A Mediation On If We Can Turn Resilience Into Love?

We sit and we sit and we sit. Some days there’s ease. But some days for me anyway, there’s just sorrow or anger or fear. And I really don’t want to be with it.

And yet I’ve noticed there’s a resilience that emerges when I practice turning towards difficult moments and memories, and even towards the things I’m sure will be hard in the future (tipping a hat to Mark Twain*).

Is it possible to turn towards the really hard stuff with not only resilience but also love while practicing law? 

*“I’ve suffered a great many catastrophes in my life. Most of them never happened.” ~ M.T.

Transcript

Finding a comfortable posture that's upright and that will support you as you investigate this present moment and see what's here,

No matter what's here.

So really asking the question,

What kind of physical support could benefit you right now in this sit,

In this endeavor,

And then offering that to yourself as an act of love towards yourself,

And then just beginning to pay attention to the breath or to the sound in your environment,

Bringing the attention to that anchor,

Whichever one,

That refuge,

And when the mind,

Mind-body has stabilized a little bit,

Then opening the aperture and just noticing as objects arise and pass away in your field of experience,

Sounds,

Smells,

Tastes,

The sensation of the air moving across the skin,

Thoughts,

And emotions,

And if you notice anything that's particularly difficult or anything that you notice at all,

Can you bring an attitude of kindness,

An attitude even of love towards whatever you are noticing,

Not so much that you love the thing itself,

Like a difficult memory or how it feels to be unwelcome or unsafe,

Not so much that,

But the awareness that these things are true,

Can you approach the fact that these things are true with love,

Not loving the things,

But loving that you can see the truth and maybe bear the truth,

But also be with it,

That there is spaciousness enough in this mind,

This heart of yours to be with this true thing,

Loving the fact that you can do that or do that a little,

That the mind and heart is open enough,

Capacious enough to see how things are and be with how things are,

No more struggle as Pema says,

No more struggle.