You Are. . .
There is an appealing image of Buddhist practice that involves silence, mountains, temples, incense and long hours of meditation. But most of us live somewhere else.
We live among alarm clocks, traffic, emails, bills, families, grocery stores, deadlines and phones that seem determined to interrupt every quiet moment.
Perhaps the question isn’t how we escape all of that. Perhaps the question is whether that is where practice actually begins.
The Buddha’s teachings continually return us to experience as it is. We observe craving when craving appears. Anger when anger appears. Fear when fear appears. Attachment when attachment appears.
Life provides plenty of material – the person who irritates you becomes a lesson in patience, the unexpected expense becomes a lesson in attachment or the traffic jam becomes a lesson in resistance.
Meditation helps us develop the awareness necessary to recognize these moments. But meditation isn’t the only place awareness belongs. The cushion is training is but life is practice.
Try carrying one simple question through your day:
What is happening within me right now? Not, “What should be happening?” Not, “Who is responsible for this?” Simply: what is happening?
Notice the body. Notice the thoughts. Notice the urge to react. Notice the story your mind immediately begins constructing. That tiny space of awareness can change everything. Buddhist practice doesn’t necessarily remove ordinary life from us. It transforms our relationship with ordinary life.
Eventually the supermarket aisle, workplace, kitchen table and crowded sidewalk become part of the temple. And perhaps awakening was never waiting somewhere beyond your life. Perhaps it has been quietly asking you to pay attention to the life you’re already living.
Peace and Love, Jim
#you #thedailybuddha #tdb
