As
the holiday season continues, I looked back at a few Posts of
Christmas Past to get some perspective and, hopefully, alleviate any
tendency to incarnate as the Grinch or Ebenezer Scrooge this year. This post, written
the day after Christmas three years ago, was a helpful reminder of
what the Real Deal is. I hope you find it helpful as well.
One Love, Lance
Originally Posted, December 26, 2013
“Be still. Stillness reveals the secrets of eternity.
When there is silence one finds the anchor of the universe within oneself”
― Lao Tzu
“Space and silence are two aspects of the same thing. The same no-thing. They are externalization of inner space and inner silence, which is stillness: the infinitely creative womb of all existence.”
― Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment
In
the midst of the holiday season scurry, often adrift in a sea of noise and activity, I was especially aware of
how precious each morning's meditation was to me this past week.
(I'd forgotten that many folks leave their
televisions on, running in the background. Sigh.)
Flowing through days and evenings full of visitations and gatherings and meals and excited flurries of paper-ripping, my meditation cushion seemed like an oasis.
Touching Stillness, even for a few brief moments, is like sipping clear, crisp, spring water on a steamy summer day. Paradoxically, it's also like feeling the warm glow of a fireplace, snuggling at home on a snowy evening peering through the window at the moon. In Stillness, the Presence emerges. In a silent whisper, it sings of the Ineffable, that space where the fundamentally mysterious and completely ordinary meet to form the fabric of Life itself.
Flowing through days and evenings full of visitations and gatherings and meals and excited flurries of paper-ripping, my meditation cushion seemed like an oasis.
Touching Stillness, even for a few brief moments, is like sipping clear, crisp, spring water on a steamy summer day. Paradoxically, it's also like feeling the warm glow of a fireplace, snuggling at home on a snowy evening peering through the window at the moon. In Stillness, the Presence emerges. In a silent whisper, it sings of the Ineffable, that space where the fundamentally mysterious and completely ordinary meet to form the fabric of Life itself.
Although
I use a variety of meditation techniques, I've found that the
foundation of Practice for me these days is to simply Sit Still for a period of time, allowing my attention to rest lightly on the actual experience of breathing.
Also aware of
the other ongoing sensations of body/mind and the space that holds them, I simply sit upright with the experience of what Zen
teacher Norman Fischer calls "the basic feeling of being alive."
More often than not these days, this serves to bring me into deeper contact with the ordinary magic of the present moment.
(READ MORE)
More often than not these days, this serves to bring me into deeper contact with the ordinary magic of the present moment.
(READ MORE)