When we sit down in meditation,
Fully attentive to body posture and breathing,
We stop the usual functioning of our mind.
We stop the yearning.
We stop the clutter.
We stop the anger and frustrations that inevitably come with life.
The Buddha's first observation is dukkha,
The unsatisfactory nature of our existence,
Also translated as suffering.
This dissatisfaction is caused by anger,
By greed and delusion,
The so-called poisons that continuously spoil our peaceful mind.
Throughout the history of humanity and reflected in the current conflicts,
We can observe how greed,
Anger and delusion have spoiled peace,
Harmony and well-being in the world.
A great deal of delusion comes from the fact that we see the world through a lens of separation,
From the fact that we identify as me,
As I,
As a substantial ego separate from the universe in which it functions.
As a result,
Our mind is like trapped in a kind of imaginary golden cage.
Everything within the cage that doesn't fit our image disturbs us.
We desperately want to get rid of it,
Yet we can't.
Likewise,
Everything outside of the cage that we'd love to appropriate,
We cannot grasp,
We cannot acquire,
As the bars of the golden cage obstruct us from doing so.
When we sit down in meditation,
We create the opportunity for both us and others to destruct that golden cage that we created in our mind,
To open up to the wisdom of the heart and reunite with the vast dimension of our existence.
In meditation,
We reunite with a life of non-separation.
By doing so,
We decondition ourselves from the mental categories that limit us,
That isolate us.
And in the simplicity of the stillness of our silent meditation,
We learn together to see clearly into our lives,
Into Life itself,
Life with a capital L,
That is life beyond mind-life,
A life without separation,
Separation that creates suffering.
From that space of non-separation that we can experience in the meditation,
Every interaction becomes meaningful,
Smooth,
And harmonious,
Joyful.
Don't let your mind wander off and isolate itself in its golden cage.
Instead,
Continue focusing on the body posture,
Head,
Heart,
And hara,
In vertical alignment with the heavens above and with the human humus below.
This body is the space we belong to,
Fully aligned with the unlimited body of the universe.
Also,
Stay tuned with the natural rhythm and flow of breathing,
In unity with all life,
With every out-breath bending a bar of our golden cage,
With every in-breath opening up to new adventure.
