2018
And then from Here….
From Duties of Heedfulness, a talk by Ajahn Sucitto:
“Whenever you feel yourself getting pulled, that’s the most important time for you to pause. And you can pause for just something like twenty seconds, or a minute, and ask: Where am I now?
“Not: What should I do?
“But: Where am I now?
“You may say, I’m in a restaurant. I’m in an office.
“No, that’s just what it looks like. That’s what your eyes can see. That’s what your thinking mind can tell you.
“The question is: Where do you feel your presence? Where is your presence now?
“Presence is a sense of firmness, of stability. It’s always here. And it’s always being dissipated into the sense fields. So when I say: Where are you now, it’s not really asking for a verbal response, it’s just pointing to the quality of the citta — Awareness as Presence.
“We can notice the trembling, or the questioning or the feelings or sensations… They’re all moving and changing… Meanwhile, as one is acknowledging the moving and changing, what is it that acknowledges the moving and changing?
“Presence. The sense of presence, of citta, as a simple quality of being…
“Within this realm of sights and sounds and thoughts and energies and emotions and pushes and pulls and moods and impressions…. Presence is Here.
“Take your time with that.
“This is Being. Being is always exactly the same. Being doesn’t change in time. Being is not the person. Being is not the moods. Being is not the thoughts. Being is not the activities.
“Being is just being — Here. And that’s a refuge. That’s an island, in the middle of the stream. That’s an island in the middle of the flood. And you can return to that.
And then from Here: What’s useful? What’s important? What is the most skillful thing to do, at this particular time?”
***
Yes, what indeed!
Tomorrow is the last day for Missouri residents to register to vote in the November 6th election. Are you registered? Want to check, just to make sure? Go to vote.org.
And then keep on going from there.