Dear Readers,
Yesterday evening, during her webinar “Wide Awake: The Path and Practice of Meditation”, I asked Susan Piver, what is it about meditation that I can be faithful to and not rebel against.
This morning, I touched on her answer in my post, Let me be honest.
This afternoon, I was able to review the video of her webinar. Susan’s response is one of those Universal answers. I believe it works as well for my 12-step program for food addiction as it does for my Buddhist meditation practice. So, I updated my previous post and I’m sharing her full answer with you here.
Here is what Susan said in full, “There is only one thing to be faithful to and that is yourself and your experience in the moment. That is what we are faithful to and by that we mean being present. Presence is a kind of faithfulness… and a kind of trust. And faith and trust are related. However it’s completely fine and good even to have doubt and rebelliousness. When rebelliousness arises in our practice we say “thinking”. That’s a thought. Let it go and come back to the breath. You can totally be rebellious and you can have a lot of doubt. Doubt and rebelliousness – although they can be counterproductive after a certain point – are also a sign of intelligence. So, we are not trying to subsume our own mind in a system of belief that someone else gave us. We are trying to find what we believe and we are trying to discover who we are. And the faithfulness is to your own path, which is the same thing as your experience. Your experience is the path. There is no other path. So please be faithful to that.”
Grateful for good teachers.
Love & Light,
Valerie
Painting by Georges Seurat
wow,
hit,
my dear, very enlightened
and very a propos for me.
It is so difficult to figure out:
at what point do I leave a situation when the rebelly telly becomes unbearably hot.
For example, when I go to the little church down the hill, to support a local congregation, what is left of it, when the preacher starts I have to close my eyes and meditate to let that spirit of rebellion pass.
What is the effect on that behavior on the rest of the congregation, I wonder. Would it be better I refrain from going ?
This morning I woke up musing, that western style religion was made by women to teach men to have more compassion and some morality . The trick being to make them believe, it is all their invention.
Oh well. I am most grateful for your impetus to focus on that complicated issue.
love and peace
nicola
Thank you, Nicola, for your very thoughtful and honest comments.
Your great example of discomfort in church and asking yourself questions proves Susan’s point that rebellion is a sign of intelligence. At a certain point, it’s crucial that we avoid foolish people.
Your take on western religion feels spot on to me.
Stay warm!
Love & Light,
Valerie
I second that ‘wow.’
Thank you for following up with Susan and for sharing her deeper thoughts, elicited by your simple but powerful question!
“We are trying to find what we believe and we are trying to discover who we are.” What a beautiful formula for meditation, which I have heard before but not revealed so clearly as in the context of your query.
For me, the key is ownership, and most importantly not abandoning myself in fear or forgetting who I am — that is, staying faithful to myself.
Wow, again!
Thanks for all the riches your blog keeps offering me!
Alison
Hi Alison,
Yes. Thank you. I agree.
And Susan… and the Buddha!… say that experience is the path.
When I’m “in the moment” I’m present for experience which transcends my self.
Here’s a good article by Susan’s teacher on the power of the non-self.
http://www.shambhalasun.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2842&Itemid=0
Love & Light,
Valerie