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BECOME NON-RESONANT WITH CHAOS
3-8-09
I love the meditations in Creative Thought
Magazine because so many of them make me think at a deeper level than I
normally think. Like this one: "I am calm in chaos for there is no chaos
in me to respond."
What does the noise level outside have to do with the noise level
inside? It's really simple: chaos outside does not get inside unless
there is chaos inside with which it can resonate.
I remember something I read by a Buddhist teacher who held an image of a
clock inside when he was surrounded by chaos and confusion. It gave him
the inner feeling that his peace was as sure as the ticking of the
clock. Even a hurricane would not disrupt the clock's function.
This helps me understand a verse in the story of the three temptations
of Jesus where one translation said, "The tempter, finding nothing in
him, departed." Jesus was so centered and anchored in his own being that
there was nothing there to resonate with noisy, mouthy, intrusive
thoughts.
I've often told about my decision to learn to meditate. My motive was to
lower my blood pressure. At first it required self-discipline. To be
perfectly honest, I did not enjoy it very much. As time went by and I
found techniques that worked well for me, I started enjoying it so much
that it required no self-discipline at all for me to start my day by
taking time to center myself with a brief or a long meditation.
One side blessing of meditation that I especially loved was developing a
peace so deep that it remained solid and stable despite the ever-present
hassles of life. At first, the least little intrusion into my meditation
high would uncenter me. As time went by, fewer things disrupted my
peace.
Speaking of a meditation "high," there is no drink or drug half as
satisfying as a meditation or a spiritual high. As a musician I tried
many of the legal and illegal highs available in our culture, so I know
what I am talking about. The longer you pursue spiritual Truth and learn
to relish it, the more concepts you store in your mind for your times of
spiritual enjoyment, the easier it is to get high and stay high.
This is what Eckhart Tolle, author of "The Power of Now," meant when he
was asked, Does your spiritual practice involve prayer and meditation,
or is it more a state of being?" He answered, "It is more a state of
being."
I do understand this. It has been my experience, too. I do not speak as
one who has arrived at some exalted spiritual state because the higher I
go into spiritual delights, the more the Light shines on little boogers
in my inner spiritual closets. Every time I get to thinking I am some
kind of holy hotshot, one of those boogers will leap out of a closet and
holler, Boo!" But the satisfaction comes when it becomes easier to
return to peace and joy.
I now know why watching my birds put me into those peaceful alpha brain
waves. I discovered it by accident one morning when I only had a few
minutes to watch the birds before going to work and had decided to put
off my meditation time until I came home from work. I notice in mere
minutes that my birds had me in alpha! Fellowship with the birds is a
state of being for me. It is part of the very fabric of my life.
I depart from the Buddhists who think it is not meditation unless you
squat on a cushion. With or without my arthritic pains, I have no desire
to squat on a cushion. It has absolutely nothing to do with attaining
alpha brain waves and the purpose of all spiritual techniques is to
create alpha as our state of
being.
That's the state where the chaos outside finds no resonance inside.
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