Morning Contemplation: Freedom In The Flood Of Experience

It's all just okay.

Anxiety is okay.

Worry is okay.

Regret is okay.

Illness is okay.

Grief is okay.

Laziness is okay.

Ambition is okay.

These things may have different consequences at the worldly level.

But in mindfulness practice,

We're just interested in how they are right now.

And right now,

They're just sensations.

Arising and passing away.

With no way to keep them the same.

Even if we try.

How long can you really hold something in mind?

It can't be done.

Prior to mindfulness being developed.

We may feel that we have the experience of some thought or emotion staying.

But as we develop the skill of looking closely at experience.

We see that the present moment hosts rapid change.

Experience has been described in Buddhism as a flood.

And indeed we can point to the term stream entry as relative.

To dipping ourselves into the experience of that flood.

A phenomena.

Arising and passing away.

With incredible rapidity.

Nothing staying the same for very long at all.

Even when we behold something that we perceive to be solid.

Actually our direct experience of it changes.

And changes.

And changes.

Look at a wall.

Does it really look the same?

For very long?

For more than an instant?

Place your hand on a table.

Is the sensation actually the same?

One moment to the next.

Or is our interpretation of sense data actually in flux?

Just like the rest of the universe.

A grand unfolding pattern.

Relax your ideas about experience.

About yourself.

And see this pattern as it is.

Marvellous.

Infinite.

Unique in every moment.

To acknowledge these rapid changes.

Is to be free from everything you thought to be solid.

And in this freedom comes the end of dissatisfaction.