Big Picture I

A question was posed to me as to how our ‘field of care’ practice is helping us to become more deeply connected with the spaciousness that is always available within us.

This is a ‘big picture’ question that asks us to look at why we practice and why we use specific practices when there are literally hundreds of different types and styles of meditation. Since this question flows naturally from our exploration of connectedness, it will be good to spend some time investigating this question. And, because this is such a large topic, we will break this down into smaller sections.

So, let’s start with the first question: Why did we choose to be on a spiritual path?

Ultimately, we each have to answer this question for ourselves. I can’t give you an answer that would fit with your life experiences. However, I can give you some idea of how I came to be practicing meditation and, hopefully, this will inspire you to explore the reasons that you come to our group meetings every week and, if you don’t attend, why you have been reading these posts for so long. 🙂

I started meditating in the 1970’s with Transcendental Meditation. There were big life questions that I wanted to understand and religion didn’t seem to provide me with an understanding that I could connect with. When I investigated meditation, there were promises of reduced stress, peace, equanimity, understanding, and of a connection with a level of experience that would be more universal than my limited ego-centered experience. The meditation practices were beginning to be investigated by science and there seemed to be evidence that meditation practice changed the brain. I thought the promise of meditation was that I would become enlightened and be able to understand why the world works the way it does and how I fit into that scheme of things.

What I have come to realize over my years of practice and working with several meditation teachers, is that my (mis-)understanding of ‘enlightenment’ was, how shall I put it, confused, limited by my preconceptions, and, ultimately, not the best guide and motivation for my practice. When I began to work with Buddhist practices, the first understanding was that my search for answers to these questions, based on my confusion and ignorance, was a cause of my suffering. When I understood this, I could begin to work to more fully understand how the mind works to cause this dissatisfaction in my life.

We expect to achieve happiness and satisfaction by holding on to material objects, relationships, and ideas that are all impermanent. Once we begin to understand how we grasp and cling to things that are temporary, insubstantial, and subject to change, then we understand why we never achieve a steady state of happiness and equanimity. Looking closely at the mind and how our attention works in meditation, we can begin to see these patterns of attraction and aversion to thoughts and feelings that continually arise in the mind. We realize that to relieve our suffering, we have to release our grip on thoughts and feelings and relax the body and mind around what arises in the mind.

Mediation (in the relative sense) is a process of being mindfully aware of how the mind’s attention moves toward and away from certain thoughts and feelings. It is also the practice of being able to release that tendency to hold on to what we like and push away what we dislike and then relax into the space that is available in that release. The space that is available is an aspect of our true nature: openness, awareness, and compassion. The more that we are able to let go, release, and relax, the more of our true nature is revealed.

As we connect more deeply with our innate wisdom and compassion, we begin to see that others are suffering in the same way that we are. We realize that our increased understanding and the development of our ability to more fully experience and express compassion can expand beyond our personal happiness. We begin to see that we can be of benefit to all those we meet and interact with in our lives.

This is the first big step into the spiritual path.