Tonight's meditation is called Nothing to Fix.
When I was doing a retreat with the meditation teacher Adi Shanti,
I asked him what to do about worrying about a loved one.
He had this beautiful answer that has stayed with me now for years.
He said,
When someone is struggling in life,
It's easy to view them through the lens of incompleteness.
But by holding them in our hearts and minds as whole and complete,
While not denying their struggles,
We don't fall prey to our unconscious negative projections affecting them.
We need to see through appearances even as we wisely and compassionately deal with appearances.
And it's also true of ourselves as it is true for others.
So seeing through our own affliction or whatever we perceive as our problems to the wholeness and completeness beneath that surface weather of our lives.
A friend of mine recently told me about her experience of meeting the Dalai Lama.
Intense feeling of light and love,
Like a flashlight or a floodlight,
Beamed right into her heart.
What he actually was doing there was holding up a mirror so that he could see through whatever her perceptions of her problems might have been,
Straight through to her wholeness and completeness.
And that's what was reflected back in his eyes,
And that's what she experienced,
Her own wholeness and completeness.
So tonight's meditation is giving us an opportunity to relax into this notion of there's really nothing to fix.
The surface weather of our lives,
Yes,
We attend to it,
But it's not essentially who we are.
Begin by relaxing into whatever meditation posture has been working for you.
It helps to have your spine erect,
Regal,
Dignified posture with your heart open.
You're also relaxed and at ease.
And then beginning with two or three full complete breaths,
Just really letting out any stale air from the day,
Anything you've been carrying,
Just completely letting it go.
And breathing in fresh,
New air,
And another longer,
Slower,
Relaxed exhalation.
And then letting your breath settle into its own natural rhythm.
No need to control.
And now I invite you to imaginatively take a step out of yourself to the right,
And turn and look at yourself there,
The meditator.
You might for a moment pretend you are the Dalai Lama or any wise,
Compassionate figure you can think of,
Real or imagined,
Your own higher self perhaps,
Just turning to behold you,
This human being sitting in meditation.
And feeling what it feels like to be this person,
This wiser,
Loving person taking you in,
Just embodying that gaze.
Looking at yourself,
The meditator,
From the consciousness of this wise,
Loving and compassionate being.
Witnessing without any judgment,
Without any concern for the weather,
The turbulence in the mind of the meditator,
Just seeing through that to the essence.
Feeling yourself with this kind,
Curious,
Intimate gaze,
With compassion.
You might notice the weather,
The cloud of perceived problems,
The narratives in the mind of this meditator,
Yourself,
But letting the warmth of your gaze burn through that.
A floodlight of warmth from you filling the heart of the meditator,
So that you are both the giver of this light and the receiver.
Feeling how right now you are free of the burden of trying to fix anything or anyone,
Including yourself.
Just allowing yourself to be experiencing this beam of light.
No need to fix or change anything.
The experience you're having,
Just let yourself have it.
There's no right or wrong experience here,
Not judging whether or not you ought to be having the experience you're having.
Just noticing that experience with loving awareness,
As this higher being taking in the meditator before you,
Yourself.
Just beaming light and compassion and receiving it.
When I meet,
I've met before,
We are together at this fundamental level of love.
The warmth I beam into another's heart is their light reflected back.
The warmth I feel from another is my light reflected back.
And as the meditation draws to a close,
I feel the meditation draws to a close,
Vowing in the hours and days to come,
Even when I feel worried about a loved one or about myself,
Vowing to radically trust the individual journey of everyone I meet.
Vowing to trust my own journey.
May all beings be safe and free and protected from inner and outer harm.
May they be happy and contented.
May they be healthy and whole to whatever degree possible.
May they experience ease of well-being.
May all beings be happy.
May all beings be at peace.
May all beings be free.
