Cling to No Thing...

As a long-time meditator I find this Sean Illing conversation about "Mindfulness," super-important, and in the moment relevant. As it has been said, "The life you save may be your own." Yes. Indeed.

Sure. I have meditated for many years, it doesn't make me an expert. I swim towards mindfulness, but I don't always get there. Or, you know, even mindfulness just descends upon us, and evaporates from us too, in an instant. Just like pretty much everything else, it's a process, a practice, an intention to be aware, alive, awake. This idea of "falling awake!"

"Actually, it’s the one human activity that you engage in for no purpose. Not for some kind of contrived goal that you want to attain and then you’ll be happy or whatever. This is a practice for falling awake, so that you actually are living the life that’s yours to live in the only moment that you ever have to live it, which we don’t usually realize is this one now."

AND

"The Buddha is famous for having said his 45 years of teaching could be encapsulated in one sentence. And I like to say to people, “Well, on the off chance that that’s true, maybe we should memorize the sentence.” Here it is: “Nothing is to be clung to.” The operative verb being clinging, self-identifying, as I, me, and mine." - Jon Kabat-Zinn

Right. Cling to nothing. Cling to no thing. Absolutely no clinging.

Easy, right?! 

Sure, as I cling to my self, this coffee cup, that acoustic guitar, these daily routines, those beautiful people, these sunny thoughts, those crazy dreams and plans, these deep-seated worries too. 

My own personal earth-shaking epiphany that happened to envelope me during one deep meditation? A plain morning, a powerful, all-consuming, hard to convey, insight and feeling: Connected to all. Intimately, mysteriously, connected to everything in the Universe. Heady. Profound. Glimmering. Shimmering. Glancing. Ephemeral.

Sure. That  was a life-changing meditation. It wasn't an intellectual idea, or a fleeting feeling, it was a profound, indelible experience. It has animated me ever since. Connected to everything. Truly a beautiful reality.

Yes. Mindfulness. The way of the Buddha: a practice, a process, a path.