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# 2024-12-21 - Darkness Becomes Light by Thich Nhat Hanh | |
Observe the changes that take place in your mind under the light of | |
awareness. Even your breathing has changed and become "not-two" (I | |
don't want to say "one") with your observing self. This is also true | |
of your thoughts and feelings, which together with their effects, | |
suddenly transformed. When you do not try to judge or suppress them, | |
they become intertwined with the observing mind. | |
From time to time you may become restless, and the restlessness will | |
not go away. At such times, just sit quietly, follow your breathing, | |
smile a half-smile, and shine your awareness on the restlessness. | |
Don't judge it or try to destroy it, because this restlessness is you | |
yourself. It is born, has some period of existence, and fades away, | |
quite naturally. Don't be in too big a hurry to find its source. | |
Don't try too hard to make it disappear. Just illuminate it. You | |
will see that little by little it will change, merging, becoming | |
connected, with you, the observer. Any psychological state which you | |
subject to this illumination will eventually soften and acquire the | |
same nature as the observing mind. | |
Throughout your meditation, keep the sun of your awareness shining. | |
Like the physical sun, which lights every leaf and every blade of | |
grass, our awareness lights our every thought and feeling, allowing | |
us to recognize them, be aware of their birth, duration, and | |
dissolution, without judging or evaluating, welcoming or banishing | |
them. It is important that you do not consider awareness to be your | |
"ally," called on to suppress the "enemies" that are your unruly | |
thoughts. Do not turn your mind into a battlefield. Do not have a | |
war there; for ALL your feelings--joy, sorrow, anger, hatred--are | |
part of yourself. Awareness is like an elder brother or sister, | |
gentle and attentive, who is there to guide and enlighten. It is a | |
tolerant and lucid presence, never violent or discriminating. It is | |
there to recognize and identify thoughts and feelings, not to judge | |
them as good or bad, or place them into opposing camps in order to | |
fight with each other. Opposition between good and bad is often | |
compared to light and dark, but if we look at it in a different way, | |
we will see that when the light shines, darkness does not disappear. | |
It doesn't leave; it merges with the light. It becomes the light. | |
A while ago I invited my guest to smile. To meditate does not mean | |
to fight with a problem. To meditate means to observe. Your smile | |
proves it. It proves that you are being gentle with yourself, that | |
the sun of awareness is shining in you, that you have control of your | |
situation. You are yourself, and you have acquired some peace. It | |
is this peace that makes a child love to be near you. | |
tags: buddhist,compassion,meditation,peace | |
# Tags | |
buddhist | |
compassion | |
meditation | |
peace |