Much of the talk when speaking about meditation centers around the material world and detaching from it. This is a great stumbling block for many. Lets take a look at what is meant by material and what it means to us.
I have material attachment. I would be lying if I said other wise. The question is not whether you have, or do not have some sort of connection to the corporeal. It is a given. To live in this material plane we must use services, partake of nourishment and use it for energy. We inhale. We exhale. We partake of the oxygen in the air and put out carbon dioxide as our bodies use the food we eat to create stored chemical energy. This stored energy gives action to our muscles.
It is a cycle of life that we participate in no matter where we are and no matter what we are doing. We are connected to the world as we live. Even when we pass from life our bodies will give these materials back to the earth. The elements will then be used to energize new life. Life that will, in its own way, inhale, exhale and use earthly material.Lets take a look at this material cycle and examine it in some more detail.
First think of what you take in as your meals everyday. As you move, in the minutest fashion, think about the energy conversion. Pay attention as you lift your arm, as you move your feet, as you inhale, as you exhale. All this motion is possible as your bodies cells are happily working along with each other. Taking in. Putting out. Circulating what is needed and what is no longer needed to where it has to be. Think on how marvelous and miraculous this process is. Allow yourself to experience this miracle.
Let delight and wonder enter your mind and flow into your body. Down your trunk and into your arms and legs. Think of the continuous play of life that unfolds in every cell, all day long, every day. The wonder of life.
Next pay attention to your breath. No counting or such just be aware of your breathing. Inhale. Exhale. Each is a part of the miraculous and wonderful thing that is you being alive. Let yourself feel the energy of life today and every day. Take five or ten minutes every morning and think on these things. Pay attention to your breath. Let the wonder enter you at the start of the day. You will loose track of breath as you go about your business but it will come back to mind from time to time during the day. When it does let the wonder flow. Let it energize and empower you to your next task.
This is the beginning.
Monday, October 11, 2010
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Return to never left
Having some touch of understanding I am obligated to give to all sentient beings, or, at least, make the attempt. That said I keep returning to a vexing question; living in the world means that you must have material to sustain the body, therefore, the body needs to gain material in the manner of the world.
If the desire is to give freely then one can be disinclined to doing or giving as business.
A truth under all this is that the persons I would be inclined to give freely too may see a gift freely given as without real worth. This is the world.
I need to increase how I give but the work takes material. I must move closer to material for a time so to have material to do works.
This is the duty and responsibility of having life.
If the desire is to give freely then one can be disinclined to doing or giving as business.
A truth under all this is that the persons I would be inclined to give freely too may see a gift freely given as without real worth. This is the world.
I need to increase how I give but the work takes material. I must move closer to material for a time so to have material to do works.
This is the duty and responsibility of having life.
Friday, July 2, 2010
Beginning Life Anew!
To all of my friends where ever they may be including those I have yet to meet.
I am going to lay out an exciting pastime. A interactive game of life and living. All can participate. It will be real fun as we will see some curious things about our minds. This knowledge relates to living a fuller life, as it unfolds, with a sharper clarity. Some of this will be difficult to grasp. Harder to use. Not due to being challenging as subject matter, but, that life and living can impede clear life and living.
An example is like looking down into a valley surrounded by wonderful forests on low mountain ranges. As you travel from one overlook to another you enjoy the sights and sounds of each path with wonder. The sun shines through towering trees. Shadows move in time with the breeze as the overhanging boughs follow this conductor of the forests symphony. You follow the path out to a bright clearing that reveals a presentation of natures perfection and grandeur. Amazing! Wonderful! You travel to the next clearing along mountain trail. Each one like a whole new adventure, and yet, the valley remains the same. It is not a different valley it is just a change of view from the last overlook. Does the fact that this is just a change in perspective diminish your wonder in the slightest. Of course not. Do you even think of this? Of course not. But you are aware of it nonetheless even if not in words. Let us see how.
There! You see something interesting way down in the valley. It is partly visible but a little out of sight. A bit hidden by a copse. Some part in shadow. Half behind a small hillock. You just have to see the whole of this wonder of nature. How would you proceed? You would use your understanding of perspective even though you most likely would not think in those terms. You would look to the next mountain, or the last for that matter, to see where you need to be to have a full view of that which you wish to see. Your ability to use perspective allows you to make decisions like this without much thought. An automatic interpretation of the lights angles and where you are in relation to that which you wish to see. The reward of having consciousness like ours is in being able to see that there is a different viewpoint and plan a way to get there. Using knowledge that you already had, perspective, to see a path to a goal.
