“Through the disciplined precision of our efforts, we’ll come again and again to our edge—the difficult places beyond which we’ve previously been unable to move. Through the willingness to soften and surrender to what is, we learn that we can gradually move beyond that edge. It is only through this interplay of hard and soft, of effort and letting be, of will and willingness, that we learn to our amazement that we can emerge from the lifelong tunnel of fear that constitutes our substitute life into the nitty-gritty reality of our genuine one.”
–Ezra Bayda, from Being Zen: Bringing Meditation to Life
There is a deeply misinformed impression amongst some people that an interest in introspection is some breezy pursuit and that meditating is some sort of self aggrandising activity designed to make the doer smile beatifically in a state of bliss. Well, I have news for you, it’s not. It is a very effective way to shine a light on all your pathetic, self serving faults, your petty minded, selfish thoughts – dragging you to the edge, making you sit uncomfortably with your fetid fears and exposing just how far you have to go before you can sleep soundly and deeply. Like so many things worth doing, it comes with a price. So if you think it’s all Om and incense, think again.
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Rannoch Donald
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