Thursday 4 August 2011

Meeting a master

I met my wife's teacher this week, a monk called Swami Purananda, who speaks beautifully and intelligently about God/Truth/Brahman/Spirit or whatever label one wants to attach to that which will not be described.

For forty minutes I sat there listening as he answered questions and spoke from experience, most obviously.
When I speak of the indescribable I am limited by my untrained mind, having had glimpses of true freedom but still being very much a seeker. I could have soaked up his presence for hours, he radiated groundedness.

The topic this particular night was recollection. Now recollection in this context means remembering not the past but remembering who you are (not your jumble of thoughts and ego) and remembering the universal in every moment. Remembering to train.

It was said: "Negligence in the act of recollection is the ultimate evil".  Negligence in recollection is a cocos choice which we later label ignorance. But we choose to ignore the life within, the abundant energies available to us all when we stop and pay attention. Ignorance is an active choice.

So we know that what we seek can be found within. Every great teacher tells us the same thing, yet we ignore this fact and continually look outside of ourselves for satisfaction... And we can't get none!

So letting slip or daily training results in it being that much harder to do it the next day and so it escalates from there. But if we know what we must do there is a choice we can then make: do what we know we should do, practice daily, allow the feeling and peace we cultivate to spill over into our day, our other arts, our relationships or we can ignore this sound advice and what we have found to be true in our dabbling practices and perpetuate the ignorance. This is not a moral stance but we must all make a decision and live with it.

I'm practising daily.