Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche - revisited.

 

There too many 'roadside attractions' in the course of this life and it makes it almost impossible for one to become centered and focused even through meditation or should I say especially when one meditates. The human mind -humind is a sponge that absorbs anything and everything that one comes into contact with through the senses and consciousness. After having survived 72 years of living I am more than ever still dealing with 'letting go' of the accumulated thoughts and those that are cropping up every second and every moment even as I am making this post. It is 6:11 am. and the call to prayer just came over the air from two different mosques near my area. This off course sets my mind in motion over my lack of commitment in fulfilling my duty as a Muslim and all the ramifications that is attached to it dragging my thoughts of being a sinner, heaven and hell and so forth. Then the dogs starts barking snatching my consciousness away towards a new subject and it even creates a story of its own as I compare the two sources of sounds with irony. This is how the humind reacts and thoughts come into being, choices are being made, the good and the not so good or are both irrelevant or are they necessary.or matters. 

Why bother? You ask. I have no perfect answer to the question but having been bothered for most of my life by mind, the mental faculties and thoughts, I am attached to the need to understand anything and everything to do with the humind; it is an obsession that has taken a whole lot of self observation studies and practices demanding for that perfect enlightenment in understanding this simple matter. Outside my window the sun has not risen and the darkness it is breezy and cool with birds beginning to rise from their slumber singing their songs of morning has broken. I took a few minutes off from writing to feed the harassing cat meowing for her breakfast as always, heated some water fro a cup of Nescafe 3 in 0ne and made some rice and reheated some leftovers chicken fried vegies for my daughter to take with her to work. Half of the rice will go to feed the neighborhood pigeons as it to has become my morning routine. The reason I am reminding myself of all these time and again is that this too is my meditation in action practice. It had actually started off with about an hour sitting meditation and followed by a brief physical unwinding exercise to gather back all the aching parts of the body and mind into alignment easing the aches and pains of sleep and old age; got to keep the blood flowing in the right directions and needed places; migraine gone and shoulder and back pains disappear, stiffness of body and mind become fluid more or less.

In fact, a person always finds when he begins to practice meditation that all sorts of problems are brought out. Any hidden aspects of your

personality are brought out into the open, for the simple reason that for the first time you are allowing yourself to see your state of mind as it is.”

-- Chogyam Trungpa

Trungpa Rinpoche was the first teacher that brought my attention to the idea of "meditation in action."  I read his works when I was in college in the 70-80s  and was impressed by the idea. and has kept reminding myself ever since to make it my practice. While doing the dishes, driving my car or simply hanging out with my friends I make it an effort to stay in focus as a form of mind observation;what is my mind thinking while I am doing what I am doing. It not only helps me to remain in focus with what I do but also helps me to observe and analyze my thoughts eliminating all negative thoughts if and when they arises. It helps most when I do my artwork like painting or even as I am writing this post.    

      It is my hope that by writing as much as I can about meditation it would help others who happen to read this Blog as I strongly believe that meditation practices in whatever form is of great value for every human being in dealing with their mind. To curb excessive thinking is primordial towards healing whatever ailments that we chronically suffer in our daily lives. We suffer mostly from our erroneous, our muddled thinking processes that is often left unchecked, especially thoughts that are repetitively negative which tends to drag us down the unwanted paths away from from our immediate actions. Not too many people have strong sense of maintaining an unbroken attention to any given situation and this is the result of our being distracted by our mental 'roadisde attractions'. 

“Meditation practice is a way of making friends with ourselves. Whether we are worthy or unworthy, that's not the point. It's developing a friendly attitude to ourselves, accepting the hidden neurosis coming through.”
-- Chogyam Trungpa