Someone asked a question of me this morning, “How do we keep our practice ‘alive’?”
They were referring to the practice of mindfulness training; specifically, maintaining a connection with our truest self when all else seems to be slipping into chaos.
It’s never easy, is it? We may spend hours dedicated to our meditation practice – but, that sense of bliss is never everlasting. Maybe, that’s the mistake we’re all making? Thinking once we’ve lost our ‘center’, we’ve failed.
But, the true success is in finding our way back once again.
My darlings, our lives are filled with unexpected moments. In a single day, we may experience an endless array of emotions – from extraordinary upset to absolute contentedness. We may cry, we may cringe, we may fumble, we may fall – but always, deep within the very center of our heart, there is this irrefutable capacity for gratitude.
And, gratitude is the stepping point for resilience.
In his talk, The Living Dharma, Thich Nhat Hanh offers,
“Living Dharma is when we know how to walk mindfully, when we know how to sit mindfully, when we know how to eat mindfully, we know how to breathe mindfully, we know how to recognize what is happening in the present moment. If we practice mindfulness in our daily life, then we are making Dharma shine all around us. Living Dharma is not made by images and sounds, it is made by life.”
Indeed, to find our balance, we must move around – recalibrating our ‘sense of center’ to whatever life may throw our way.
It’s in those moments when our lives are turned upside down…
That we may relax…
That we may breathe…
That we may find our way home once again.
The practice isn’t about avoiding life’s upsets, my darlings – rather, it’s about embracing them.
