Hello,
And welcome to the Hello,
And welcome to the Hello,
And welcome to the 8th episode of our 3rd season,
Vision.
In our last season,
We explored the concept of a meditation anchor,
And the simplest of these,
The breath.
An anchor is something,
Anything really,
That we set as a primary focal point for our rational mind.
Doing this helps us to build concentration and gives us a bridge,
Or a stable place upon which to stand,
Above the shifting state of our thoughts.
This time,
We'll explore a visual or conceptual anchor to place our focused attention on,
Allowing our monkey mind to entertain itself,
While our deeper and truer self rests simply in presence.
There is something uniquely powerful about finding a slowly changing scene to behold.
It gives us an access point to the present moment,
While also recognizing its transience,
Its continuous state of change,
Allowing us to let go again and again,
To be present with what is.
This week,
We'll focus on a wave.
If you live in a place that doesn't have access to the beach or the ocean,
This method can also be done using your imaginative faculties.
The method goes like this.
Find a place outside on a beach where you can see the ocean clearly and be undisturbed.
A place where your time dedicated to yourself and to the all might not be interrupted.
If you can,
Put a blanket down,
Or just sit on the sand facing the water.
Settle comfortably,
Allowing yourself to sink a little into the sand.
Rest your hands lightly on your lap,
Or dig your hands into the sand around you.
Simply close your eyes and begin to take a few deep breaths.
Take all of the stress you're holding within your body from your day to day life,
Your worries and your cares,
Your anxieties,
Your deadlines.
Breathe them out.
When you do,
Relax your shoulders,
Your forehead,
Your jaw,
Your low back,
Your stomach,
Your legs,
Your feet.
All that tension gets held in the mind as well as the body.
Allow your breath to simply come and go,
In through your nose or mouth,
And out through your nose or mouth.
Slowly open your eyes and rest your gaze on a wave or group of waves.
You might see other objects in the water,
Like birds,
Or boats,
Or people.
That's okay.
Those are part of our world too.
Just find a wave to rest your attention on.
Allow your vision of the wave to take precedence over any other object in the water,
Placing your full attention on it.
Observe the wave as it swells towards you,
Growing larger.
Watch it crash on the shore,
Spreading the seafoam and water up and over the berm of sand,
Not judging,
Just allowing the wave to do what it wants and be what it is.
Watch the wave begin to retreat back to its source,
Into the sea,
Back to its origin.
And then another wave comes and takes its place.
The ocean and its waves are a common metaphor used by spiritual teachers,
Such as Thich Nhat Hanh.
In the Heart of the Buddhist Teaching,
He says that,
When we look at the ocean,
We see that each wave has a beginning and an end.
A wave can be compared with other waves,
And we can call it more or less beautiful,
Higher or lower,
Longer lasting or less long lasting.
But if we look more deeply,
We see that a wave is made of water.
While living the life of a wave,
It also lives the life of water.
It would be sad if the wave did not know that it is water.
It will think,
Someday I have to die.
This period of time is my lifespan,
And when I arrive at the shore,
I will return to non-being.
These notions will cause the wave fear and anguish.
We become arrogant when things go well,
And we become afraid of falling,
Of being low or inadequate.
But these are relative ideas,
And when they end,
A feeling of completeness or satisfaction arises.
Liberation is the ability to go from the world of signs to the world of true nature.
We need the relative world of the wave,
But we also need to touch the water,
The ground of our being,
To have real peace and joy.
Put simply,
We are just the waves in the ocean,
Interrelated with all the other waves,
Beginning,
Rising,
Falling,
Crashing,
And ending.
That is our particular nature.
But in a deeper sense,
Just like the wave is water,
We are simply water.
We are the ocean waving.
That is our universal nature.
We are the universe doing what it does.
Does the ocean become any less of itself when a wave crashes on the shore?
Of course not.
Does the wave lose anything by crashing on the shore?
Of course not.
It might seem like that at first,
But the wave,
When it crashes,
Simply rejoins the ocean.
It just becomes water,
Which it already was anyway.
What does it mean to touch our true nature,
Beyond the state of birth and of death?
That's who we truly are.
You might begin to notice thoughts or feelings coming to draw your attention away.
This is completely normal.
Don't push them away.
Pushing thoughts away just ties you even closer to them.
Don't try to grasp the thought to pull it closer or push it away.
Just notice the thoughts or feelings and gently bring your attention back to the waves.
After a while you might find it necessary or just even comfortable to soften your focus on the waves.
You can still keep your eyes open,
But allow the edges of the wave to be fuzzy,
Like you're looking through the wave into the water underneath.
If this causes you to be more entrained in your thoughts or feelings,
Just return your full focus to the waves.
