Beside the fact that they would probably all agree that I use way too many commas in this blog post (yes, it's true), they all - in their own way - exhort us to "stop." (I know, terrible, but it got your attention.)
Go ahead, take five minutes to exhaust your sudden urge to sing "Stop, in the name of love...." or, if you were - like me - a child in the 80s, see if you remember what Ice's brand new invention is.... then tune back in for the rest of this blog post.
Back with me? Stopping. The Buddha outlined two basic forms of meditation: Samatha meditation and Vipassana meditation. Vipassana roughly means "insight." Samatha means "stopping."
Stopping meditation. I think it's ubiquitous in our modern world that most of us aren't good at stopping. I know I'm not. When I'm given the choice at a yellow light between making it through and stopping (you know those times when both are viable options), I almost invariably choose to go through. Why? Where am I headed? And will it be that much better when I get there.... as in somewhere that is not here? Or could it also be good here. Right now. With my breath. Smiling. It's interesting to me that stopping is almost a prerequisite for insight. Often, we can't get the insight we seek precisely because we're chasing it. We think it's out there, on the other side of that yellow light - that if we can just get through, maybe we'll catch it. But I think insight is here, in the present moment, not out there, past us. When we stop, we find it. Because we find ourselves. Not in the next class or book or conversation, but in whatever is going on around us. I remember once my Aikido instructor in Albuquerque asked me, didactically, "What is the meaning of life?"
"This conversation with you," I replied.
I think that's it. Whatever is happening. I realized that this morning as I sat in my meditation time and it dawned on me how long it had been since I truly sat. I had been chasing the answer in another yoga class, another 12 step meeting, the next sermon or Eucharist at my church, and, yes, sometimes even in the next moment of meditation - (As in, "I know, walking meditation will help me be here, now!" And then I run off - away from myself, to go do walking meditation, somewhere else... where I am not.)
So maybe that's it. Just stop. Take three breaths, and be where you are, right now. This moment.
Just for today. Try it. Stop. When you hear a bell or a phone ring, take a breath. Take a moment to stop, and be where you are.
