Monday, May 29, 2006

Morning Meditation


[image source]

Imagine a pool of turbid, stirred up and muddied water. Then, a man with a vision might stand upon the bank. He could not see the oysters, the shells, the pebbles and gravel on the bottom or the fish moving about. And why? Because of the turbid state of the water.

In the same way, it is impossible for one with a turbid mind to understand either his own benefit or the benefit of others, or to realize higher states. And why? Because of the turbid state of the mind. Now, imagine a pool of clear, tranquil and unstirred water. A man with vision might stand on the bank. He could see the oysters, the shells, the pebbles and gravel on the bottom, and the fish that move about. And why? Because of the untroubled state of the water.

In the same way, it is possible for one with a tranquil mind to understand his own benefit and the benefit of others, and to realize higher states. And why? Because of the untroubled state of his mind.

~ Dhammapada, Verse 149
I consider the presence of this verse in my RSS feeds this morning a kind of synchronicity. I've been thinking about how I want to conduct myself in the world, and by extension, in this blog. I don't want to create a turbid, muddy pool of water in this space, nor in the rest of my life.

Over at Zaadz, Jay recently suggested a quick meditation/dedication that he wants to employ before posting something. I like that idea. Here is what he wrote:
I'm commiting myself to the following exercise for at least the next week. Every time I blog, I'll start with a short one-minute meditation, then recite to myself:

May this post emanate from loving kindness and compassion for all who suffer. May every word I write come from the highest, most embracing wisdom available to me at the moment.
If I had done this meditation and dedication, I would not have entered into the recent dust up about Zaadz, or at least not in the way that I did. I regret that post not because I think I was wrong in the facts, but because I didn't enter into it from a place of compassion of loving-kindness. It was ego-driven, and therefore, it could do nothing but muddy the waters.

It is so easy to allow ego to run the show when something we value is under attack, or when we feel someone is misrepresenting the truth. The natural instinct of the mammal mind is to fight.

What is more difficult is to remain centered in our own clarity and to try to see the other person's point-of-view through his/her own reality lens. This is the true test -- to be able hold our own place and still take the other's position, to hold two divergent positions in our minds at the same time.

I didn't do that. As a result, I have felt sad about the way things played out in that discussion (though much of it was beyond my control). If I had entered into the discussion with a clear mind, and with compassion in my heart, things might have played out differently.

So I am going to employ Jay's suggested dedication, or some variant that feels right for me. I want this blog to be a clear lake of reason, compassion, and kindness, not a muddy pool of confusion, bitterness, and animosity.

I will still take on things that I feel are wrong or hurtful, but I want to do it from a clearer perspective and in the absence of anger or bitterness.

I've borrowed this from Nancy, with slight modifications:
May this blog strive to be in perfect alignment with Spirit, and for whatever flows forward to be a co-creation between me and the Eros of the Kosmos.
Peace.

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7 comments:

Steve said...

Thank you, Bill, for your inspiring post about making your blog a clear pool of peaceful wisdom. Lord knows that I've muddied the water of my own blog and the comment areas of other blogs too many times with turbulent emotion and egoic efforts at one-upsmanship. This has been especially true lately.

I will follow your example and precede my writing with a brief meditation aimed at engendering mindful lovingkindness, equanimity, empathy, compassion, joy, and wisdom. If I can incorporate this into a broader, more consistent path of practice and transformation, who knows what may happen? :-)

Namaste,
Steve

william harryman said...

Thanks guys -- it seemed like an important lesson.

Peace,
Bill

~C4Chaos said...

i admire people who are ballsy enough to admit things.

thanks for that post. for what it's worth, it was serendipitous.

~C

Mike said...

This is a great idea, especially for us with Buddhist blogs! I am going to follow Jay's idea before all of my posts. Thanks for sharing, Bill.

william harryman said...

My pleasure, Mike. You have a nice looking blog -- great template. I've added you to my feeds and I look forward to seeing what interests you.

Peace,
Bill

Mike said...

Thanks Bill. I cannot take credit for designing the template - I can only take credit for knowing the look I wanted to fit my theme. Then synchronicity took over, and I stumbled on this public template, which very closely corresponded to what I had in my head. I just made some (very!) minor changes to the layout.

BTW, the Daily Om today had an article on rituals to perform before writing, similar to what you noted in this post, although from a creativity-enhancing standpoint rather than ensuring that one's writings originate from the seeds of compassion and wisdom.

Anonymous said...

Hi, The url for the photo has changed to:
http://lesterama.org/gallery/v/hiking/20020810_Paradise_Lake/Clear_water.jpg.html