Rest in the Ripple…

Photo: ‘Middle of the Ripples’ by cocoparisienne – Pixabay
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Rest in the Ripple…

In ‘Dimensions of Mind’, p.212, there is a pointing out instruction how to “focus each ripple, each point, back toward its own transitions…the more you penetrate the ripples…the more you can stay there.” Rinpoche refines, “It’s like a surfer riding a wave. There’s no ‘from’ and no ‘to’…Imagine that you are holding on to a stick. You start out by trying to focus on one particular place on the stick, the place you are holding… Gradually you begin to realize that there is no one place on the stick, that every part of the stick is connected to every other part.”

The Ripple…
So, I breathed in and looked up to the trees,
as sun and breeze played the leaves…

I was calm to begin with and just enjoyed the motion overhead. There was no impulse to name or describe the situation to myself, though I was aware of my subjective appreciation of the visual perception. As I breathed in and out, perception also included the scent of fall air, a hint of musky leaves and earth. I noticed the movement in the ripple that involved the chill in the air… There was slow jazz coming from a speaker nearby, rhythmic and full sounding. It seemed my senses widened in the ripple, or perhaps the ripple widened to include my embodiment of the availability of a ‘whole’ of perception. While I noticed these distinctions of sensual input, I didn’t follow any particular one in any directed way. And since there was no pre-determined direction to the experience, no pre-intended goal, it simply unfolded. There was no telling, no declaring of meaning, no urge to direct the movement, even though the ripple continued to unfold…sun still dappled wind-blown leaves, sky covered browning fields…music carried a mellow mood of enjoyment. Rinpoche points to “a kind of stillness in the midst of movement”… staying in the ripple.

When you stay in the center, ripples open and release in very valuable ways. The nature of the field is not what matters: it might be shaped by dimensions of thought or dimensions of mind; it might be the field of sensory awareness or embodiment, or it might be a field of subtle impressions that cannot be put into words. In each and every case, we can open the field. Starting from the center, you can let the ripples expand. As they do, the frozen structures put in place by language and concepts melt away…You enter a spacious, open environment… p.188