Total Acceptance: A Practice of Harmonizing with the Whole
By Christopher Snipes Dixon
“In your big mind, everything has the same value. Everything is Buddha himself. You see something or hear a sound, and there you have everything just as it is. In your practice you should accept everything as it is, giving to each thing the same respect given to a Buddha. Here there is Buddhahood.” – Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind, pg 39.
“Without desire, resolve, or effort, the sun rises; and in its mere presence, the sun-stone emits fire, the lotus blooms, water evaporates, people perform their various functions and then rest.” – Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi, Who am I?: The Teachings of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi, pg 12.
“Whatever burdens are thrown on God, He bears them. Since the supreme power of God makes all things move, why should we, without submitting ourselves to it, constantly worry ourselves with thoughts as to what should be done and how, and what should not be done and how not?” – Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi, Who am I?: The Teachings of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi, pg 12
How can we truly say we are, when we are so concerned with becoming? Whether we think about how to change the world or change ourselves; ultimately, such thoughts illustrate to ourselves an illogical longing for some moment in time that will never come to pass. The future always remains the future; the present always remains the present, and the past always remains the past. This moment, this minute moment in the here and now, is the only point in time where actions occur! Meditate upon this: a baby’s development into an old man, a seed’s development into a tree, and our evolution as a species has all occurred, occurs, and will occur in the present (See Music: A Footprint of the Universal Expression). By projecting our hopes and dreams into the future and by dwelling on the past we render ourselves impotent to act (rather than react) in the present. How can we have agency in our lives when we have become conditioned to ignore the gap between the past and the future where spontaneity arises? By practicing total acceptance, we can restore clarity in our lives and uncover our own capacity to act as co-creators alongside the universe (God, Brahma, Allah, Existence, The Self; The no Self).
Meditation: Total Acceptance in Practice
Let go and let God; God is everywhere. If these two maxims can be practiced there is no reason to continue reading. However, sometimes our notions of God can be somewhat abstract; the term not lending itself to our daily (physical) experience. So rather than using this term we can conceptualize ourselves as being a part of the Universe or Existence. Is this so? Is your body, the people you perceive, the chair you are sitting on, the emotions you are feeling, the thoughts he is thinking, the interactions we are having, and the interactions we perceive all a part of the Universal phenomenon? Can anything occur that is separate from the Universe? We may think of ourselves as living a separate existence, but in actuality we cannot live separate from Existence. To live as if we are is to live a delusional existence.
With this said, we can practice total acceptance (in its broadest sense) by accepting the world we perceive inside and the world we perceive outside without any notions at all; everything exist as expressions of the Universe at a particular moment in time. As soon as it comes is as soon as it goes. In a particular sense, it is to leave the Universe to the Universe. By putting this understanding into practice we open ourselves to having agency in our lives; and with it, a greater awareness and insight into what it means to be. Furthermore, if only to manifest a relaxed mental-physical state this method can be of use. As stated earlier, we often times want to change something about ourselves or our surroundings; but what if we take the attitude that this is how the Universe has chosen to express itself (to express myself, my thoughts, her actions, this event) at a given point in time. If we can take this approach, we can appreciate the things we choose to do or not do because in that moment in time we are participating in creation. The question becomes not what we should or should not do; but rather, how much awareness are we bringing to what we do “do” and what we do “do not do”?
Patanjali’s Place: Meditation, Yoga & Wellbeing
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