Meditation — Look to This Day!
“Listen to the Exhortation of the Dawn!
Look to this Day!
For it is Life, the very Life of Life.
In its brief course lie all the
Verities and Realities of your Existence.
The Bliss of Growth,
The Glory of Action,
The Splendor of Beauty;
For Yesterday is but a Dream,
And To-morrow is only a Vision;
But To-day well lived makes
Every Yesterday a Dream of Happiness,
And every Tomorrow a Vision of Hope.
Look well therefore to this Day!
Such is the Salutation of the Dawn!”~~~ Kalidasa
In last week’s issue of this blog we talked about how our lives are caught in what Buddha calls the “wheel of suffering”. This suffering is caused in us because we are constantly being controlled by the way our mind thinks. We’re never truly satisfied with things as they are, so we keep pushing for that “something else” that we think will make us happy. The important thing about coming to the realization that this suffering exists, is that there is a way to end it. The Buddha’s most important teachings were focused on ways to end the suffering he had experienced and had seen in other people.
Last week I included a short video to listen to as you meditate. Here is another one (about 7 minutes long) that will play some quiet, peaceful meditation music for you. I hope you enjoy it. Don’t forget to turn on your speakers. Just click the “Play” button — and then you can continue reading today’s article as you listen. When you’re done reading, play it again as you do one of your meditation sessions for today. (hint-hint — again!)
The Buddha saw that life is made up of four aspects: impermanence, suffering, selflessness, and peace.
In today’s article I’d like to give you some of my own impressions about impermanence and what it means in our lives. Traditional Buddhist teaching states that impermanence is one of the major sources of human suffering. Some of the others are craving or desire and ignorance.
The fact that impermanence is on the list isn’t too hard to understand. We’re all pretty much aware of the fact that we’re going to go through the stages of life that include birth, growth, sickness, old age, and death. There are also all sorts of other random and accidental occurrences that involve change and loss – we lose jobs, girlfriends and boyfriends, our waistlines change, we may lose hair (in some places — while as we age we tend to grow it in other places). The house burns down or the mortgage company forecloses, our car gets totaled or stolen or repossessed. Our daughters and sons who were once so sweet and compliant have suddenly taken to sassing us all the time. So it’s easy to perceive impermanence as a whole lot of trouble – and certainly a source of suffering.
“In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.”~~~ Robert Frost
But there’s a twist here that we tend to overlook when we talk about impermanence – and that is that impermanence causes suffering only when we think of it that way. If you really look at what the Buddha had to say on this subject you would see that he said it was our resistance to the concept of impermanence that causes us to suffer – not the impermanence itself. It’s when we want something to remain the same – when we resist the fact that something is bound to change in some way – that’s when we suffer.
There are many factors of impermanence that we don’t resist – nor is there suffering involved in them. For example, we see the sun rise, only to set and then rise again. We see rain falling from the skies – flowing into the streams and riverbeds then out into the oceans only to rise back up into the skies and fall again as rain somewhere else. How about the changing of the seasons? That’s not such an awful thing. Even if you don’t like one of the seasons, it will change – and that’s a thing of joy. And let’s face it, we have to breathe out in order to breathe in again. Even when we’re hurting or sad, the inevitability of impermanence can be a blessing. It is true that we will find that our sorrow will evolve into something less devastating. There will be another aspect to our grieving that will cause our spirit to lift. When we do learn to smile again, it will be because of the blessing of impermanence.
“Oh, this is the joy of the rose: / That it blows, / And goes.”~~~ Willa Cather
Each of us has created an identity for ourselves. This identity is made up of all the things we have seen, heard, read, have had taught to us, have learned on our own, thoughts we’ve had and beliefs we hold to be true. We spend our days doing everything we can to try to keep this identity happy. It’s this struggle to satisfy this idea of our identity that causes the suffering Buddha talks about. It’s the learned habit that keeps us in this place of bewilderment. We’re constantly struggling to find that place where everything will be “just right”. Our ego-thinking has us running on speed, need and greed. We worry way too much.
Our goal in life seems to be to give “me” a good time – to keep “me” as young as possible for as long as possible. However, our pleasures don’t last – they have a way of turning into something else that isn’t pleasurable. The inevitable truth is that we will all go through the same things, birth, growth, sickness, old age and death. That’s the plan.
I read somewhere (I don’t recall where) that it’s fine to have the pleasures of eating good food, reading good books, listening to great music and eating ice cream. However, once we understand what’s going on in this mind of ours, we’ll learn that the ice cream isn’t happiness. We’ll learn that it’s our true nature to be happy – even without the ice cream. Meditation is the way to discover this about who we truly are.
Be still — listen and focus on your breath and let all those thoughts fade away. There’s true reality in the silence.
“Life is only transient.
Youth, once gone, doesn’t return.
Days are not the same as other days.
So why are people cruel?”~~~ Hla Stavhana
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If you’re new to us here, be sure read the other articles about meditation. You can find links for them over in the left sidebar under the “Recently Posted” section. They all have a title starting with the word, “Meditation”. Don’t forget, spend at least 10 minutes twice each day meditating. Meditate for longer if you can. If you’ve been doing 10 minutes, take it up to 15. The longer you can maintain your focus on just your breath, the better.
“Those who really seek the path to Enlightenment dictate terms to their mind. Then they proceed with strong determination.”~~~ Buddha
Namaste!
And, as I always say in closing — remember these words …
You are the most precious gift you can give yourself. Every day look in the mirror and say, “I’m available to more good than I have experienced, realized or imagined ever before in my life!” Do this every day while you look into your own eyes.
You are special — and you are loved. You are the greatest gift you can be.
Shanti … (A sanscrit word meaning, “Let there be Peace. Peace, beautiful Peace. Peace within, Peace without. Peace in this world. Peace for all beings.”)
“Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.”~~~ Buddha
~~~ DBL-R
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