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The everyday world around us is the most amazing thing. People tend to look to the mysterious side of life for the answers. We look to the heavens, we buy tarot cards, we see psychics, etc. All of this is fine and dandy, but the real answers are all around us. If we will just take the time to listen, we will find that we are soaking in the answers to our greatest questions.
The minds of the East have always looked toward nature for the answers. They didn’t do it in the faux environmentalist fad that words like “nature” and “environment” have come to connote. Rather, they did it with genuine deference to the power of the world around us. The power of our world is often overlooked because we take it for granted. If you look at any mundane aspect of the world around you, you will be amazed at the miracle that it is. Take our seasons as an example. The perfect dance between our sun and our planet provide the delicate balance required for life to exist and thrive. How about our own bodies? It is amazing to me that any of us work right. We are so complex. The fact that any of us are healthy is a miracle. Life is teaming all around us. The rules governing us and our world are on full display in every speck of our world. We don’t need the mysterious to guide us. Sometimes, looking to the mysteries is helpful, but the mundane is what sustains us.
Meditation is the practice of returning to the mundane. Now, some people get all crazy with visualizations and magical thinking, but that is not the kind of meditation I’m talking about. When you are sitting there visualizing all sorts of magical things, you are doing something. Zen teaches us to stop doing things. I practice Zen meditation – just sitting. My teacher, Fong Ha, is a true master of the mundane! He has the power of a master without the ego that usually comes with it. His power is true because he doesn’t “possess” it, he is it. He is his own power and understanding, and it is him. It is not something that someone gave to him – it just is. When we just sit still and be what we are, without adding to it all the things we wish we were or trying to not be any of the things we wish we weren’t, we can sense the world around us, including our own bodies, much more directly. When we do this, we get all the “answers” we need. Watching yourself breathe will teach you more than any teacher.
TRY IT!
