In class last week I was reminded of a simple, beautiful teaching I learned when I first started practicing Buddhist meditation and that I’ve never forgotten. 

It’s that a skillful aspiration is not to learn everything or to know everything but to remain open as the soil to the rain. If the soil is hardened, the rain runs right off. But if the soil is loose and friable, the rain can soak right in.

This provides a gentle reminder that receiving—remaining open from moment to moment—allows us the ease of being with what is rather than what we know or think it should be (dukkha).

It reminds us that we can continuously cultivate our terrain, letting go of irritations, and even difficult emotions and experiences, allowing those to run right through us, rather than clinging to them. Or even clinging to pleasant moments, as they invariably slip through our fingers—a sure cause of suffering.

So, ideally, we let go of clinging, and, fundamentally, our (erroneous) sense of ego, of self. Surprisingly, experiencing the truth that arises in the act of letting go is quite intriguing and even a taste of honey as we begin to actually feel hints of freedom.

And while letting go is fundamental, so is receiving, like the rain to the soil.

Everything is always changing. We are aging, we will pass away. All whom we love will do the same. Once we accept the truth of impermanence, it’s no longer terrifying.  Everything can be clearly seen as a miracle. Our world is full of grace, and we can live lives filled with gratitude and contentment.

Through it all, we can choose to let go of what we don’t need and to receive truth, wisdom, and love, from moment to moment.

 

Photo by Maëva Vigier