Lessons in Meditation from a Wildflower Meadow

Early on in our meditation practice, we may have lots of insightful experiences of peace, spaciousness, ego-loss or union. These experiences, however, are - I've discovered - not ends in themselves. They simply teach us which direction to funnel our energy during future practice sessions. Eventually, the experiences come fewer and farther between, and it is during this time - which might be viewed as a sort of "dark night of the soul" - that we are meant to begin EMBODYING the insights and experiences that previously occurred so regularly. In other words, we are now called to ACT AS THOUGH they are true - which they really ARE - rather than simply FEEL them. As the old adage goes, we are now meant "to BECOME sweetness and not merely TASTE sweetness."

Recently, whenever I sit down to meditate, I find that the thoughts which used to move on so quickly instead hang around for quite some time. In fact, there are now MULTITUDES of them to deal with, and many of them are quite afflictive or difficult. In addition, I've recently discovered that if I'm meditating outside, challenging things will often happen with some of the other people who might be present in the surrounding environment. A hiking couple will start fighting, for example, or someone will have a bit of car trouble and begin cursing out of frustration with the situation. What I'm realizing is this: I am being called more and more to bring the spaciousness and love of the Divine Presence both to my own thoughts and to the difficult circumstances of others in order to help heal them. I am realizing, in fact, that the continual barrage of thoughts during meditation is not just MINE; actually, these thoughts are expressions of HUMANITY's afflictive thoughts and feelings that are now passing through me whenever I sit down in the silence. In fact, my silence seems to ATTRACT them! Now, meditation is less for my benefit, and increasingly - it is now beginning to dawn on me - for the benefit of the world. Rather than settling back into the naturally spacious state of awareness that used to arise whenever I'd sit down to meditate, now I must - by a simple act of faith - REPEAT the meditative intention or mindset over and over again throughout the course of the session.

Yesterday, as I was meditating in a wildflower meadow up in Rocky Mountain National Park, an insight occurred (yes, they do still sometimes happen!) that put all of this newfound difficulty and challenge into perspective. During that session, it occurred to me that each of my repetitions of the intention to let go of thoughts and to unite with God's spaciousness during meditation is itself a sort of inner "WILDFLOWER"! While at first I might bemoan the fact that the repetition of intention must keep on occurring during the session, now I can REVEL in it! For just as the meadow in which I sat was filled with THOUSANDS of wildflowers, so each repetition of my meditative intention - rather than signalling some sort of flaw in my practice - is actually simply one more spiritual wildflower, added to all of the other wildflowers that are proliferating during the session. And there are THOUSANDS of them, each helping to beautify the meadow of that particular session, and extending even - beyond that - into daily life! Thus, what began as a difficult situation yesterday turned suddenly into a GRACE, thanks to that amazing meadow!

Photos: Western Wallflowers, Wild Purple Flag Iris and Golden Banner, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO, June 12, 2015