Toy Car and Meditation
Last Christmas I had the chance to spend some time with my little niece. We spent the time together making a toy car. I found myself wanting to tell her what to do, instead of letting go fully and seeing what and how she goes about it and what the outcome would be. As those intentions arose and were noticed, it dawned on me that aren't these intentions, these tendencies play up the same in our meditation. We interrupt instead of observing, we wish for the defilements to go away instead of understanding why they play up and how they work. We wanted things to happen our own way, instead of being curious and interested to learn, exploring, and finding out how things unfold. I begin to understand why the meditation teacher says, “When I hear practitioners say they can’t meditate, what they really mean is they can’t get what they want.”
As these intentions were noticed, letting go and stepping back took place. I resided in watching and observing how she managed the project. Curiosity was present, perception and thinking were taking place, problem-solving was working, and the how-to’s were present. In short, mental functions were taking place. Without the information about mental functions, manifestation, and characteristics of these functions, we never knew these functions were running and we were definitely creating a toy car mindfully rather than being mindful that creating a toy car is happening.
I remember and love an analogy given by Teacher, when we draw, we notice lines and images come out from the drawing but not realizing that drawing is taking place. We can be drawing very mindfully, but we are not mindful that drawing is taking place. This is strange yet interesting and intriguing. When we stand on the meditative lens, we can see the world and the mental processes. When we stand on the worldly lens, we definitely see the world, but not the mental processes. Without the information about mind work, we don't even know something that is already there is there. It dawned on me that human birth is difficult, but coming to the Path is even more difficult. It also dawned on me that "existence is suffering" is true indeed. Existence is suffering because we are ignorant of Ignorance, hence, we are ignorant of Truth. Whether we are a child or an adult, so long as Ignorance remains, there must be suffering. Suffering is not entitled to just adults, the sick and the old, suffering is found in children too.
As I watched her creating the toy car and even making the car seat, I was amazed by how the mind works. She watched a lot of how to do this and how to do that on YouTube and whatever the mind picks up, that is being produced and when the mind-body processes are not being noticed, the experience becomes us, we become the experience. This incident has shown me again that meditation is not what and how my narrow-mindedness defines it. In the narrow-minded definition, meditation has to be in a certain way and is always accompanied by a certain level of righteousness and judgment. When meditation becomes an inquiry journey, a learning process, a genuine intention to know what's going on, life becomes meditation. Or rather, life is meditation. Every incident – sour, sweet, bitter, spicy – can be meditated upon, if it is supported by Right View, Right Attitude and Consistency. I guess she is meditating but she doesn’t know.
There was a deep sense of gratitude and appreciation towards the light that has dawned on the world, reminding me that this light may not be lit all the time, and hence, reminding me not to take it for granted. On the day of Christmas, there was not much to wish for except for our minds never wavering from the Path. May we always be guided. Prior to that, may we be willing to be guided for in that willingness, can the Path work on us.
With deep gratitude,
Stephanie
9 May 2023