Jai Chandra
This morning, when the timer went off, I was so deep into a train of thought, it took me a moment to realize I had been sitting to meditate. It’s a practice.

This morning, when the timer went off, I was so deep into a train of thought, it took me a moment to realize I had been sitting to meditate. It’s a practice.

Leaving aside whether there is such a state as enlightenment and whether nirvana is enlightenment or its equivalent, I believe one should always question one who promises “the” path and doesn’t just offer “a” path that has served the one offering teaching or access.
Of course, other than potential issues in any community that makes such exclusive promises, one is always free to taste and explore and reinterpret the “the” as “a.”
I’ve had more than one yoga/meditation teacher who has suggested that in order to make true spiritual shifts, it is necessary to pick one path (theirs) and stick to it. I agree with that up to a point. If we just stay on the surface of lots of different things, it will be hard to go deep.
Nonetheless, living in a multicultural nation of immigrants and working in a field where being open to diversity is in my mind a job requirement and having grown up with the multifarious influences of New York and both Jewish culture and Quaker practice, it would be hard to think that sticking to a single-sourced spiritual path could be possible for me. Better then, perhaps, to go deep by also looking broadly and openly.
In that regard, though I do not consider myself a Buddhist, I often find Buddhist teachings instructive. This article by Pema Chodron on working with chaos seems particularly useful for me today.
I’m finding reentry more challenging than I first thought. I thought it might be helpful to remind myself of my travels–and that I travel to come home with more capacity to participate as much and best I can. The Garden of Endurance was at the Madhuban retreat center where I spent most of the trip.
