Cattāri Brahmavihārā

A thought that came up yesterday during my morning sit which I feel can provide a lot of grist for the contemplative mill is that of my true commitment to the practice. I don’t know if I have written this before but I have had a fear of flying for years and, although my practice has helped immensely with it (I no longer feel compelled to take multi-day bus rides instead of flying), it remains an issue for my interior life to this day. So, yesterday morning one of the random thoughts and scenes that flashed through the mind was of my family and being involved in an air crash. In the vision I imagined my consciousness which I saw as a Casper like ghost of myself, being ejected from my body and I at once realized that the right thing to was to let go.

But, I didn’t want to.

I saw just how deep the hooks of affection and craving have worked themselves into my mind in a way that I don’t think I ever have previously. I see that I really am fascinated by the myriad sense objects of my life and that the business I bemoan is, at least in part, an object of my craving. So, what does this all mean?

Well, nothing particularly new except that I have seen something about the mind that I didn’t quite believe before. In light of this the only honest thing to do is to keep practicing with a sense of urgency inspired by the knowledge of just how deeply I have swallowed the hook.  In this way I hope not to squander the gifts of the Triple Gem. Sabbe satta sabba dukhha pamuccantu!