Tricycle's Daily Dharma: August 8, 2007
A Simplified Space
Sitting is essentially a simplified space. Our daily life is in constant
movement: lots of things
going on, lots of people talking, lots of events taking place. In the
middle of that, it's very difficult to sense that we are in our life.
When we simplify the situation, when we take away the externals and
remove ourselves from the ringing phone, the television, the people who
visit us, the dog who needs a walk, we get a chance--which is absolutely
the most valuable thing there is--to face ourselves. Meditation is not
about some state, but about the meditator. It's not about some activity
or fixing something. It's about ourselves. If we don't simplify the
situation the chance of taking a good look at ourselves is very
small--because what we tend to look at isn't ourselves but everything
else. If something goes wrong, what do we look at? We look at what's
going wrong. We're looking out there all the time, and not at
ourselves.
--Charlotte Joko Beck
