Receiving

The task at hand is to end suffering, just for this moment, then the next until the moments begin to flow and well-being is pervasive.

We are working on building sensibilities to open our inner capacity to hold experience in deeper ways that sustain us and cause little to no harm to this world. What has been coming just as the fruit of the insight practice, has been a turning the mind and heart to the simple act of opening and receiving.

When the senses are going out to receive life, there is often no understanding to this process. We tend to not even think of this as we eat, sleep, work etc. this is simply a part of living.

If however, we were to drop down a level to just simply pause with an understanding that we are receiving each moment, both the moment and the offering of seeing, hearing, tasting, etc. turn into an act of received grace. In this way, nothing is ever taken for granted and the mind remains bright.

In that very moment when we take in an offering, we are free from suffering. The moment in itself is complete and suffused with a sense of enoughness and abundance. Nothing else is needed as attention becomes a prayer and the moment a gift from the beyond. We just need to learn to receive Life in its purest form by surrendering to this moment.

In turning the mind to receive, the mind becomes expansive. The lines between self and the outer world fade. I see that what is out there is also in here. So I bring mercy to those defilements in me as I tend to others with mercy. The mind gets inclined to accept how in not knowing, we are the other as well and from that sense of otherness, we do harm to each other.

The aim is to make receiving a way of being. And this is wedded to gratitude. And when the two are present, the mind is sublime. We are using the relative world to connect us directly to the mystery and magic begins to happen. We are just receiving and simply receiving. Joy begins to take root for no reason. This is not the joy of another piece of clothing or whatever lures us on the material level. It is just a joy that is causeless but the fruit of our practice.

Sometimes, loving-kindness does not come this easily. And if the mind is in the receiving mode, the inclination of the mind lends itself to a softening as we receive the other in the heart space. No one is any more an object but an alive sentient. And then compassion begins to flow and if nothing else, the wish includes for all to be free of the causes of suffering.

It does take a bit of doing to learn to receive each moment as a widening grace. But then, what else is there to live for?