Calm Abiding

I love the Buddhist practice of calm abiding - of just sitting with the breath amidst the chatter of my thoughts and the chaos of all that may be happening about me. The wandering mind returning once and again and perhaps a dozen times yet always returning to the breath, to the calm center of being. Sometimes even the breath falls away and there is no "I" left - only simple awareness and a choice less attention to all that passes. That is the deeper joy of equanimity. The Buddha said that all that is now will someday not be - and so we suffer as we cling to the ten thousand joys and rebel against the equal number of pain and sorrows. Life is suffering the Buddha taught and more he taught the way to live past suffering and live with real joy. We train our minds by steadying our awareness on the breath - all that comes and all that passes and still we stay gently aware of the breath - and even as our attention fades we find our way - countless times, countless times - we find our way back. All things pass. Nothing remains. Not thoughts. Not conditions. Not happiness nor sorrow. Yet in the passing there is a wake of truth - awareness, pure awareness and a deep abiding joy of simply being. This is who we are, who we have always been and who we will return to being once we see and see past the impermanence  of all things material. Ad with that we find equanimity.

Peace,
Eric