We can still be crazy

geis SG

http://www.tricycle.com/insights/we-can-still-be-crazy?offer=dharma

We may think meditation will improve us, but it’s really about accepting ourselves as we are right now.

When we start to meditate or to work with any kind of spiritual discipline, we often think that somehow we’re going to improve, which is a subtle aggression against who we really are. It’s a bit like saying, “If I jog, I’ll be a much better person.” “If I had a nicer house, I’d be a better person.” “If I could meditate and calm down, I’d be a better person.” Or the scenario may be that we find fault with others. We might say, “If it weren’t for my husband, I’d have a perfect marriage.” “If it weren’t for the fact that my boss and I can’t get on, my job would be just great.” And, “If it weren’t for my mind, my meditation would be excellent.”

But lovingkindness—maitri—toward ourselves doesn’t mean getting rid of anything. Maitri means that we can still be crazy, we can still be angry. We can still be timid or jealous or full of feelings of unworthiness. Meditation practice isn’t about trying to throw ourselves away and become something better. It’s about befriending who we are already. The ground of practice is you or me or whoever we are right now, just as we are. That’s what we come to know with tremendous curiosity and interest.

Curiosity involves being gentle, precise, and open—actually being able to let go and open. Gentleness is a sense of goodheartedness toward ourselves. Precision is being able to see clearly, not being afraid to see what’s really there. Openness is being able to let go and to open. When you come to have this kind of honesty, gentleness, and goodheartedness, combined with clarity about yourself, there’s no obstacle to feeling lovingkindness for others as well.

dangerboi SG

I don't quite understand it

simpo_ SG

I don't quite understand it

I try to put it into a context for you to understand.

Our normal mode of thinking is about the future or the past. It is not about letting it be. This thinking about improving is about what one want to be in the future. It is not being at peace with 'what is' at the moment. This desiring of becoming something that is not what is at the moment is the cause of angst.

Fcukpap SG

couldn't agree more but let the complexities live within its own order...

meditation may not be the only path....the importance is to discover and celebrate life as it is...in many ways in its forms or formless..and leave as it is...

though i m chinese, i love this little poem by Tagore which illustrate this just fine....a rare person who live his life to the fullest despite personal tragedy and deaths of his children and wife...

Parting Words

When I go from hence

let this be my parting word,

that what I have seen is unsurpassable.

I have tasted of the hidden honey of this lotus

that expands on the ocean of light,

and thus am I blessed

---let this be my parting word.

In this playhouse of infinite forms

I have had my play

and here have I caught sight of him that is formless.

My whole body and my limbs

have thrilled with his touch who is beyond touch;

and if the end comes here, let it come

---let this be my parting word.

wisdomeye SG

I don't quite understand it

usually our mind pick and choose what we like to experience, or what we want to avoid. But in meditation, we do not try to escape anything. We face or be aware of everything that comes up in our mind, emotions, thoughts without rejecting anything. Everything that arises is usable in meditation... once you develop this kind of attitude, it can be carried into your life. Where you are more 随缘，there is less resistance to everything that happen in your life whether good or bad. Then when the mind is relaxed in this way, loving-kindness and compassion can arise naturally.

Normally, our mind state is not like that, we are very afraid of negative things... we are holding on to alot of things.. we can't accept alot of situations. So meditation relaxes all these attachments...

Weychin SG

I don't quite understand it

Let put it this way, accepting things the way they are is being comfortable with things as they come without putting a label on things.

Etc. a boisterous child running around, you shout"Oh! You'RE naughty, you'RE bad, you SHOULD be punished!", we are attaching labesl and adding emotional content to an natural behavior! Instead,why don't we see it as simply a case of somebody being himself.

Now, you can exchange the "You' into "I'

Just like if killing is bad, so does that mean a lion killing it's prey for food means it's a bad animal?

Or react unfavorably to some body who has been unkind to you once before. Because you've label the person as bad, you react negatively towards the person each you see or think of the person. The person may be nice to in other times, but you fail to see it owing to your conviction.