Finding my way back to joy, to a quiet connected spaciousness becomes easier with practice.
This is the essential purpose of a spiritual practice: to move my attention from the outside world of doing and to do lists—striving—and conceptual narrative—figuring out, interpreting, judging and evaluating, all provided by the seemingly-helpful thought stream.
Finding my way back to joy, by releasing my ‘grip’ on all of that external movement, turning attention to the body, the flow of the breath, slowing down and letting go.
And the resulting sensation of dropping down, down, down to the portal that leads to the silent, spaciousness of being. When we slow everything down and drop below (or rise above, if you prefer) thought I can give attention to, relax into the ‘being state’ that’s always present and ‘waiting for us’.
When attention is brought to being, spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle explains, presence arises.
This is our essential nature—who we are ‘below’ body, personality, thought stream (and all that accompanies it). And once I practice letting go into being daily, weekly, monthly, I begin to identify with beingness as who I am. This is what spiritual wisdom traditions call ‘liberation’.
I am liberating myself from identifying with thought as who I am, as my striving as who I am, and anchoring my awareness in the sensation of being conscious awareness, presence, indeed, as life itself.
I no longer experience that “I have a life” but rather that “I am life”. No division. No duality. Inside: quiet wholeness.
And when I open my eyes and take in ‘outside’ (though really inside and outside is a false division)—a unity experience, a connection to everyone and everything makes me joyful. I let go, smile and just breathe in all that joy.
A quiet, awe-filled gratitude arises for the open-hearted experience of being life in all its miraculous majesty. Indeed, a sweet quiet ride to joy awaiting all of us.
One might call meditation the ultimate joy ride. Wanta lift? 😉