The practice: being rather than waiting

“It is not the outer objects that entangle us. It is the inner clinging that entangles us.” Tilopa

Daily Reflection: When we are waiting for something, whether at the grocery store, doctor’s office or in traffic, notice how this “waiting” places value in some future moment.  Notice how waiting can cause tension and uneasiness in the body and mind.  We can be so focused, even obsessed, on doing that we forget about being, and this takes a toll on our physical, mental and emotional health. What happens when we shift our perspective from waiting to being?  What changes when we let go of anticipation or expectations and accept being, being in this moment? Do you feel a softening or a subtle releasing in the body and the mind?  Can you feel a shift in attitude or perspective? We need to remember we are human beings rather than human doings.  So, try a little more being today and see what you discover.

“If you learn to enjoy waiting, you don’t have to wait to enjoy.” Kazuaki Tanahashi

Meditation Challenge:  As you sit today in stillness, maybe you use the image of a glass of water and sand all mixed up, swirling around, a metaphor for our busy, speeding lives, a metaphor for our inner life.  And through the stillness of the body and the rhythm of the breath, see if you can allow the sand to settle and your water to become clear. Gaining perspective that wasn’t available to you when you are speeding by; seeing your moments more clearly, more honestly; without add-on’s, subtractions, bias, or fears.  Notice what it feels like when your sand settles and the water becomes clear.  What do you experience when there is a sense of steadiness and clarity?  What happenings to your inner knowing?

And of course, as we sit, the mind will do what it always does, it makes the water murky again as it wanders into stories or our to do list’s, “stirring” things up with judgments, thoughts or opinions of how things should be.  When this happens, see if you can just let it all go and once again allow the sand and thoughts to settle, and the water to become clear.  A practice and process that we engage in over and over again.  As Sharon Salzberg reminds us, “If you have to let go and begin again thousands of times, that’s fine.  That is the practice.”

“The mind is like tofu.  It tastes like whatever you marinate it in.” Sylvia Boorstein