A Glimpse of the Possible.
We operate in the land of the doing. In this place, there are lists and emails and phone calls and a dog asking, no begging, for a walk. There are people we love and tend. Dirt accumulates and we wipe. Leaves fall and we check the weather – how long until we have to clean them and drag them to the curb?
What happens when we stop? Or can we stop? Is our definition of “stopping” putting down the grocery list – just for a moment – and picking up the phone? Is our definition of taking a break and stopping really just another way of looking for escape from NOW?
What happens when we stop and open? What if we drop the sleep walk of the busy person?
Here is Thoreau, our historical champion of observation on letting go of the distraction:
Why do you flee so soon… to the theaters, lecture-rooms, and museums of the city? If you will stay here awhile I will promise you strange sights.
What strange sights might we find if we only let ourselves full stop, go inward and then connect to what is greater than us?
For centuries, contemplatives have sequestered themselves from the demands of the world so that they could get closer to the inexpressible, to “truth”, to “awareness”, to what many ultimately call God.
Teachers and masters and monks and shaman promise to take us on a journey to find this knowing. Thousands follow them to faraway places and days of silence, leaving the worldly behind.
Here’s the secret. Peace and Awareness is already right here and has been all along. Perhaps you have glimpsed incandescent, transcendent beauty in nature, in a deep, sweet glance from a loved one, in the smell of a wild rose. These external moments providing a leap into the mystery of connectedness and Awareness.
It’s a paradox. The only way that we can experience the world of the Spirit is through these human bodies and senses. The paradox being that in order to truly wake up to the power of the Spirit, we need to claim our physical forms as they are right now and learn how to connect to the energy (using our bodies/hearts/minds) to experience the deepest of all Meaning.
If this sounds daunting it doesn’t have to be.
You can experience the ever-presence of Awareness at any time. The trick is (as with all of these practices) to remember that true Awareness is there and available even in times of deep distraction, even pain.
Loch Kelly in his book book “The Way of Effortless Mindfulness” provides his readers with a series of what he calls glimpses – simple and direct teachings on how to access the True Awareness that is our birthright. You can follow along with my meditative instructions based on Kelly’s teaching.
As Linda and I continue our practice and learnings, we are focused on providing our students with access to a deeper connection with both themselves and to Awareness.
Join us in our weekly Sanctuary Sunday virtual classes and become part of our community.