“Free your heart. Travel like the moon among the stars.” – Buddha
What matters in life is simple. Are you free and loving? Are you bringing your gifts to the world that so badly needs them? The joyful news of the Buddha’s way is that you can do so, you can live with freedom and compassion in every part of your life.
Mistakenly, people associate Buddhist teachings exclusively with sitting quietly in meditation. This error reflects our divided society where the body is relegated to the gym, work to the office, healing to the hospital, enjoyment to two weeks vacation, and the sacred to weekly visits to church or temple. The wholeness of awakening is the message here.
All aspects of your life are the precise place to find freedom and compassion. From politics and parenting to meditation and education, from sex and drugs to poetry and art, every part of your life is sacred. This very life, your work, your family, your community is the only place for awakening. In Zen this is called “no part left out.”
This was the Buddhas’s message to all he met. For 45 years the Buddha wandered the dusty byways and cool woods of India, meeting with farmers and mothers, merchants and politicians, priests and scholars, cobblers, gardeners, barbers and weavers, artisans and kings. His instructions could not have been more clear. All parts of your human experience must be included in an awakened life.
The Buddha’s own words explain that awakening and freedom are found:
“When sitting, standing, walking, and lying down.
Through right speech, right action, right livelihood.
Inwardly and outwardly.
With the whole body, feelings, mind and relationships.
In solitude and community, in prison, hut, farm or palace.
In times of war or peace.
In sickness and in health.”
These are empowering and ennobling words. Your life provides the perfect conditions for awakening freedom and compassion. Enlightenment and liberation are not found in the Himalayas, nor in some ancient monasteries. They are only found where you are. Thus they are possible for you! We can sense this truth. There is a way of moving wisely and graciously through the world, bestowing blessings and happiness upon yourself and others, in times of trouble and ease.
To find this freedom, you must learn how to quiet the mind and open the heart. This is the purpose of meditation. You can practice this simply, sensing your breath and then resting in mindful loving awareness. Gradually you can become the loving witness of all experiences as they come and go, rise and fall like waves of the ocean. Then you can reenter the world, quieter and more steady, and embody this wisdom and compassion. Whether parenting, running a business, planting a garden, engaging in politics or creating community, all is the perfect place to bring kindness, a creative spirit, a steady heart, and a caring spirit. The world becomes your place of practice, your meditation, your temple.
This passage is from Bringing Home the Dharma: Awakening Right Where You Are
