breeze, birdsong and tonglen
Home sick from work today, i've been taking it easy, reading some Lama Surya Das, and doing a little Tonglen meditation. While doing that practise just a little while ago, i was focussing particularly on not just the taking in of pain and stress, but on sharing the good things i have myself as part of the light i was sending out, thinking of what it was that i could give out to people that could help them get through their particular hard times. It's a sunny day, with birds singing and a cool, gentle breeze and it occurred to me that this is something good i can share - just being able to feel the joy of simple moments like that, something that's hard to appreciate when you're consumed by troubles and feel the weight of the world pressing down on you. I realised too that that may be the real value of all those little moments i try to experience - the bird songs, the sunsets, the bats in the trees and the swans crossing the moon - not just worldly pleasures to grasp at and be attached to, but moments of peace and joy that i can absorb and keep within me, a little happiness and serenity that i can draw on and maybe share in some practical way with those that need it. As they say, you need to take care of yourself in order to be of use to anyone else, and this i think is part of it.
Of course, no sooner had i thought of this than i had the notion of writing it down in this livejournal post, which distracted me somewhat from the meditation, but i do think it's an interesting, and possibly important, notion to remember.
Of course, no sooner had i thought of this than i had the notion of writing it down in this livejournal post, which distracted me somewhat from the meditation, but i do think it's an interesting, and possibly important, notion to remember.