Meditation (part 2)

To understand the immeasurable, the mind must be extraordinarily quiet, still.

-Jidhu Krishnamurti

Meditation is bringing the mind back home and this is first achieved by the practice of mindfulness. The practice of mindfulness, of bringing the scattered mind home, and so of bringing the different aspects of our being into focus, is called peacefully remaining or calm abiding.

Peacefully remaining accomplishes three things:

1. All the fragmented aspects of ourselves, which have been at war, settle and dissolve and become friends. In that settling we begin to understand ourselves more and sometimes even have glimpses of the radiance of our fundamental nature.
2. The practice of mindfulness diffuses our negativity, aggression and turbulent emotions which may have been gathering power over many lifetimes. Rather than suppressing emotions or indulging in them; here it is important to view them and your thoughts and whatever arises with an acceptance and generosity that are as open and spacious as possible. Tibetan masters say that this wise generosity has the flavor of boundless space, so warm and cozy that you feel enveloped and protected by it, as if by a blanket of sunlight
3. This practice unveils and reveals your essential good heart because it dissolves and removes the unkindness or the harm in you. Only when we have removed the harm in ourselves do we become truly useful to others. Through the practice, then, by slowly removing the unkindness and harm from ourselves, we allow our true good heart, the fundamental goodness and kindness, that are our real nature, to shine out and become the warm climate in which our true being flowers. Meditation is the true practice of peace, the true practice of nonaggression and nonviolence, and the real and greatest disarmament.

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