Cultivating Full Presence

Cultivating full presence enables us to regain alignment with the deepest reality of our being and with the vast dimension of the heart's intelligence. When we bring this practice of full presence in our daily lives, we become completely free. To describe that freedom, Master Dogen uses the image of a wind chime that is freely jingling in the wind, while hanging in the void, attached to nothing.

Transcript

So,

One of the most difficult things about practicing mindfulness is not to expect anything.

Not to expect a beneficial effect from the practice,

Nor to achieve a particular goal,

Nor to wait for a special state of consciousness to arise.

As soon as there is an expectation of any kind,

There is division.

Division within oneself,

Division with the living experience of the moment.

The most direct way to abandon a divisive,

Discriminating mind is to focus our attention on the posture and the breathing.

Slowly,

We become fully present to reality as it is,

Unfiltered,

Unbiased,

Unconditioned.

When body and mind are brought together,

Harmonized,

When we are intimately attuned to the living reality of each moment,

No expectations,

No boredom can arise.

There is simply what is.

There is only the movement,

The fluidity,

The non-fixity of the present moment.

There is only the simple wholeness of being present to what is there,

A living body,

A breathing heart,

An open,

Receptive mind,

Fully present,

Cultivating full presence through the practice of sitting meditation in silence and simplicity,

Enables us to regain alignment with the deepest reality of our being and with the vast dimension of the heart's intelligence.

And this is not just limited to the practice of sitting meditation,

Like we do now,

But it also reflects in every action of our daily life.

When we bring this practice of full presence in our daily lives,

We become completely free.

To describe that freedom,

Masa Dogen used the image of a wind chime that is freely jingling in the wind,

While hanging in the void,

Attached to nothing.

When we become like such a wind chime,

We naturally stop opposing what we dislike,

And our yearnings naturally dissolve,

Without any expectation for results,

For rewards,

And without any opposition to what doesn't fit in our mental categories,

We freely move in daily life with a sense of fulfillment,

As we realize that there is nothing to gain,

There is nothing to lose.

There's only an invitation to be fully present and learn to embrace continuous change,

Moment by moment,

Every moment again,

Eternally free.