The River Is Already Here
El Río Ya Está Aquí
A gentle invitation to notice how thought filters our experience and to trust the flow of life that is already here.
The River Is Already Here
In meditation we want to know our experience,
just what's happening,
but not from the normal habitual place, which is thought.
We approach our experience always through thought.
First thought, then experience,
like a filter.
Recognizing thought
So it might be necessary to recognize what thought is,
and so we can sit and look at the mind.
We can do that now.
A good tip is that thought is a lot more than we think it is.
It's not just some inner dialogue in words.
We hear a sound and we instantly have an image and concept of what caused it, where it is,
where it came from, where it's going.
Same with sensations.
We're hyper aware of the concept of breathing when we pay attention to our breath.
The sensations of the breath,
left in the background,
behind the filter of thought.
It helps to notice just how much we're involved in thought first.
It must be seen, progressively, slowly,
sometimes suddenly.
It's a bit of a conundrum.
We like our thought world,
as much as it can be troubling.
The longing that brought us here
So it's very important, as we listen to whatever is calling us.
Something is calling us.
We're here because of longing, calling.
We sense there is something more.
We taste it.
We know it.
We knew it as children,
but it's not a memory.
It's a direct knowing.
We know it now,
but it's maybe far away,
at a distance,
or so it seems.
Gentleness and vulnerability
So as we let this all guide us home,
it is always here.
It helps to be gentle.
There's something very tender and vulnerable.
We can welcome that sensitivity and tenderness,
our rawness of experience and the heart.
Vulnerable like a child.
The vulnerability we see in children never really goes away.
Openness.
Surrendering to life.
Already complete
This is not a process of effort, striving, achieving, working.
We can instead recognize what is already here.
Something is already complete, total, welcoming.
Everything is always fully welcome in our awareness.
The resistance and struggling are welcome.
It's fully welcome, untouched.
The river
We can try to swim upstream,
see how that feels,
and let the river take us.
It's taking us anyways.
It's all one river flowing.
Infinitely trusted.
Mind goes around in circles while life flows.
The mind seems safe,
but the river is safe.
The mystery of this fully letting go: our questions are answered.
Hold on to the rock, to the branch,
hang out in the whirlpool of the mind.
We long for the river to take us.
It's all river anyways.
Gently.
Gently.
It will respond gently.
Nothing is missing
There is emotional pain,
a harshness in the mind,
such a gentle mind.
Doesn't seem so.
Everything is available now.
Nothing is missing.
We feel unsafe.
Safety is only available now.
We feel troubled.
Peace is available now.