undoing

Meditation unlike almost every human activity does not necessitate more doing.  It is at the root an undoing; it is unlearning - a letting go of "how you think it ought to be".

Where has all your striving to be 'spiritual' or to achieve some 'enlightenment' lead you? All those books and all those 'teachers'!  Why not try something different?

Take refuge in Silence; let go.  If you become silent enough there is nothing that you will not know.

Empty yourself utterly … or stated another way:

Say, 'I seek refuge with the Lord of the dawn, From the evil of what He has created, And from the evil of the utterly dark night when it comes, And from the evil of those who blow on knots, And from the evil of the envious when he envies. (Quran 113)

peace,
bob

striving

Is it not the case that the one characteristic that all of us humans share is the desire to be happy?

We are taught, especially in western societies, that if we get something or achieve something or become something we will be happy.

Not that there is anything wrong with getting or becoming but don't we find that they do not bring lasting happiness?  In fact, it can become a tiresome treadmill  … all this striving.

Meditation is emptying.  Perhaps it is the case that when the striving ends immutable happiness arises naturally.  

Give it a try - empty yourself utterly,

bob

Who are you?

Who are you that is doing all this emptying, surrendering, and detaching.  Who are you?

Think about it -  When we say "This car is MINE".  Is the car really MINE?  The company that built the car at one time said it was THEIRS.  When you sell the car the next person will say that the car is HIS or HERS, the junk yard proprietor will say that it is HIS … and so it goes on and on … this business of me-ing and mine-ing. 

To remember our essential nature is the ultimate purpose of practice. Here are a couple of pointers to That.

To Him [God] belongs everything in the heavens, and the earth, and everything between them, and everything beneath the ground.  - Quran 20:6

“When you forget the self you become one with the ten thousand things” – Dogen 

"The smallest sprout shows there is really no death,
And if ever there was it led forward life" - Walt Whitman

peace on you,
bob

meditation's goal

If we can even talk about a 'goal' for meditation practice it would be to discover that we have always been where we ought to be and that it could not have possibly been otherwise.

realizing this, meditation becomes effortless.

Peace upon you,
bob

the cave

"There was something sacred about this place.  No longer distracted by anything external; he was finally able to bask in his own existence.  And found it splendid.  After a while he forgot his plans and obsessions."

"Perfume" the movie.

empty yourself utterly.
bob

reverence

The sweetest fruit of regular practice is reverence.

Reverence is a feeling or attitude of deep respect tinged with awe and love; veneration.  I'm reminded of a passage from the Quran (24:41):


Do you not see that all those who are in the heavens and earth praise God, as do the birds with wings outstretched?  Each knows its own way of prayer and glorification:  God has full knowledge of what they do.

What is your own way of reverence?

bob

distractions

Meditation is that practice of turning our attention away from that which comes and goes towards that which does not come and go (The Eternal).

O people, God's promise is the truth; therefore, do not be distracted by this lowly life. Do not be diverted from God by mere illusions.
Quran 35:5

peace upon you,
bob