A Peony

Thinking is a useful tool when we need to solve a problem. But in between problems, we have plenty of time to set thinking aside and simply be aware, bathing each object in sparkling subjectivity, without forming an idea about it.

Unnecessary compulsive thinking is "anxiety": braincells gone wild. Many use prescription drugs or alcohol to temporarily suppress the over-thinking mind. Anxious thinking is like taking snapshots of the empty sky. Why not just be that emptiness, without taking pictures? Why not become present, without thought?

The cultivation of Presence is meditation. Meditation does not take us to a mystical and "higher" world, which would just be another thought. Meditation brings us back to this world, this breath, this body. Here in the only world there is, we can relax into our innate energy, not the frenetic energy of thinking what should be, but the graceful energy of what is, the ocean of nature flowing around and through us like sap in the roots, branches and leaves of a tree.

Thus the Buddha taught, "See things as they are and you will be comforted. He who has recognized the nature of the rope that seemed to be a serpent, ceases to tremble."

To meditate is to become real and alive, planted in fertile ground, abundance pressed out and overflowing from the very Isness. The forms that are happening in this sacred moment make little difference. Abundance lies not in the content of the now, but in the radiant transparency of pure Presence.

Now here is the work of redemption: one who is established in Presence makes others more present, just by being with them.

Meditation is no longer a fringe activity for an alternate lifestyle, but a survival technique for civilization. The practice of cultivating Presence solves 95% of our problems - medical, emotional, even political. It brings clarity, objectivity, and peace - especially when we practice with another person, face to face, embracing our partner in the space of compassion, which is the space of empty awareness, free from thought.

We think we need more money, more vacation, more clothes and jewelry, more sex, another job, a new house in a safer, more serene setting, and of course a new lover to live with. Extraneous thinking carries us away with desire for more and fear of less. For the mind, what is is never enough. Collectively, this insatiable craving produces a culture of consumerism, destroying our environment.

But each of us can solve these problems, including the world's environmental catastrophe, at their source. Where is the source? Our own mind.

Return to the sparkling ocean of Presence. Return to awareness free from thought. See how one peony in your back yard makes you perfectly rich. Solve problems here and now by being nowhere else.

Simplistic?

No, Simplicity.