At the heart of meditation practice, there’s a compelling koan. A paradox that creates positive tension inside of us.
In the simplest terms, it’s this.
Discovering That Nothing Is Wrong
When you really let go of all the noise in your head and let yourself drop down deep into the center of your being, there’s a boundless ocean.
There, you discover that nothing is wrong. In fact, you find out that nothing was ever wrong to begin with. Everything is perfect as it is.
In that place of perfect peace, there’s nowhere to go and nothing to do. There are no problems to solve. And most importantly, you are not a problem to solve.
And that experience is a revelation. Resting in this boundless space heals something very deep within us.
Embracing ALL Of Ourselves
At the same time, when we focus on our breath and land squarely here in the present moment, without judgment, we encounter ourselves without filters.
And that’s the other side of the paradox.
Because sometimes we may not like what we find. Perhaps it’s anger, fear, anxiety, grief, or some old story of resentment that you’ve rehashed in your head a thousand times.
At those moments, we’re challenged to hold fast to our practice and let all those hard parts of ourselves be there without judgment.
How do we do that?
Applying Gentleness
We apply one of the core principles of our mindfulness practice - gentleness.
Learning how to bring the principle of gentleness to bear in our practice is essential. As you’ll find, it slowly but surely softens the brittle, broken, and hardened parts of us. In time, gentleness melts our resistance to embracing all of ourselves.
It helps you open your heart.
How can these two seemingly opposite dimensions coexist within us? Perfection and chaos. Heaven and earth. No problem and big problems.
And there it is.
That’s the beautiful human paradox that meditation puts squarely in our lap.
In my experience, holding that tension is humbling and helps me grow and evolve.
We’ll be exploring both sides of this paradox in Coming Home - A 5 Week Mindfulness Meditation Training Course.
“Everything is perfect as it is.” More and more I am able to think this and know this deep down to my core. Thank you!
Beautiful, Linda! Thanks so much for sharing that! I’m with you…it’s a big one.