Hello everyone,
This is the last week of Open Air.
Hopefully by now there has been some good groundwork laid in your mindfulness practice and you’re feeling able to continue to practice on your own in the weeks ahead.
This week, as we end, I’d like to talk about Beginning Again.
As we move through life many things can happen. Unexpected events can take us off the path we thought we were on and put us on a different one. Sometimes it’s whole years of wandering and other times it’s a few moments, and it’s also true enough that our priorities and plans can change too.
We live in a reality that is full of possibilities, both wholesome and unwholesome, and is always changing. We can get lost, or get offered a new and exciting direction.
In every case, it’s good to remember that we can begin again. We can invite freshness into our experience and choose to embrace possibility. We may also return to what’s known and start from scratch. Beginning again may be scary or hard, and yet we can do it.
In some traditions, the idea of Beginner’s Mind is favoured over the expert who thinks they know it all. The Beginner's Mind is free from fixed ideas, flexible, and ready to learn from the whole experience.
If we can, we might remember that we can always begin again.
That’s what I’ll be doing. Now that this course is over, I am beginning again. Starting fresh. Setting out towards the horizon. It’s a little bit scary, and it’s exciting too.
In my meditation practice I’ve began again many many times. Whether within the same sitting session after periods of daydreaming or after weeks of absence from my meditation cushion. Every time, there is a strength in beginning again. Each time I begin again I am reminded of what a precious opportunity this present moment really is. The past is lost, and the future has not yet arrived.
All we truly have is this moment. It’s a blessing to be here, now, for the great mystery of change.
If our mindfulness practice leads to nothing more than this experience; we have still arrived.
This week I’m going to invite you to approach the practice very simply.
Practice with the freshness of someone who has never practiced before.
Take care in the simple movements of taking your seat.
Be with the sensations of breathing as if it is the arrival of a fresh breeze.
And whenever you notice your mind has wandered, label thoughts as thinking, and return to the awareness of the breath.
Before we end I’d also like to express my deep thanks for your practice and dedicate any merit I have accumulated from the production of this course to all beings everywhere.
If I have caused you any suffering, I ask for your forgiveness.
And finally:
Good luck. You can always begin again.
The author and producer of this course is John O. Find out more at www.spacetobe.xyz.
