When Darkness Descends

Doom. Gloom. Darkness has descended and the world has lost its color. Your world is black and white. It is either all good or all bad and today Bad has smacked you in the face and stands sneering at you, glaring. Even the will to struggle seems to have evaporated. 

What to do?

Do nothing.

I know, that seems like rotten advice but bear with me. By saying "do nothing" I don't mean to imply you should slink off into a corner, lick your wounds and sink into your despair like an unsuspecting ant who has wandered onto quicksand. Slinking and licking and wandering are somethings. I mean do nothing. Notice what happens when you do nothing. Your eyes continue to blink, your organs continue to function, your breathing continues in and out, in and out. The earth continues to revolve around the sun, the stars continue to appear in the heavens, the whole cosmos goes about its mysterious business without any regard for your stinky mood. Stay here and keep noticing. There is an undercurrent here, a gentle pull that you might miss at first it is so undemanding. Contrasted with the loud strident voice of your pissy mood, it is easy to miss. But I guarantee you it is here. You don't feel it? That's because today is not your day to feel it, not because it isn't there. Struggling to find it will not work. Become absolutely still. Concentrate on your breathing. In and out. In and out.

Boring!  Yes, I know. But do it anyway. Notice your breath. Count each one if you like. If a thought intrudes allow it to pass then just come back to the counting. Start over if you lose your place. One. Two. Three.  But my life sucks! One. Two. Three. Four. Five. This is just stupid! One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Over and over and over. You won't give up. Oh, maybe today you might give up and go back to the fun of wallowing in despair. But you will be back, mark my words. You will be back because you know your salvation lies somewhere in the silence. You know it not because you read it here, you just know it. You have always known it. It's only a matter of time now.

Darkness comes not to pull you into an abyss but to show you the value of light. The problem always comes with the seeds of the solution and the seeds are cultivated and nourished in the silence.

Go. Now.

A Note to First Time Meditators:

There have been many books written on meditation. There are seminars, intensives, retreats to sign up for. There are rules everywhere. Legs in this posture. Hands like this. Hold your head in this position and your spine in that. Eyes open. Eyes closed. While certainly not harmful, be clear that these rules are mere stage props. Do what feels right to you. There is nothing more important than the willingness to show up, the earnest desire to find your way home to yourself. If you like the idea of prayer begin with a simple one such as "Please show me the way to happiness" and then just be silent and trust the process. Let go of any notion you may have had about what it should look like or how you should feel. Let the discipline to show up be the only effort you expend. The rest will take care of itself.

Party Time

I've been at this party for quite a while, it seems. I glance at my watch. It's a quarter past sixty-two years old. It's getting late.

So, I went to this party.

 It was quite a huge party-- lots of guests coming and going, entertainers, refreshments, dancing, interesting discussions, a few arguments, everything you find at your typical huge party. I laughed, I danced, I met lots of people, got lots of hugs and a few cold shoulders. I ate a lot, sometimes too much. I helped out as much as I could because, well, parties are always a lot of work, you know-- making the food, keeping it replenished so no one goes hungry, arranging for entertainment, keeping the guests happy, cleaning up. Oh my, a lot of clean up.

I spent a lot of time engaged but I also spent a lot of time trying to avoid people. Oh, some of those people just got on my last nerve. Can you believe how irritating some people can be? And then some people can just be so darned enchanting and I followed some of them around for a while, trying to soak up some of their charisma and make it my own. When that didn't work, I spent a lot of time on the sidelines in a pissy mood until I tired of that. Now I'm just sitting and watching. The nice thing about being on the sidelines is that you can see the whole event with more clarity. You start to notice things you hadn't noticed before.

I am noticing, for instance, that the people who irritated me and the people who charmed me look a lot more alike from this vantage point. Interesting. I notice that folks involved in dancing and those engaged in clean up duties simply seem to be moving. Funny, I had enjoyed the dancing far more than the cleaning up, yet all I was doing in both instances was moving. Intriguing. The people in arguments look different to me. I realize it is because they no longer look angry to me, they look scared now. My heart breaks for them.

I hear both the music and the laughter from my spot at the side and they are merging into a comforting soundtrack that is making me feel dreamy and content. It's nice here on the side. People occasionally come by and chat with me and I seem to be able to understand what they are saying even if the words they use seem to tell a different story. They melt my heart, these people. They have me wrapped around their little fingers. I adore them because I now know who they are. They are me. And I am them. How amusing that I never saw this before. It was right in front of me all along.

I've been at this party for quite a while, it seems. I glance at my watch. It's a quarter past sixty-two years old. It's getting late. I'm not quite ready to leave yet, but I'm beginning to think about it. I know now that I won't leave this party bored or tired or dissatisfied or angry. No, I will make my exit with a smile on my face, the smile that comes from embracing the whole of the experience, just as it was, and calling it the best party ever.

Breaking News

In a stunning turn of events, peace has broken out. All over the world.  In fact, it has always been here and gone unnoticed! Story at 11:00.

The news is incredulous, I know. How is it we have been so blind to the presence of peace? How is it we have walked right past it into discord, conflict, wars and violence? The Holy Wars? The Inquisition? The World Wars? Peace was there and unseen.  Countless wars, battles, attacks, skirmishes, acts of revenge, acts of aggression, murder, mayhem, brutality and oppression. Peace was there and ignored. And that's just the roster of obviously horrendous events. Don't forget disagreement, contention, quarrels, grudges and just plain everyday "I'm right, you're wrong" stubbornness-- disharmony, it seems, is hardwired into human behavior. How, then, could peace have been here all along?

Peace is the spacious, patient, ever present and all allowing environment out of which all conflict arises. And why does it arise? Simple. It arises because people believe the thoughts in their heads. These thoughts tell us, quite frequently and incessantly, that the way things are is not the way things should be. Every head has a different set of thoughts, we all want to be right and have our way, and we're off to the races. We stray from peace, our natural state of existence, intentionally. Now, I want you to consider this-- just because a thought comes up in your head doesn't mean it's true and yet even given the obvious contradiction of sometimes having conflicting thoughts and confusing thoughts, most people give their thoughts gospel status and identify deeply with them. Isn't a thought, after all, just a symbol for something else, just a collection of words spoken in the head? A flag is a symbol for a country, yet we don't take the flag to be the country do we? Thoughts come and go like clouds in the sky and who knows from where or how they suddenly appear. We would be wise to stand back a bit and watch them to gain a better understanding of the hypnotic effect they have on us and the power they hold to predispose us to conflict and discord and suffering.

 Could our personal happiness or even world peace be as simple as understanding how our minds work and moving beyond that to whatever state allows us to simply observe and experience this wonder of wonders we call Life? What if it just took that realization? What if, one by one, we commit to peace and do not waver even in the face of others choosing conflict all around us? To achieve world peace, it would eventually take, of course, all of us. But, that has to begin with some of us making the choice. Right now. Today. We can't make peace happen, peace already is when we make a conscious choice to live it.