betray themselves to heedlessness.
The wise treasure the awareness they have cultivated
as their most precious possession.
Dhammapada v. 26
We all forget ourselves from time to time and become lost in
confusion. What matters most is how long it takes to remember. We
can’t rid ourselves of confusion just because we don’t like it.
However meditation can help. When we make effort in formal practice to
come back to our object of focus, over and over again, we are building
a certain kind of strength. Even though we might not see it at the
time, valuable potential is growing within consciousness. Meditation
can appear boring and might even seem pointless. But energy never
disappears. The good effort we make to remember to return to our
meditation-object can come back to us in daily life as spontaneous,
here-and-now awareness. Where we might previously have forgotten
ourselves and become lost in heedlessness, we suddenly find ourselves,
alert and at one with what is happening. Such awareness is indeed a
treasure.
With Metta,
Bhikkhu Munindo
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