Be Here Now (Var.)


I’ve been working at home all day instead of at the office because of the icy, wet, and dank stuff that was coming out of the sky this morning. I am really looking forward to the warmth of “Indian summer” next week, though less so to the 30 hours plus or minus of travel it will take to get there.
Current long range forecast for Chennai (and we’ll be heading south from there) is for highs in the low 80s F, lows in the high 60s. Salwar, sari, and dhoti weather.
During one of our sessions, one of my fellow students asked whether she was really seeking a life of renunciation because she sometimes really craved sitting quietly for meditation. For her, having first experienced meditation as an adult who has a rich and comfortable life, even the shortest time sitting with eyes closed looking only within felt like it might be a denial of the outer world.
The practices Paul Muller-Ortega is teaching, and as he makes absolutely clear, are very much for the householder and are not the rarified path of a renunciate. Sitting in silence is a blissful and steady; it is going towards the inner world and not going away from the outer world.
We do not have to renounce our lives to sit regularly in silence. We can frankly delight in the sweetness of inner light and stillness and honor our desire to do so (a true renunciate would have to renounce even that desire). Meditation as part of the daily life of a householder, is a bedrock of support so that we can be ever more fully engaged in our lives, no matter how noisy they can get sometimes.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.