Hello,
I'd like to share a practice with you that I call What Is Life Offering Me Right Now.
Portable and simple but also profound practice that you can carry with you throughout the day.
You can also use it in a formal practice setting where you set a timer,
Sit on the cushion and just hold that question.
So it's meant to build your intimacy with your own life and it's meant to grow your clarity as life is unfolding and to meet it right there in the present moment.
It's designed to support awakening,
Awareness,
Presence,
And so many good things.
We'll talk more about that in a minute.
Um,
And it is really a seat of power in your life.
So when you are meeting life as it's arising,
You're seeing what is unfolding with clarity.
Then you can really be there for the joy,
The goodness,
As well as the challenges and difficulties.
And it's a seat of power because those are the moments when you're really there seeing clearly that you're able to make skillful decisions.
If change needs to be pursued,
You can pursue what needs to be changed.
And invite more of what is meaningful and delightful.
There's just a lot of power when we're meeting life in this way.
So this practice is an inquiry practice,
So we're holding a question,
What is life offering me right now?
And it's a profound way to see how things are always changing,
The weather,
The time of day,
Who we're really with,
Whose eyes we're looking into,
What is meaningful,
What is our intention.
And so we're really experiencing change,
Not as a philosophy,
But as our lived experience.
It is also an open awareness practice where we,
Again,
Kind of turn toward life to see what's really there and dropping our heavy agenda,
Dropping what we're grasping towards with the future,
Letting go of what's haunting us from the past to just really arrive right here,
Right now and be there fully.
And when we do,
When we turn towards life and we really ask the question,
What is life offering me right now and become still and quiet enough to really receive what is on offer,
To see with clarity.
Then it's a very magical,
Potent way to be living life.
So there are certain elements in this practice that become honed and also grown through the practice.
So one element is mindfulness.
Of course,
If we're not mindful,
Then we can't really know what's even on offer,
Right?
So working with this practice allows us to hone and grow our mindfulness practice.
It also has the flavor of radical acceptance.
So when we're turning toward life as it's unfolding to see what's really there,
There's a level of acceptance that's quite powerful.
It also grows our equanimity.
How do we become stable enough to really be there,
To see what's happening,
To still,
To quiet?
To receive.
There's also a feeling of spaciousness that kind of arises when we turn toward life.
There's also a kind of profound aligning with life as opposed to again kind of fighting it or disappearing in fantasy or distraction.
We're really arriving to be there and to receive what is happening.
And it's also about seeing life as a gift.
So this inquiry,
What is life offering me right now?
Often when someone offers us something,
It's a gift or we feel like it's a gift.
We receive it as a gift.
And when we become awakened enough,
I mean many sages,
And from many different contemplative traditions talk about.
Where does your practice lead you in the end?
Humbleness and gratitude because as we become much more present to the unfolding of life the preciousness of our own lives the challenges of the difficulties,
The wonder of the joy,
Then we're really a spontaneous gratitude does arise.
And so that gratitude is aligned with seeing life as a gift.
However,
It is not spiritually bypassing.
Difficult things arise,
Difficulties arrive in relationship with others.
Our body fails.
There's so many challenges that arise in our world.
So we're not spiritually bypassing any of that.
In fact,
We're radically turning turning toward to be with.
To see what is actually there.
Again,
Why are we doing that?
In service of our deepest awakening,
In service of growing a more present life,
A more meaningful life,
A more awakened life.
So this practice has been a very good teacher to me,
And I hope it will be a good teacher to you.
Sending blessings.
