The purpose of spiritual practice is to frustrate. The 'you' trying to get free of 'you' is like a dog chasing its tail. Is this not your direct experience? Have any of your efforts to find immutable freedom ever lead anywhere?
Yet, without practice and effort, we seem to remain in separation and suffering. What's going on here? This seeming dilemma cannot be stated more clearly than Nisargatta Maharaj states it:
Unless you make tremendous efforts, you will not be convinced that effort will take you nowhere. The self is so self-confident that unless it is totally discouraged it will not give up. Mere verbal conviction is not enough. Hard facts alone can show the absolute nothingness of the self-image.
It is hard to put into words...but I think you just did.
ReplyDeleteWhat Maharaj is pointing to here is stated beautifully in Luke 15:11-31 [The Parable of the Lost Son]. It is a much more instructive 'creation story' than the older one where Adam and Eve separate from God in the garden.
ReplyDeleteIn summary [Lost Son Parable]: The son chooses to leave Home and finds that all his seeking leads him to eating with pigs. Not much fun! He gives up and chooses to return to the Father who was always waiting with open arms. Then there is a big party.
Get it?
bob
Bob, I have two questions for you. One, what series of events in your life led you to find meditation and how has meditation impacted your life? Two, have you found peace within yourself? If so, what led you to that place of peace? Thanks.
ReplyDeleteHi Lilac,
ReplyDeleteLike most people who come to meditation practice, I was suffering badly. I had everything life had to offer yet I felt empty inside, lost, and lonely. One day I met a man (younger than I was) who clearly had found peace with himself. He was a day care teacher ... a lowly occupation in my view. In any case, I took a chance and asked him what he had done to find such happiness. He replied: "not much but I do meditate". I had only vague ideas about what meditation was so I took a chance and asked him to teach me. He was happy to do so and taught me Zen meditation.
At first, I found meditation very difficult (sitting still was hard for me) but I persisted following the instruction I was given for eight years ... 40 minutes each morning and 40 minutes each evening. For some reason (perhaps it was the peace in his eyes) I came to love the silence, the emptiness, and the freedom from 'me'.
Meditation has impacted my life in quite a surprising way ... meditation lead me to realize that there was no 'me' in 'my' life ... there is only life experiencing life and that everything that appears belongs. That realization has lead me to a place of profound acceptance of life and to know the peace out of which everything arises, everything abides, and into which everything disappears.
Hope that answers your questions,
bob
You certainly have answered my questions. Thanks!
ReplyDelete