Monday, August 29, 2005

This morning I discovered a passage from Be an Island: The Buddhist Practice of Inner Peace by Ayya Khema, a Theravadan nun. Here it is:

The greatest support we can have is mindfulness, which means being totally present in each moment. If the mind remains centered, it cannot make up stories about the injustice of the world or one's friends, or about one's desires or sorrows. All these stories could fill many volumes, but when we are mindful such verbalizations stop. Being mindful means being fully absorbed in the moment, leaving no room for anything else. We are filled with the momentary happening, whatever it is--standing or sitting or lying down, feeling pleasure or pain--and we maintain a nonjudgmental awareness, a "just knowing."

Great suffering is often created by making up stories about injustice. If mindfulness will prevent this, then mindfulness will truly alleviate the suffering we cause ourselves. The decision not to indulge ourselves with such stories is a decision that will powerfully help us on our way to maturity in our meditative practice.

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