Truth is found in Life.
Br. Bhap Luu
I listened to another lovely dharma talk today. There is so much wisdom offered to all from the monks at Plum Village or Deer Park Monastery. I try to listen to even a snippet of this wisdom once a day, or at least several times a week. It is how I begin my day and my practice of "Living for Truth".
I like my quiet solitude in the morning and will sit at the table drinking my tea...and I strive ( if "strive" is the type of word one wants to use in such a practice) to do just that...if I am drinking my tea, I just drink my tea. It is the most precious part of my day. Then I listen to or read some wise words of wisdom for about an hour. I will have pen and paper handy to take notes down if something said or read touches me. I may have my breakfast while I am listening or reading. From there I will do a walking meditation followed by the Salutations of the Sun. And that leads me to my meditation practice of about thirty minutes: may be nothing more than mindful breathing where I use one bead of my mala as an in breath and the next as an out, setting my intention before I begin and doing two rounds. Or I may do a Tonglen or more of a free meditation allowing whatever is in me to come up. I often do guided meditations as well, especially if my mind is very active that morning. I may do more walking meditation afterwards before proceeding to a bit of housework which I try to do mindfully. Then I take my notes and come here to write an entry.
Now that is my spiritual practice encompassing the whole morning and it is truly important to me. Of course, it is often interrupted for many different reasons and I flow with the interruptions coming back to my practice when I can. My yoga practice is done in the early evening as a class I offer to others or by myself. If the day allows I will do a Yoga Nidra in the afternoon. So this is so important to me and I learn so much and gain so much by this practice...but only a small portion of my learning, growing, evolving comes from this practice. The rest comes from living my life and observing my own mind in response or reaction to the movement of Life through me and around me. I try to record those observations and I offer them in my blog or in the teaching videos I do. I teach to learn and I learn to teach.
I know so well now, as Br Phap Luu teaches, that true learning does not come from any expert "out there" or any written text...as wonderful and helpful as these things are in pointing us in the right direction. It comes from going inward to the place of "not knowing"that lays beyond the concepts, the dogma, the experts and what they have to say to..."what is!" If we want freedom, we don't just hear about it or read about it..."we taste freedom". Hmmm!
Anyway, there is so much wonderful pointing to learning in this video. Do yourself a favour and listen to the whole thing. Then go about finding Truth in your Life.
All is well.
Plum Village ( March 17, 2019) First Person Applied Neuroscience: Dharma Talk by Brother Phap Lu'u. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDB4L68Pius
No comments:
Post a Comment