Commentary 2-- Just This

In the study of the self, we find that wherever we go, there we are. Gaining this sort of awareness of the self is central to practice. Applying just this, we acquire the power and creativity to break out of our habitual defenses and thought habits so to experience reality as it is. When you do, you find that your anxiety level is reduced, your stress goes down, and in its place arises a new sense of the possible; that you are just this moment. Every moment is new and possible. That moment becomes a good thing; you open yourself to be curious, to learn more about the world around you, yourself. Take rest in what is real.

As we come to better understand the precepts, an awareness grows that points our attention to doing what is necessary. We ask and see more clearly what is required of us, and we do just that.

Being a scientist and examining our self, we come to see that we have expectations and requirements, first of ourselves and then of others. When these ideas or assumptions fail to correspond with reality, we suffer. Cutting through deception, we live more in this moment and find that it is a good. We may even begin to acquire the realization that often when we think it is the other, in reality it is ourselves who think, act or feel a particular way. Avoid spinning into the past or the fearful future. This moment is the only moment there really can be.

An old saying I learned as a child goes, "He who accuses, accuses himself." Being aware of a situation or an event does not make us bound to engage or respond. We may choose to do so, if it seems necessary, or we may stand back and let it play out on its own, in its own time.

Know that feelings are just feelings. They may guide or hinder us equally. Feelings arise and recede; when they're urgent at that moment things may seem clear. Later, we may, in a calmer mind see they were not, and then there's the damage we cause to ourselves and others. So there is a great deal of power in awareness. It may be increased and cultivated. Take the journey of the head to the heart through the precepts. They are a reliable guide.