"Mindfulness and Meditation allow us to open our hearts, relax our bodies, and clear our minds enough to experience the vast, mysterious, sacred reality of life directly. With Practice we come to know for ourselves that eternity is available in each moment.

Your MMM Courtesy Wake Up Call:
Musings on Life and Practice
by a Longtime Student of Meditation

Saturday, May 26, 2018

A Solid Grasp of Reality

“In reality there are no separate events. Life moves along like water,
it's all connected to the source of the river is connected to the mouth and the ocean.”
-- Alan Watts, The Essential Alan Watts

It’s not impermanence per se, or even knowing we’re going to die, that is the cause of our suffering, the Buddha taught. Rather, it’s our resistance 
to the fundamental uncertainty of our situation.
All I could do was grin.  Eight of us had gathered at our Mindfulness Circle
 to meditate and then explore the second slogan of the Lojong Trainings: "Regard All Dharmas As Dreams".

Although all assembled, myself included, were essentially beginners in the study of these Teachings, I imagine the energetic, sincere, often profound, sometimes amusing, discussion that emerged could have been a conversation among senior monks somewhere.  


Although a couple of folks, perhaps quite aware of the limitations, perhaps even the inadvisability, of placing our collective attention on words and discursive thought didn't participate, the rest of us jumped right in. 

As I understood it, what materialized was no more, no less than a conversation about the true nature of reality and our individual ability to actually experience the truth of our existence. Although none of us is really a Buddhist scholar and some of us may not even consider ourselves Buddhists with a capital B,  assertions about Emptiness, Impermanence, Non-Self, Co-dependent Origination, Interdependence and Oneness, were offered and explored,  dissected and re-assembled.  

In about forty minutes we covered a lot of ground exploring the "groundlessness" of existence.

I loved it.  

At several points the fundamentals of Zen were touched on as phrases were turned, then turned on their heads without altering the meaning at all!  Even when there was apparent "disagreement" with a presentation or mode of presentation, it still felt like we were all basically on the same page.  There was an underlying fabric of good will and good heart all the while.  It was an absolute hoot -- relatively speaking. 

It made my heart glow.

Getting Real

Gaining a "solid grasp of reality" is often considered to be one of the important aspects of growing up in
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contemporary society.  The message is pretty pervasive.  We are encouraged to get real, to be "realistic" as we establish ourselves in the world.  John Lennon's imaginings notwithstanding, being called  a "dreamer" usually isn't a cause for pride. *

Yet, central to skillful means of Mahayana Buddhism is the notion that Life itself is "like a flickering lamp, an illusion, a phantom, or a dream." With Practice we come to see for ourselves what The Teachings indicate.  Examined closely we see clearly that there is a profoundly insubstantial and transitory character to all experience -- and that our attempts to resist that, to grasp onto anything to create a sense of security are actually the primary cause of our personal suffering.  

A solid grasp of reality?  

Instead: Observed clearly we see that Life is not so solid, it emerges as a vivid flow of energy within the embrace of a boundless spaciousness.  That being the case, we see for ourselves that grasping at anything doesn't really work. 

What then?


As Practice develops and our ability to see and accept this matures,  an awareness of something else also emerges.  As we merrily row our boats gently down the stream sensing that  "life is but a dream",  as we increasingly relax into the fullness of each moment, we may just notice that the vast blue sky stretching overhead is clearly reflected in that stream.  

At a certain point we may then see for ourselves that the stream is reflected in that sky as well.  So is everything else -- including ourselves.

At that point, we may feel free enough to relax, lighten up, and really live the dream.

How cool is that? 

(* "Imagine" is actually one of my favorite songs. )

1 comment:

Unknown said...

This ties in with something I have observed regarding the often weaponised phrase "let's be realistic"... it usually prefaces a rationalisation of some sort - roughly translated as "please agree to accept for yourself the same limitations I have accepted for myself", to which the response can only ever be, respectfully, absolutely not