Just Thinking...

"One can appreciate and celebrate each moment -- there is nothing more sacred. There is nothing more vast and absolute.  

In fact, there is nothing more. "

-- Pema Chödron, 

Start Where You Are: A Guide to Compassionate Living

“Breathing in, I calm body and mind. Breathing out, I smile. 

Dwelling in the present moment I know this is the only moment.” 

-- Thich Nhat Hanh, Being Peace

A Friend's Window, Rowe, MA

Mother Nature teased us this week.  

 

First, She whispered "springtime" in our ears for a couple of days. After weeks of weather that oscillated between sub-zero windchills and blizzards, the world warmed under a brilliant sun and blue skies, and our spirits soared with the temperatures into the low 70's.  This winter's thick blanket of snow began to melt.

 

Then, today, she blew it all away on the wings of a stiff west wind.  Outside the window, thick gray clouds promise another round of wintry precipitation.  Looking at my phone, I see that plummeting temperatures are forecast to hold sway again.  

 
Sitting here at the keyboard, my thinking mind, conditioned as it is, spins on.  It judges. It compares. It exaggerates.  It speculates.  The cascading storylines mostly emerge as some form of grieving the loss, bemoaning my fate, and ruing the future.   

 

Yet, within a few moments, I pause.  I remember that all this fretting and complaining is just another snow job.  Like a good con man, these thoughts create their own reality -- and steal from me the richness of the present moment.

Here and Now

When I stop typing, sit up a bit straighter, breathe fully, and come to my senses in the present moment everything shifts.  More fully Present, the world expands beyond the tunnel vision of my thoughts.  My heart opens to a clearer, calmer, more expansive quality of consciousness.  I feel the Presence of something vast, mysterious, meaningful.

 

Life now feels just fine.

 

Outside the window, the joyful melody of a cardinal's morning song rides along the surface of the silence. The wind howls and tree limbs dance.  There is even a luminescence to the grayness in the skies that is mirrored in the puddles than yesterday's sun had created.  

As I sit here typing, this seems to happen whenever I pause.   I'm wondering what would happen if you (yes, you!) would pause, right here and now, and bring some of your attention to the sensations sparking through your body, take a few full, deep breaths , then turn your attention to the sights and sounds around you before moving on to click: (READ MORE.)

So, did you do that? (Pester.  Pester.).  

A Few Thoughts about Thought  

I'm not saying that thinking is bad.  In fact, over the years, having compared notes on mindfulness and meditation with lots of people, there seems to be a common misconception that the goal of meditation is NOT think.  Though it is true that there are sweet swathes of time that the thinking mind takes a break and leaves us in wonder, that's not the point.  In fact, as Practice deepens, we come to appreciate that this part of our mind is, in itself, an absolute wonder.  

Yes, it is true that left to its own devices, a fixation on thoughts can catapult us into endless dramas about yesterday and tomorrow.  Yet the part of our mind that generates thought is also capable of poetic brilliance.  It can create words that express insight and inspiration.   

As Buddha, Jesus, and the other seers and sages of the world's wisdom traditions have proclaimed, what we think matters. The nature of our thoughts serves to create the nature of our life experience.  Thoughts can help pave the way to hell -- or grease the rails to heaven. 

One of the major merits of Practice is that we are able to expand our awareness to embrace thought in the arms of a clearer, calmer, and more comprehensive quality of consciousness.  Simply Sitting Still -- and noticing when thought draws us away from our primary meditation object (be it body, breath, mantra, prayer, visualization, etc.) is a game-changer.  At that very moment, you engage the mind's ability to observe, rather than be totally immersed in, the part of our mind that generates discursive thought.  In engaging our capacity to simply witness our thoughts, we begin to gain a greater degree of freedom from our habitual way of reacting to life.   

Then, with Practice, the quality of experience shifts.  Over time, we are less likely to be "lost in thought."  Rather than dominating our awareness and becoming the overbearing soloist in the unique musical theater of our own life, the thinking mind returns to its proper place as a member of the choir.  
 

More fully present to the dancing sensations of breath and body, mindful awareness emerges.  Hearing the sounds play across the ever present silence, delighting in the symphony of colors, our hearts and mind open to the present moment.  Life emerges as the Miracle that it is. 

Our thoughts can sing in harmony with this -- or not.  Yet, in the all-embracing heart of awareness, even dissonance isn't necessarily a bad thing.  It simply is.  With Practice we may find that we can appreciate it as well.

At least, that's what I'm thinking at the moment!