August Meditations MMXXV
This isn’t my typical page updating readers on the past year. There doesn’t seem much to update. I’ve been feeling more and more that my old posts are outdated. I hope the newer ones both signal the end of my writer’s block and a greater understanding of the spiritual path.
I’d like to think that my new posts reflect a deeper understanding of what it means to awaken. There are better presenters of this material that are easily found on your computer or iPhone. Today people can find teachings that only a few decades ago would have taken years to track down. They can get one-on-one teaching from awakened people from the comfort of their home. They can attend on-line retreats or fly across the globe to attend ones where they can speak face to face with these liberated people. There seems little need to add my voice to all this. Still, we all play a part in the global awakening that is now taking place.
The consciousness that’s coming to the surface in humanity is a global consciousness. It moves like waves upon the sea heading toward landfall. While some waves lay on the distant horizon others are closer to shore. Any individual wave coming ashore doesn’t hit the beach all at once. It rolls in like a zipper closing. The wave then pulls back to the sea only to be pushed inland again by the next incoming wave. You and I are those incoming waves. Our voices and our efforts are helping to push others toward awakening even as we move closer to it ourselves. All of which is to say that if you can find a group of like-minded people, or just one spiritual friend, then let that be your sangha.
Those who have already reached the far shore may be of benefit as a teacher. But as they can only point to the Goal the only real teacher you need is yourself. Not the egoic self, to be sure, but the self within whose whispers can be heard if you stop and listen. Don’t replace that inner voice for any teacher’s lest you fall prey to someone who seeks to glorify their own self at your expense.
If a practice feels right, then do it even if others tell you that it’s not the way. If a teaching hits the mark, then adopt it. Practice is important but I’ve found that things deepen in their own manner and in their own good time. Enlightenment, as Zen master Dogen said, unfolds.
That said, I hope that my writings clarify some things that may have puzzled you. But know that awakening isn’t about gathering knowledge or having a deep mystical experience. It’s about living your everyday life without resistance. It’s about accepting yourself for who and what you are and living that authentic self every day. All while knowing the wave as the ocean.










