all around
all that meets the eye
is cool and fresh
basho
In buddhist texts we hear of the pure lands. Bright, clear, untouched perceptions arising from an undisturbed mind.
Mirror like reflections of things-in-themselves.
Do we distort the world?
Do we make the world in our own likeness?
What is “reality”? Is it what we perceive?
Then surely the quality of the mind which perceives must affect that which is being percieved. Can we be certain that what we perceive is how it is? How things really are?
Truth is, our world is changing moment by moment.
What if we can start anew, fresh? What if we slow down, become still, deeply curious, humble as in “I dont know”, intelligent in the most honest, basic sense of the word?
Today I was sad, anxious. And then I sat. The mind begun to let go of grasping, of pain. It opened up. It let in the sounds of the un-folding evening: birdsong, traffic, the buzzing of the fridge, the cat. The mind expanded with the traffic , following the sound of cars as they passed into distance. There was no end to that space. We all sat in it, me, the cat, Michelle, the trees and the clouds and the people passing by in the cars, we all sat together in the space of awareness. MY awareness?
This body and another’s, equally mine.
The breath was cool and fresh, the breath of fresh air. Starting anew, putting the burden down. Letting go. The body an aura of warmth and comfort. The breath – a bridge. Sitting in myself, coming home, being peace.
All that was around me was cool and fresh.
And for that I offer gratitude. And a renewed desire to remember to come home.
Just sitting, just breathing, understanding that the mind will wander, accepting that and letting go so you can come back to just sitting and breathing. Realising that being alive in the body, the breath, the mind, and the heart is all you need to trust and put your faith into, and with that trust good things will come. Being content not to know or to plan, not to worry about things that have not yet happened, but simply to be present with life as it appears right now and savouring each moment, one breath at a time.
Comment by Michelle — October 9, 2009 @ 11:36 pm