Without thinking about it, form a picture in your mind of You. Meditating.
Where are you? What does your meditation look like? Are you sitting on a cushion? Doing walking meditation? Gazing into a cloudless blue sky?
While I don’t know exactly what you’ve envisioned, I think I can safely assume you didn’t picture yourself dragging bags through a crowded airport when all flights have been canceled, sitting with a breaking heart as you watch the evening news, or watching a child (and a parent!) have an emotional meltdown in the grocery store.
I doubt you imagined yourself struggling with exhaustion, having a huge argument with someone you care about, or sitting with a friend who is grieving.
Let me tell you, these are exactly what my meditation practice looks like. These are the moments I need to bring the heart mind “tools” of awareness front and center. They’re the moments when love, compassion and awareness can truly bring benefit.
Can I be on the spot with an open heart?
In these moments I come face to face with the naked truth of practice.
Maybe I will catch a happy glimpse of fruition, “Ah, I handled that a little better than I would have in the past.” Just as often I will see my lack of skillful means, the button that got pushed again. Both provide their own motivation for continuing to meditate.
Meditation is a dynamic process of cultivating heart and mind while actively engaged with the world. Sometimes it will look like sitting on a cushion, but just as often it will be called forth in response to daily life.
I call that meditation beyond the cushion.
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“Meditation is a dynamic process of cultivating heart and mind while actively engaged with the world” says it all. It’s pointless to leave your meditation on the cushion. That helps no one, including yourself.
Pamir | Reiki Help Blog’s last blog post..Generating Compassion with Reiki Distant Healing
Pamir ~ Yes. And, for most of us, actively engaged in the world IS our practice ground as well as our testing ground. For us the cushion has its limits.
My Buddhist lineage is very much a yogic one. One of the highlights of a retreat last year was being there the exact day western students came out of their 3 year meditation retreat. I’ve had the great blessing of receiving teachings from monks who have spent as much as 20 years in silent retreat.
What always astounds me is their happiness, their gregarious nature. They weren’t “actively engaged” for all their years in retreat. But they leave their cushion and practice in the world far more elegantly than I do.
I do this! And it feels so good to have it affirmed as meditation. I’ve been feeling like a failure (at meditation) because I no longer do it on a cushion (arthritis) and I no longer do it formally. I just keep bringing my mind back to the present as I go through the day, trying to notice, be aware, respond to what calls for response. I’ve never been more content (even when I’m not!)
Lynne Tolk’s last blog post..Love the Inner Cry!
Lynne ~ I am so happy you have discovered in this an affirmation of what you do. As the blog gets rolling, you’ll see this is really the foundation of why I want to teach.
I’m going to keep this short here or else you’ll end up with an entire post in the comments and it should be a blog post of it’s own. But let me just say I felt like a failure and beat myself up (so much for compassion) until I redefined meditation practice.
I’m happy, I’m seeing benefits, and my Rinpoche is happy with me, too.
Even better, it’s something we call all do regardless of our health, free time, and so forth!
My meditation practice has been as you describe for far more hours than my formal practice, which I have struggled to maintain since I was 12. I know more time on the cushion would help me be more skillful and I am drawn to work at opening my heart, calming my mind, and questioning my story many times a day – on a good day!
Thanks for the wonderful post!
Jennifer ~ meditation practice since age 12, wonderful.
Time in formal practice is always going to benefit, but I think all this struggling is not good for us.
There are ways to weave open heart, quiet mind awareness throughout our day. I’m so glad you’re here to share in the exploration!
I totally agree Mahala and your final statement: “Meditation is a dynamic process of cultivating heart and mind while actively engaged with the world.” So much so I had to tweet it (with a link to your blog, of course). Thanks for the teaching. @MagsJoy
You’ve made the idea of meditation so accessible. Very simply stated and eloquent. Thanks
Julia’s last blog post..Palmistry as a Tool for Reiki Healing
As I was driving down to my daughter’s school in slow traffic, I was recalling all these comments I had read about meditation in this blog. I wasn’t thinking, I wasn’t questioning, I was not even trying to go beyond what was said. I was just enjoying the fact that I didn’t wanted to be anywhere else at any other time doing anything else. I was happy, I was sitting at the top. . . and I wasn’t lonely.
Julia, thank you. Accessible is a good word.
Alex ~ Beautiful. Reading this, I have no sense of traffic. Instead a sense of spaciousness. Content with the moment… and it’s not lonely, is it?
mahala…mahalo.
this is beautiful! i too have struggled w/formal seated meditation and recently learned myself just what meditation off the cushion is about…living! living day to day, eating, driving, shopping…relationships…Dharma is everywhere if we are open with mind/heart. thank you for your post with clarity. rejoicing in your new blog….look forward to many reads,
hazel
It seems many of us have struggled with meditation when we limit our understanding to formal practice.
Hazel your words are perfectly beautiful. “Dharma is everywhere if we are open with mind/heart”
Try to remember and practice this everyday! And then not use it as an excuse not to practice on the cushion.
Jennifer Louden’s last blog post..The Very Yummy Taste of the Comfort Café Giveaway
Mahala, this post brings me gratitude and relief. I am grateful and relieved to read of the contemplative life as the seamless treasure, and pursuit, that it is. Urban contempatives and modern-day mystics infuse meditation into our mundane tasks. We include — and transcend — the cushion, because we see the cushion as a microcosm of the cosmos. Beyond. Indeed.