Living the Zen Life

It’s a celebration

It’s a celebration

“…But it was fitting to celebrate and rejoice, for this brother of yours was dead and has begun to live. He was lost and has been found.’”
—Luke 15:32 (from the parable of the Prodigal Son)
 

W

hen you finally set upon this path, and roll up your sleeves to pursue spiritual practice, it won’t be a walk through paradise. It may actually be closer to Dante’s Inferno! You see, the very inner demons you will be working to vanquish will try to sabotage you now that you’ve started. They will tell you the same excuses and the same lies that prevented you from starting a long time ago.

And that’s good. You don’t want the voices to hide out. You want them to show up front-and-center in all their nastiness so you can see them – really see them for who they are. So you can get fully present to the havoc they reek in your life. To learn all of their secrets and how they influence you. You want to understand them, so you never get fooled again.

If you’re diligent, one day the lights will come on. The system they use will be revealed to you in all its glory. It will be an unveiling.

But I want you to be ready.

Because seeing through the illusion and being reunited with your heart is a cause for celebration. Momentarily, it will feel like one. Yet right on the heels of this opening, the voices will swoop in like the Valkyries to shut the party down. You’ll suddenly feel sad. Seeing the truth of how you’ve been caused to suffer for so long will trigger them to remind you of all the time you’ve wasted.

Don’t fall for it!

The voices are energy sucks. Everything they do is designed to fold presence into distraction and opening into misery. That’s why anytime you have an insight, it’s a cause for a party. Every time your attention was lost in meditation, and you brought it back to your breath it’s a celebration.

“Yeah, but you only got present a couple of times. Overall, that was a bad meditation.”

Nope. Did you get present a couple of time? That’s wonderful! Good for you! You were lost, but now you’re found.

Remember, the voices want to fold insight into feeling bad. That’s okay. That’s what the voices do.

You just fold feeling bad back into insight: Did you see how you weren’t present? Did you see how you got present? Are you ready to give it another go?

Because folding suffering into presence is what you do.
 

In lovingkindness,


If you enjoyed this article, you can find a version of it in my book, Living the Zen Life: Practicing Conscious, Compassionate Awareness (Volume One).

If you enjoyed this article, you can find a version of it in my book, Living the Zen Life: Practicing Conscious, Compassionate Awareness (Volume Two).

If you enjoyed this article, you can find a version of it in my book, Living the Zen Life: Practicing Conscious, Compassionate Awareness (Volume Three).

If you enjoyed this article, you can find a version of it in my book, A Shift to Love: Zen Stories and Lessons by Alex Mill.

If you enjoyed this article, you can find a version of it in my book, Meditation and Reinventing Yourself.

If you enjoyed this article, you can find a version of it in my book, The Zen Life: Spiritual Training for Modern Times.

 


  Alex Mill trained in a Zen Buddhist monastery for nearly 14 years. He now offers his extensive experience to transform people’s lives and businesses through timeless Zen principles.

He is the creator of three powerful 30-day programs, Heart-to-Heart: Compassionate Self-Mentoring, Help Yourself to Change, and Your Practice, as well as the online Zen meditation workshop, Taming Your Inner Noise (now offered as The FREE Zen Workshop).

Alex has also written seven books on Zen awareness practice. The latest are entitled A Shift to Love: Zen Stories and Lessons (Get it for FREE here) and the 3-book series Living the Zen Life: Practicing Conscious, Compassionate Awareness.

He is a full-time Zen Life Coach who offers guidance and life-changing support to his private clients worldwide. Book a call.