“Normally we do not like to think about death. We would rather think about life. Why reflect on death? When you start preparing for death you soon realize that you must look into your life … now … and come to face the truth of your self. Death is like a mirror in which the true meaning of life is reflected.” ~ Sogyal Rinpoche
Gosh, what a beautiful morning! It’s been a while since I had a difficult time choosing my photo. And I owe this little slice of heaven to Spencer, as I had fallen back into a slumber, and he nudged me a few minutes before the sun broke atop the horizon.
As I sat for the first few minutes, still somewhat asleep, my mind was completely at ease. I couldn’t help but count how long it took until “mind” began coming into gear. It was the exact opposite of a normal meditation: Normally we count, and are challenged at how long it takes for mind to settle from being awake.
Oh, the bliss found in those first few moments, with mind still, simply feeling the breeze on my face, feeling such utter love that the universe holds, when mind stops doing it’s job of judgments and comparisons.
Sutra 1:2 in Patanjoli’s Yoga Sutras: “Yoga is to still the patterning of consciousness.”
There are 4 patterns of consciousness when the mind is stilled “with thought, beyond thought, reflective and reflection free.” When one reaches beyond thought, which is where I was this morning, “objects cease to be colored by memory; now formless, only their essential nature shines forth.”
In all things, you will see love and eternity. Oh, how grateful I am to my practice for allowing me to catch even just the slightest of glimpses of life’s – and death’s – true essence.
I chatted with a friend yesterday, who had a harrowing, “near death” experience. She, and her family, where tossed into the rapids during a boating trip. As life passed before her eyes, she described it as “being woken up”. All things unimportant dropped away.
Buddha says we die in every moment. As we watch the stilling of consciousness, I understand this to be true. As we sit in meditation, there is always a minute gap between thought. Thoughts are individual, encapsulated bubbles, that come, then go. There is stillness in the middle.
And how easily this peace of mind during meditation can be broken. To my computer I came, to read about the impending, threatened violence, as George Zimmerman was declared “not guilty” in self-defense.
As I opened Patanjoli’s Sutras, I opened to the Sutra 2:34: “Being firmly grounded in nonviolence creates an atmosphere in which others can let go of their hostility.”
Take some time today and sit. Watch your thought from the place of being. Look for the gap. You will only find beauty there …. Please, carry peace out into the world, not hate ❤❤❤
“It is not the end of the physical body that should worry us. Rather, our concern must be to live while we’re alive – to release our inner selves from the spiritual death that comes with living behind a facade designed to conform to external definitions of who and what we are.”
~ Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
