To Sit Or Not To Sit...

I haven't practiced sitting meditation much this week. I became too goal oriented...I started grasping at the concept of if I sit, I will receive. So I let go. I am constantly practicing the art of letting go. As Thai would say to be like a pebble steadily falling to the bottom of a river bed. I work at a grocery store as a cashier. Its easy work and the mind can easily wander if not careful. I find it a good place to practice. People come through my line and they are in all sorts of moods.
 When I first started there it would get to me these people. Their expectations, demands and their personalities would get to me and it would become overwhelming. Since i began practicing I've noticed that it is I who is overwhelming for them. When I find my self present and able to practice loving kindness and compassion I am able to mend a lot of customers suffering about why their sugar isn't on sale, haha.

2 comments:

Clemente said...

Nice to see you are applying what you learn to your daily life, and if you make this a better world by letting others feel you understand their suffering about the lack of sugar, then all the better! :)

What you say about being goal oriented is very interesting and points to some kind of contradiction in Buddhist philosophy that I just posted about. Though, I'm sure you were letting go of the goal of sitting, but your were not letting go of other goals, like going to work, or eating, etc... so I guess it's more a question of the priority you give to your goals.
Though then you should probably let go of the more important goals, if you are to practice detachment... uhmmm... :)

Anonymous said...

That is a very beautiful post, thanks for sharing. Like you, I try to apply awareness to my job... to what I'm doing, my coworkers, our customers.

There was an article a few months agon on Tricycle.com (a Buddhist magazine) where they asked many long-time Buddhists if they thought that meditation was neccessary. To my surprise, some said no, one said that focusing on compassion towards others might be all you need. I tend to think that meditation practice trains you to be more aware and compassionate (with yourself and with others), but it was interesting to see that there are different points of view.

Anyway, I struggle to maintain my daily practice too. It mostly depends on if I get enough sleep to get up and meditate or if I hit the snooze button 12 times then get up and rush out the door.