At 7:30 Monday mornings, a group of us gather to 'do' lectio and mindfulness meditation. The Lectio reading for today is below--it's a short bit from Eckhart Tolle's, The Power Of Now.
Join us.
To do the lectio, read the passage twice--slowly and reflectively. First time, just note a couple of words or at most a phrase that somehow speak to you. Write them down.
Pause a minute. Breathe.
Then read it again, slowly, being as present as you can to every sentence. Note again what your 'attention' has highlighted.
Then take another few minutes to reflect on what you highlighted.
What may Wisdom be saying to you? If you have a minute, right a couple of sentences that sum this up.
Then meditate--for as short or as long as time allows.
---
Since ancient
times, spiritual masters of all traditions have pointed to the Now as the key
to the spiritual dimension. Despite this, it seems to have remained a secret.
.
With the
timeless dimension comes a different kind of knowing, one that does not “kill”
the spirit that lives within every creature and every thing. A knowing that
does not destroy the sacredness and mystery of life but contains a deep love
and reverence for all that is. A knowing of which the mind knows nothing.
There is a
place for (the merely ‘thinking’) mind and mind knowledge. It is in the
practical realm of day-to-day living. However, when it takes over all aspects
of your life, including your relationships with other human beings and with
nature, it becomes a monstrous parasite that, unchecked, may well end up
killing all life on the planet and finally itself by killing its host.
So break the
old pattern of present-moment denial and present-moment resistance. Make it
your practice to withdraw attention from past and future whenever they are not
needed. Step out of the time dimension as much as possible in everyday life.
If you find
it hard to enter the Now directly, start by observing the habitual tendency of
your mind to want to escape from the Now. You will observe that the future is
usually imagined as either better or worse than the present. If the imagined
future is better, it gives you hope or pleasurable anticipation. If it is
worse, it creates anxiety. Both are illusory. Through self-observation, more
presence comes into your life automatically. The moment you realize you are not
present, you are present. Whenever you are able to observe your mind, you are
no longer trapped in it. Another factor has come in, something that is not of
the mind: the witnessing presence.
Be present
as the watcher of your mind — of your thoughts and emotions as well as your
reactions in various situations. Be at least as interested in your reactions as
in the situation or person that causes you to react. Notice also how often your
attention is in the past or future. Don’t judge or analyze what you observe.
Watch the thought, feel the emotion, observe the reaction. Don’t make a
personal problem out of them. You will then feel something more powerful than
any of those things that you observe: the still, observing presence itself behind
the content of your mind, the silent watcher.
.
