The Hardest Thing
New Series ....
Dear Friends,
“I would love to meditate each day, but I just do not have the time. “ I often hear.
On the surface, this seems understandable. We are busy … but somehow these same people will spend hours a day on social media and news sites, and will tell me about entire Netflix series they watched!
Go figure! Is it really a lack of time?
There is something else going on.
Let's face it, meditation is not always easy. As Jon Kabat-Zinn likes to say, “It is only the hardest thing in the world.”
When faced with inner work or looking at our phone, well, it is just so much easier to pick our phone.
We seek comfort, distraction, things that do not require us to look very deeply into ourselves. I get it. I am the same, yet there is more to life.
I have always appreciated the phrase:
“Do only what is easy, life becomes hard. Do what is hard, life becomes easy.”
To support our daily practice (be it 5 minutes or 45 minutes a day) in January we are holding THE POWER OF PRESENCE SERIES (with guest teachers, Jon Kabat-Zinn, Sharon Salzberg, Roshi Joan Halifax, and Rhonda Magee)
Our intention is to create a community of practice … to make it easy to do what is hard!
In a world of constant pings, alerts and sophisticated algorithms trying to get us to click and focus outside ourselves: How do we create conditions that support wakefulness?
THE COST OF ENTRANCE
Some years ago while on retreat with a renowned Burmese Buddhist teacher in Malaysia, when he asked me why I was there, I talked about better understanding my suffering.
He listened and then responded through the translator, “Don’t you want the ultimate bliss?”
I am not sure how it all works, but we can only access greater peace, ease, and heartfulness when we are willing to sit with and see clearly what blocks that.
No amount of fame, money or success lets us bypass this process. There is no secret back door. And to spend our moments intentionally, community and wise teachers can greatly help.
If you care to join, the entire month series is BY DONATION. SEE DETAILS »»»
No matter, may you create conditions that support what is most alive and true for you today.
May you do both what is hard, but also what nourishes you at the deepest level.
May you see the preciousness of life as it unfolds today.
Blessings,
SOREN
