Lessons From 25 Years of Meditating

 Note : This book is to be read and repeated as slow as a song or poem till you experience The Real Self, Chepter 1. Hide full comment

I have been lucky to meet more than a few people who embody this wisdom that the master is ordinary. Our beloved Pancho, for one. Jayesh bhai in Ahmedabad, India is another. In my opinion, another person who really embodies the truth that the master is ordinary is Benjamin Smythe. He's become known for sitting in outdoor public places around the world while holding a sign that says "you're perfect." He creates these outrageously funny, insightful, and very REAL and BLUNT videos, where he answers questions that people ask him. (If you want to laugh with and learn from Ben, check out his youtube channel). The beauty of these videos...completely ordinary! He will not call himself "enlightened" or "a teacher" or anything like that. Benjamin appears in these videos while eating a pizza or blowing his nose or sitting in a shower. He laughs hysterically, and he cries...all in front of the camera. This, for me, is so refreshing because it really demonstrates one of his core messages, which is that many of us who "seek" are trying to run away from ourselves, when our ordinary selves are the ones we're looking for! In many of his videos, I see him unfolding. He's not fixed, and doesn't pretend to know it all. What he shares, and how he shares it, has really helped me to see the absurdity in seeking something outside of myself and my own experience. Whenever I need to be reminded of that, I watch Ben's videos. :) Hide full comment

 What comes to mind is the ridiculousness of punishing kids for their own good, which in its extreme form is justification for dropping bombs for peace.  I strove in my schooling to accomplish certain goals, and my striving and schooling were clearly at odds with some of my goals.  Such paradox!  It's comic, if not crazy.  I'm much more aware of my goal-directed time, of which there is still a lot and too much, and being aware of it helps me stay sane and I do spend more time goallessly.  I agree that enlightenment is ordinary/natural/simple, it's just that we have gotten far away from that kind of ordinary/natural/simple living.  Enlightened living is simple, it's just not easy especially in our goal-directed frenetic doing way of being, and I think a lot of people find simple goalless time in meditation.  "If you spend a perfectly useless afternoon in a perfectly useless manner, you have learned how to live," said Lin Yu t'ang.  I've been alive a lot of years and sadly have spent only a handful of afternoons in that way.  Striving is probably always at odds with the purpose of the striving, and awareness of that has helped me get a little bit past it.  When I'm being goal-directed I'm being manipulative, and it behooves me to be very suspicious of and careful about any goal-directedness and manipulativeness, especially when well-intentioned. Hide full comment

 I have started meditating for last one year so whatever I am writing may not carry much authenticity!  I am 57 years old and just sharing my journey in relation to being "ordinary"!  I lived my life until the age of 8 years in a village with no electricity, let alone other basic amenities of modern world.  Life was totally in sync with nature and retrospectively thinking, it was ordinary!  Sunrise and sound of rooster woke me up and seeing return of our cow from its Shepard monitored grazing routine, setting of the sun, taking dinner with family before it got dark and listening to grandma's stories under open sky putting me to deep sleep!  Life was so peaceful!  Being ordinary was so natural!!!

Then when it happened I don't know but started getting conditioned to have aim, goals, always doing something to get something, becoming successful, becoming a health care professional, coming to USA and settling.........those 49 years spent conditioning myself to find out that actually speaking, once again I need to something, I need to do meditation to be just "being", just "ordinary"

In other words as author of this read says I started meditation to get something!

Thank you Yogi Mccow for giving a wake up call!  I am so glad!  I have at least good  memory of what "just being" should feel like or what "being ordinary" should be!   Hide full comment

 "Thinking deeply" is not only a wise thing to do, it's a healthy thing to do.
When I struggled with intense anxiety, I learned that stillness/rest/quiet thought was key to my recovery and proper function.  Sitting VERY DIFFICULT for me, in our "to do" culture/world.  Additionally, "perfection" was something I thought (church/family goal) I needed to achieve for God's favor.  This notion, thru prayer/meditation I learned is incorrect.  Doing . . . doing . . . doing . . . left my soul VOID, my body tired and my mind dull.  
Meditation leads to . . . rest . . . good decision making . . . connections to God and self . . . clearer vision . . . truths/reality revealed . . . magnifies . . . opens us up . . . renews . . . sharpens  . . . quiets nerve endings . . . grows awareness . . . invigorates
Very much enjoy Awakin!  You give me things to meditate on!  Blessings

 
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 It is weird that this piece should arrive today for it was during my meditation today, after a little over 20 years of meditation, that I realized some of what is said above..  I love being ordinary.  I make the mistake, and sometimes go too far, and want to be no one going nowhere.  It would not be a mistake if I simultaneously realized that being no one means being no separate person and that I am clearly connected to everyone and everything much more  than being separate from everyone and everything. It is also weird because I told my wife about my meditation experience today  (telling her a little over an hour ago) what makes Zen Buddhist practice so extraordinary is that it is being so ordinary.  I mention Zen for what I say yet  I believe what is mentioned in this peace and. is true for all facets of Buddhism and is probably  true for Hinduism..  Christianity of the type practiced by Thomas Merton ( and Robt. Kennedy S.J.) and Islam, Jewish, and Taoist practice, at a most basic level probably experienced the same  as do all wise and compassionate people.Thank you Somik and thanks for the opportunity to respond. Warm and kind regards to everyone. Hide full comment

Thank you, thank you, and thank you. Ahh thank you. I have no need to say anything else than; thank You Yogi Mccaw. ‘It is what it Is’, that is the experience in-it-self, of ‘being’ - just ‘being’.. At some needy point in my life, I looked at these super sellers of meditation and yoga, promising the golden land of nirvana and bliss, I went looking for that bliss, I was so disappointed that I wasn’t seeing the light, that I was SO wrong, I was then told to fake it, well I tried that for a very short time only to realise I was faking much more than what I was looking for, because once you start to fake one thing in life that then rolls onto two, three 4  5 and 6… It’s all a distraction from being. So one day at the traffic lights I realised that being ‘just being’ true to self and ‘experiencing’ is he phenomenal existence to bliss ‘good or bad.’ We make bliss and nirvana happen each day and that was hilarious, we live in the good each day and we chose to change it to whatever dramas we bind ourself too at any particular moment in time and life. But this is just my experience of living a life and that ‘ living’ is the tool.. 'Im just a tool in life' :-) hehehe. But each to there own amazing life’s experiences.. Thank you for this wonderful ‘really honest’ read. Loved it.. Hide full comment