What about life? You get up in the morning and you have a great view of that which is coming. The rich deep colors of a new day along with the well worn path of our lives right there in front of us. Today looks like a bit of a climb. Yesterday may have been downhill.Maybe not. Up and down. Into the woods and back out again. We go to different overlooks. Work. Home. Shopping. All different places where we have our set overlooks , but, really, all the same. Coming out to the same vantage points we know what to expect. In a way that is comforting. It is routine. It can be calming. It can be exasperating. It is life as we know it.
Curiously, while looking out on our lives, every now and then we see an edge, a contour. A bit of something we really want to get a better look at. There are glimpses of wonderful colors on top of intriguing shapes. Along with this every now and again we get a faint odor on the breeze that may make us hunger, like that of freshly baked bread. There are faint sounds calling. Barely heard and still set our bones to tingling. Something deep. Something that goes to who we are. We see these shadows. We are curious. We are seeking. We look out and try to see more but life comes rushing back in. The humdrum everyday brings us back again to our well worn point of reference.
Our personal vantage points have been set very solidly just by living our lives. We want to see from some other line of sight but have no idea where it is or how to get there. We think that it could be somehow a bit clearer. We have a suspicion that many wonderful things are just waiting around the corner. We just do not know how to even start on the path to get there. We keep coming back to looking for something that is just out of our sight.
Just like being on the mountain path we can use something we already know to find the path to a new way of seeing our lives. It is really simple but like most of the simple things in life it is very hard to do.
If you would like to get a different view of your life that may really open your eyes come on back as the journey is just beginning!
Keep cat curious!
I am going to lay out an exciting pastime. A interactive game of life and living. All can participate. It will be real fun as we will see some curious things about our minds. This knowledge relates to living a fuller life, as it unfolds, with a sharper clarity. Some of this will be difficult to grasp. Harder to use. Not due to being challenging as subject matter, but, that life and living can impede clear life and living.
An example is like looking down into a valley surrounded by wonderful forests on low mountain ranges. As you travel from one overlook to another you enjoy the sights and sounds of each path with wonder. The sun shines through towering trees. Shadows move in time with the breeze as the overhanging boughs follow this conductor of the forests symphony. You follow the path out to a bright clearing that reveals a presentation of natures perfection and grandeur. Amazing! Wonderful! You travel to the next clearing along mountain trail. Each one like a whole new adventure, and yet, the valley remains the same. It is not a different valley it is just a change of view from the last overlook. Does the fact that this is just a change in perspective diminish your wonder in the slightest. Of course not. Do you even think of this? Of course not. But you are aware of it nonetheless even if not in words. Let us see how.
There! You see something interesting way down in the valley. It is partly visible but a little out of sight. A bit hidden by a copse. Some part in shadow. Half behind a small hillock. You just have to see the whole of this wonder of nature. How would you proceed? You would use your understanding of perspective even though you most likely would not think in those terms. You would look to the next mountain, or the last for that matter, to see where you need to be to have a full view of that which you wish to see. Your ability to use perspective allows you to make decisions like this without much thought. An automatic interpretation of the lights angles and where you are in relation to that which you wish to see. The reward of having consciousness like ours is in being able to see that there is a different viewpoint and plan a way to get there. Using knowledge that you already had, perspective, to see a path to a goal.
What about life? You get up in the morning and you have a great view of that which is coming. The rich deep colors of a new day along with the well worn path of our lives right there in front of us. Today looks like a bit of a climb. Yesterday may have been downhill.Maybe not. Up and down. Into the woods and back out again. We go to different overlooks. Work. Home. Shopping. All different places where we have our set overlooks , but, really, all the same. Coming out to the same vantage points we know what to expect. In a way that is comforting. It is routine. It can be calming. It can be exasperating. It is life as we know it.
Curiously, while looking out on our lives, every now and then we see an edge, a contour. A bit of something we really want to get a better look at. There are glimpses of wonderful colors on top of intriguing shapes. Along with this every now and again we get a faint odor on the breeze that may make us hunger, like that of freshly baked bread. There are faint sounds calling. Barely heard and still set our bones to tingling. Something deep. Something that goes to who we are. We see these shadows. We are curious. We are seeking. We look out and try to see more but life comes rushing back in. The humdrum everyday brings us back again to our well worn point of reference.
Our personal vantage points have been set very solidly just by living our lives. We want to see from some other line of sight but have no idea where it is or how to get there. We think that it could be somehow a bit clearer. We have a suspicion that many wonderful things are just waiting around the corner. We just do not know how to even start on the path to get there. We keep coming back to looking for something that is just out of our sight.
Just like being on the mountain path we can use something we already know to find the path to a new way of seeing our lives. It is really simple but like most of the simple things in life it is very hard to do.
If you would like to get a different view of your life that may really open your eyes come on back as the journey is just beginning!
Keep cat curious!
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