Becoming the Earth

The Buddha once taught his son about the consistency of mind that brought about permanent peace and True happiness. He said that one should make their mind just like the earth. That no matter what was spilled on it the earth did not mind, nor move because of the disturbance.

“Rahula, develop the meditation in tune with earth. For when you are developing the meditation in tune with earth, agreeable & disagreeable sensory impressions that have arisen will not stay in charge of your mind. Just as when people throw what is clean or unclean on the earth — feces, urine, saliva, pus, or blood — the earth is not horrified, humiliated, or disgusted by it; in the same way, when you are developing the meditation in tune with earth, agreeable & disagreeable sensory impressions that have arisen will not stay in charge of your mind.” –MN62

This is such a profound teaching, as we live our busy disturbed lives reacting to every input as if there were no possibility or value to stability. As we spend our lives grasping for “things” both material and emotional, it is as if we have bought the delusion that our strength lies within our constant instability.

Through meditation, I have become acutely aware that all personal suffering has come through the instability of my mind’s response to any and all phenomenon that present themselves to my senses. This Instability has tailored the way in which I guard myself emotionally and experientially from the world. In the past I have incorrectly labeled this way of negotiating the dynamics of life, as “my personality”. Make no mistake it is nothing more than a highly developed and self-deceptive way of maintaining a feel of stability without actually having stability.

Meditation has pushed me into the territory of calm and peace that cannot be accessed without right effort and right intention toward this experience. There is the journey of mastery of the mind that is necessary for one to reach any plain of this land. Once you have stepped foot into this territory though, all other forms of accepted experience are starkly disappointing.

The challenge of the last year or so has been to slowly and methodically bring the experience of peace and stability to the onslaught of my senses that plays out in everyday experiences. In the practice of doing so, the prejudice of this “personality of sensitivity” to certain experiences has been revealed in every challenge and failure along the way.

In seeking to help my wife with her burdens of compassion that come so naturally to her, I have had a chance to explore the depths of the practice of compassion through both Metta meditation and Tonglen meditation as well. both of these practices have begun to erode the “self” made lines of delineation between “self/others”, and the “inner/outer” world experiences.

What I have learned is that what we conceptualize as vulnerability is really an opening to the resources that provide vitality to the whole of existence. When my mind becomes stable, I can interact with “horrible things” without suffering harm at all. This is contrary to the hardwired framework of my “self”. The “self” has sought to avoid all phenomenon that it labels as negative by any means necessary, which ironically has limited my access to the connection with all things.

Tonglen has served as a direct existential exercise of taking in the “bad” while not only being unharmed, but giving peace and healing toward these things with the act of breathing. In essence, it is becoming the earth that is not harmed by what is spilled on it.

This particular aspect of the Journey has broadened the possibilities of WHAT I experience, as well as HOW I experience things. This is the true meaning of redeeming Karma.

 

Peace to You,

Loren

The Experience of Contraction

As of late, my household has gone through a period of  what I would call material contraction. This contraction plays out externally as the end of things that were a part of life for a long time. We have had to put down our ailing 15 year old dog. Our car became unreliable for weeks, as the mechanic kept “fixing” things with nothing changing. These repairs consumed a large portion of our monthly income, putting the squeeze on all other avenues of daily life.

Internally, this shift in momentum from the norms of progress produced much stress. There was much arisen anxiety over the lack of control in these situations, that would easily color our entire emotional and psychological experience. These circumstances could easily multiply the latent and previously manageable stress of doing everything possible to teach and raise our 8 year old daughter with Autism.

Training in the inherent obligations of the Four Noble Truths compelled me to quickly observe “This is Stress and Suffering”, and to focus heavily on the Mindfulness that holds together Right View, Right Action, and Right Speech as it relates to this overarching experience.

“The well-instructed noble disciple… discerns what ideas are fit for attention, and what ideas are unfit for attention. This being so, he does not attend to ideas unfit for attention, and attends [instead] to ideas fit for attention… And what are the ideas fit for attention that he attends to? Whatever ideas such that, when he attends to them, the unarisen effluent of sensuality does not arise, and the arisen effluent of sensuality is abandoned; the unarisen effluent of becoming… the unarisen effluent of ignorance does not arise, and the arisen effluent of ignorance is abandoned… He attends appropriately, This is stress… This is the origination of stress… This is the cessation of stress… This is the way leading to the cessation of stress. As he attends appropriately in this way, three fetters are abandoned in him: identity-view, doubt, and grasping at habits & practices. These are called the effluents that are to be abandoned by seeing.”  –MN 2 –

The fact that this Contraction was all encompassing of our daily lives, allowed me to make distinctions between what was in my control and what was not. With this encompassment came a consistent and abiding opportunity to see the path come to life. When I was not consistent in concentration I would literally feel the rushing in of the anxieties attached to this external situation. When concentration was strong and consistent I could abide in peace, and have access to creativity toward addressing any of the subtle causes of this outward drama.

This struggle became an opportunity for growth in compassion towards “myself” and my family. I am tied to their welfare and peace, and every thought, word, and action has influence into the growth or diminishing of their personal suffering as well. It has led to many conversations where Wisdom and Compassion were medicine for my wife’s experience as well.

As we continue to train our minds, the concept of right attention demands the center stage. We are undoubtedly meditating on something all day, it is much better to meditate on those things that give rise to peace than to cultivate a mind of defilement. It is those moment by moment choices that produce a consistent success or a miserable failure. Stay Mindful.

Peace and True Happiness to you

Loren