The Vortex of Now
By Michael Erlewine
The roar of nature living that we call silence.
Lately, events seem to conspire, coming from all directions, and piling up with their effect. The wars, solar flares, hurricanes, and on and on. The recent election and the staff appointments by the president-elect are just further stirring the pot of confusion, IMO.
In the midst of all that, here we each are, doing the best we can to make some kind of sense of it all. It’s become a job.
And I don’t have a magic wand to make it all better. The best I can do is put one foot in front of the other, work the problem, and take all this to the path. Combined, this is our path, and we have to walk it.
As to what tools I have to manage this, aside from 83 years of experience, I have many decades of supervised dharma training. Yet, what does this all amount to?
Something that can’t be expressed in words, yet nevertheless crucial to get a sense of, is time spent, not in meditation, but
rather in what is called non-meditation. In other words, beyond the effort to meditate is non-meditation, learning to just rest in the actual nature of the mind.
Non-meditation is effortless.
There is no way of expressing in words what non-meditation is. Although, I am reminded of this poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins:
HEAVEN-HAVEN
[A nun takes the veil]
“I have desired to go
Where springs not fail,
To fields where flies no sharp and sided hail
And a few lilies blow.
And I have asked to be
Where no storms come,
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Where the green swell is in the havens dumb,
And out of the swing of the sea.”
I happen to like that poem, but it’s not exactly where things are at with me these days.
I do take refuge in non-meditation and its quality of full immersion… for extended periods of time each day. It is said that in non-meditation no karma can be accrued and our mind at rest is very beneficial to our health.
I don’t know about that. I do know that resting in non-meditation is indeed a welcome rest from the chaos of these times.
[Midjourney graphic prompted by me.]
EMAIL Michael@Erlewine.net
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As Bodhicitta is so precious,
May those without it now create it,
May those who have it not destroy it,
And may it ever grow and flourish.
