The month of August this year is Ramadan. Ramadan is a time of worship where Muslims around the world give up food, water, and sex from the first light of dawn till sundown. Ramadan is an opportunity to gain by giving up and to prosper through turning away from our daily routine towards The Divine.

So it is with our meditation practice … which is giving up our attention to our thoughts, feelings, and body sensations in order to grow closer to the Divine.

I hope your practice (of release) is leading you to a profound realization of the following quote attributed to the Buddha:

"Just as a man who steps upon a serpent shutters in fear but then looks down and notices it is only a rope, so it was that one day I realized that what I was calling "I" cannot be found, and all fear and anxiety vanished with my mistake."

losing our heads

Spiritual joys come only from solitude,


So the wise choose the bottom of the well,


For the darkness down there beats
The darkness up here.


He who follows at the heels of the world
 Never saves his head.




Rumi

what is not you

Notice that while meditating anything that arises (a thought, a feeling, or a sense impression) is not you. What is arising in the present moment is absolutely impersonal; see this and you will come to know how very free you have always been.

As always, these 'spiritual insights' are not new news. Here we have the same idea in poetic form.

'Tis all a Checker board of Night and Days

Where Destiny with Men for Pieces plays:

Hither and tither moves, and mates, and slays,

And one by one back in the Closet lays.'

Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam.

notice,

bob

aid to practice

What is the best aid to meditation practice?

Some say that the best aid to our practice is proper food; some say it is a good teacher; some say it is earnestness. But I say it is a forgiving heart.

After all the purpose of meditation does not have to do with the body, wisdom, or achievement … the purpose of meditation is to see a forgiven world.

what say you?

bob

Meditation is release ... empty yourself utterly and all will become clear. This is not new news by the way. It was stated in strong terms over 2000 years ago:

"In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple".

Luke 14:33

so simple,

bob

Living out of the past leads to a view of the world that is stale

which, in turn, leads to unnecessary suffering; meditation is the practice of being here now.

so simple,

bob

establish a regular practice

Sufi master shaykh Fadhlalla Haeri teaches "There is a big difference between merely collecting recipes and actually cooking and eating"

practice, practice, practice,

bob