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Meetinghouse on a hill... in Fall
Midcoast Friends Meeting; Damariscotta, Maine
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I was enthused when they said to me,
"Let's go up to the House of the LORD!"
*Psalm 122.1
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The "House of the LORD" connotes what we wish to experience in meditation, so in life outside meditation. Meditation is going to the "House." Likely, all meditators have times of being enthused to meditate and, upon starting, soon finding out the mind is prancing all about like a wild stallion - Buddhists call this Monkey Mind, for the mind can be like a monkey jumping branch to branch. So, we find when we get to meditation, we seem unable to enjoy it. Is that not interesting? We enter quiet for quiet, and the mind keeps escaping into its usual noise - like going to the beach on vacation, lying down on the sand to soak up the sun, and repeatedly picking up our phone to message co-workers about matters back at the office or to chat with friends back home about what they are doing, and tell them what we are doing. Odd. Or is it?
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She said, "Teacher, I can't stay in meditation. My mind wanders all over the place." Replied the Sage, "It's all meditation."
*Brian K. Wilcox. "Meetings with an Anonymous Sage."
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When we set our intention to be silent and still, that is our intent. Remaining in meditation means stable intent. In this, we learn grace toward ourselves. We understand meditating is not a successful or unsuccessful performance.
Why is this important? Meditation is a practice in living. We are not aiming for higher states of consciousness or paranormal experiences. We are being taught how to live outside of our times in meditation through all the circumstances of our lives, even when we think we got it right and when we are convinced we screwed up big time.
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The mind is like the wind; its nature is to move. Without movement, there is no mind. We may experience brief intervals of no mind, and this no mind is the space within which thought arises.
Now, when the mind wanders, gently bring it back. In this, realization is present you are not the mind, or thinking. So, who - or what - is observing the mind and returning it to where it arose from? This question also implies, "Who am I?"
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In Buddhism, there are two minds - metaphorically speaking: the mind of everyday thoughts, the wandering mind, what we may sometimes call "my mind"; the universal mind. The boundless mind, nontemporal and nonlocal, is sometimes called by Buddhists Big Mind or Buddha Mind. Buddha Mind is Buddha Nature, is Buddha - not as a historical or mythological being. We do not have a Buddha Mind; we are within the Buddha Mind.
What can complicate this matter is in Buddhism, "mind" and "heart" are often the same word in the native languages, which is also true in the ancient Hebrew called "biblical Hebrew," the script in the Hebrew Bible, or Old Testament. When a Buddhist text mentions "mind," it can be read "heart." Yet, this "heart" would not equate to what many Westerners mean by the emotional center.
Buddha Mind is not a buddha's mind. Buddha Mind some would call the Mind of God, God, Christ Consciousness, the Light, the Great Spirit, the Holy Spirit, the True Self, spirit.... We cannot say what Buddha Mind is.
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A buddha is Buddha Mind, and that is you, even if you do not realize it. So, who - or what - brings the mind back to the Mind? Good question - I think.
Regardless, what is most important is intent. Like in life, you put one foot in front of the other. That is what a buddha does, a christ does. If you intend to do that, that is stability, even if you are tripping and falling all over the place. When a buddha walks - you - tripping and falling all over the place, it is all walking.
So, keep enjoying meditation, even when the mind is taking its forays here and there, and, likewise, enjoy life. A key in meditation, as in life, is learning to be gentle with yourself. No one gets meditation right, and no one gets life right. There is no such thing as right for either. In realizing this by our own inability to get it right, we learn compassion for others and ourselves.
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*©Brian K. Wilcox, 2022.
*Use of photography is allowed accompanied by credit given to Brian K. Wilcox and notation of title and place of the photograph.
*Brian's book, An Ache for Union: Poems on Oneness with God through Love, can be ordered through major online booksellers or the publisher AuthorHouse.
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