Pema Chodron in her book “How To Meditate”, she writes about the importance of maintaining an atmosphere of unconditional friendliness or loving-kindness towards our practice. Instead of a somewhat aggressive meditation, filled with “I should’s”, the invitation is to discover who you are at your wisest, and who you are at your most confused. Meditation is intended to be a safe space to stay steadfastly with your sense of humanity and a wide range of emotions, sensations and impulses.
Pema writes, “unconditional friendliness is training being able to settle down with ourselves, just as we are, without labelling our experience as “good” or “bad”. We don’t need to become too dramatic or despairing about what we see in ourselves.” It’d be easier to come back to the present moment.
You could sit, and the mind is going wild or worried about something, yet you could still touch in to a settledness that you could feel with the mind, body and life. Being with the continuous succession of experiences in life, agreeable and disagreeable, with an open spirit, open heart and open mind, that’s what we are cultivating when we sit.
A Time To Talk, by Robert Frost
When a friend calls to me from the road
And slows his horse to a meaning walk,
I don’t stand still and look around
On all the hills I haven’t hoed,
And shout from where I am, What is it?
No, not as there is a time to talk.
I thrust my hoe in the mellow ground,
Blade-end up and five feet tall,
And plod: I go up to the stone wall
For a friendly visit.
Guide: Noelle Lim
Image credit: Loan, Unsplash
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