Infusion II

Have you ever been online in a Zoom meeting when you looked up and realized you were staring at a blank screen? The spokes of the “Wheel of Frustration” moving around in a little circle while nothing seems to be happening at all.

Have you ever scheduled a meeting with a friend and they had to cancel at the last minute? That is so disappointing. How about coming out to your car in the parking lot and finding a scratch on the side with no one around. You get angry, right? But with no one to be angry at. And, for people of a certain age, regularly one of your dear friends is moving into assisted living or a memory care facility. It is so sad to see this happening.

And this is just MY life. I am sure you have your own frustrations, disappointments, anger, and sadness.

What can we do? We can’t change our current experience. We are not in control of all that happens around us. The only path forward, to avoid additional suffering, is to find ways to be open to what arises, learn to accept our current situation, and find ways to ease the apparent stress and confusion this brings to our mind.

The Bhavana or Infusion practice we have been working with can evoke the remembered qualities we experience in our connection with our true nature, our nature of mind. Steeping in these qualities loosens the grip on our world view imposed by the ego and helps us relax, be open to, and welcome the pulling back of the veil to see more of our true nature, again and again.

Recall the qualities that you remember from our last reading. Let those qualities evoke the felt sense of open, aware, compassionate space. Rest in that felt sense while you release any difficult feelings of the moment.