Photo: ‘Evergreen Sky’ – Pixabay
https://tinyurl.com/y2rrr6z6
ABIDING IN THOUGHT…
In FULL PRESENCE MINDFULNESS class today, we were invited to look into thinking… to just observe…
“Instead of depending on the content of the thoughts for knowledge of what is happening, let yourself rest in the activity of thinking. At this level, there is no need to report back on what is thought or to craft the content of thoughts into new and ongoing stories. Just stay with the thinking of each thought. As you grow accustomed to looking with this attitude, you will find that thoughts calm down. The thinking mind is no longer obligated to construct a reality, and thoughts are no longer structured by the need to arrive at a specified destination. Thought residues seem less solid, their power less strong.
[Normally as] thoughts stream through our minds, we sort them in various ways. Some thoughts are available as tools. Others take over our awareness completely, so that we fall into the world that they create… [however] we can afford to let go of our dependence on thoughts… A DIFFERENT WAY OF KNOWING IS AVAILABLE.†p.250-1
“This abiding is not static. It invokes the dynamic rhythm of time without insisting on a linear momentum. Nor does it ‘take’ time to abide in this way. AS YOU SINK INTO THE EXPERIENCE, TIME EXPANDS. Deep within the content of the moment, you can contact the body of experience and discover a different way of being…†p.51
….’Dynamics of Time and Space’, by Tarthang Tulku.
So, to briefly practice this, I looked out the window and saw the evergreens against a pale, blue/gray sky… ‘Sinking in’ to JUST THAT… the instant expanded, I was struck by the beauty, and the appreciating FEEL of that moment. Dwelling in that feel-good moment expanded to succeeding instants… I was carried along not so much by story but by the open feel of mind and sensing… And with that abiding in thought… these words also arose, from a poem by a TSK instructor Ken McKeon…
Excerpt from, SEASONAL SHIFT
by Ken McKeon
“Everything starts coming on
As lively as birdcalls in Springtime,
I find myself freely within a garden realm,
It’s only a thought now,
The lilting border of my rising form…â€
