Absolute & Relative I

We are now exploring the “absolute” practices of open awareness. These practices of “letting be” and “allowing” lead us closer to our true nature, the natural openness of the mind: clear, luminous, and compassionate. Our “relative” practices of loving kindness, enabled through the benefactor and caring moment practice, can help us befriend the mind, accepting whatever arises. This allows the mind to be more comfortable in its own space, trusting our capacity to be present to whatever arises. This allows the mind to begin to let go of our habitual patterns of thinking and reacting and connect more deeply with our true nature.

Here is a quote from the Tibetan teacher Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche:

What we normally call the mind is the deluded mind, turbulent vortex of thoughts whipped up by attachment, anger, and ignorance. The mind, unlike enlightened awareness, is aways being carried away by one delusion after another

Lama John Makransky adds, from the book Awakening Through Love:

Real progress toward calm abiding and insight can unfold through the meditation [of open awareness and self-inquiry practice]. But progress means that the practice shows us more of our minds. Progress means that we become far more conscious of entrenched habits of self-centered thinking, grasping, and emoting. As we thus see more of ourselves, we may initially feel discouraged, thinking we are uniquely deluded! But there is no reason for discouragement. We are no different from those before us who awakened to the freedom in the nature of their minds.

We can begin to accept that the resistance and tendency of distraction in our practice is the normal condition for all who step onto the path of spiritual practice. Our task is to see these habitual patterns clearly, understanding their true nature, and then, relaxing into them. That will allow their eventual release, opening us to a new level of understanding and insight.