Today I practice daily, usually first thing in the morning. I usually sit for an hour or so. I do a variety of different practices, Tsa Lung is currently on of my favorite practices.
I am convinced that the journey to know yourself is the most important task we will undertake in this lifetime. No matter how essential all the other demands of life seem we are confronted with one inescapable final outcome at the end of our lives. We all face certain death, in and uncertain time and manner. This truth is the reason it is so vital to travel a spiritual path.
Today we are blessed with a precious human birth. If you are reading this you have some desire to learn about meditation and are curious about finding a spritual path. This is wonderful. There are thousands of ways to meditate and there is really no right way. Although, there seems to be some elements most have in common.
Essentialy we begin by bringing the mind home. If we look at how we spend our days we find we are constantly distracted from the present moment. Writing this, I hear a voice outside my office. "Hello,.. Hey, is anyone here," I step into the other room to see a short man wearing a bnadanna. "Hey, I found this key outside your door, I thought someone here might have lost it." I reach out to take the key, Still taken aback by disruption of my day, thanking him. "Hey, do you have a bathroom, Im not homeless, I work for Va Steel Yard, Im just here with my Daghter. " I show him to the restroom, where he proceeds to urinate without closing the door, and complains because the toilet wasnt fluched before his arrival and there are no towels to dry his hands. I feel as though I should apologize for not being prepared for his intrusion, but I simply let it go. Hey, so what do you do here, is this a gym. How much does it cost. After 12 years of being in business and dealing with people who walk inI'm convinced that I have a better chance of willing the lottery than anything of value coming from this encounter. I give him the answer most likely to end the conversation, "I chanrge 60$ an hour." "60 dollars an hour, so you are a professional trainer. Maybe you can help me, Iv'e got this knee problem, maybe you can help me get in shape, he then takes off his Jacket and begins to flex his biceps, do you think you can help to get me into better shape." "I'm sorry, I've got another client coming so if you can excues me," I reply in the most polite way I can manage. "Oh, I see, your sophistocated. Well I understand, I make $50.00 an hour and I just wanted to find someone to help me get in shape. " Thank you for being who you are, " he mutters sarcastically as whe walkes out the door. How did I become the bad guy? Of course I wasted more time talking to myself about this encounter than it took. It would have been much better to have let it go as he closed the door.
Our days are filled with such incidnets. Phone calls about ways to lower our mortgage rates or credit card rates. Knocks on the door from a candidate for office. A guy in the parking lot asking for money to fill up a plastic gas can he is carying. There is no end to the number of distractions we have to deal with every day. Yet, somehow we need to remain present in this moment, aware of our true nature, not lost in desire, hope, fear, anger, jealously, desire, ignorance or any subtle combinations of emotional or physical sensations which assult us.
Moments of distraction steal our lives until, perhaps one day, we begin to ask the question what do I want to do with my life. Last August I turned 49, I am almost 50 and at 50 it's pretty certain iv'e already live more than half of my life. No one knows how much time he has, but if I look at my parents the productive years were over by age 70. I think the best guess if I may have 20 years to be productive. What do I want to do with those years? What matters? What is important? Every choice I make takes time. A relationship takes time. There is the building time, getting to know someone, making a home together. Jobs and careers take time. Going to school takes time. Watching TV takes time. Answering the phone takes time. As I come to the finish line of this life, what is the one thing I need to be certain that I do? Awakening, enlightenment, realization, are all words which sound beyone reach. However, essentially, they mean nothing more than coming to understand ourselves. Who are we? We can't discover this while watching a play unless we know the play for what it is. We have to see past the costumes and the dialog, know the unreal nature of the sets and understand it is really all simply a dream, which we create in our minds. All of life, just like this play is a dream, and we need to know the dreamer and to know the dream to be his story.
