along those lines my mind gets all tied up; an anaconda squeezes the life out of my consciousness. I have responsibilities to others I have made commitments to.

 There was a time when I thought I was free because I cared not one whit whether I showed up or not. I would often appear on a doorstep unannounced thinking my surprise would be a gift. I believed that this sort of spontaneity was liberty. Once I was touched by the Heart of Compassion, consideration for other people’s time and attention became something to honor and respect. If I told someone I would be there at a certain time, at a certain place, and could not make it, I could at least call ahead… otherwise, I was actually telling that person that I believe his/her time was of no importance to me… that I believed myself to be superior to them.

  Tardiness is not at all where I was going to go with this reflection but I have known others, and have done so myself, who regularly show up late to appointments, or let a friend wait at the coffee shop, just because we had to get our twenty minutes in the lotus position first. This rigidity of practice denies the deity of others even though one might believe that spiritual commitment to meditation comes first. That rigidity, to me, is a form of idolatry. It is putting something before God (if one wants to think in Biblical terms). Meditation can be simply sitting and listening to a friend and does not require that I deny them respect in order to fulfill a self-centered righteousness of my practice. Meditation is awareness and does not require that I blot out the world around be, Instead, I become fully awake and aware of your beauty as well as mine.

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