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MEDITATION
Why Meditate?
Awareness practice is more advanced and a subtler practice than mindfulness.
It comes when we develop a little competence in meditation. But it is important to understand that it is not foreign or exotic. It is very basic to human beings. A awareness is not purely part of the Shambhala tradition. It is also in other traditions and cultures. But it is not purely part of other traditions either.
Mindfulness-awareness is not Buddhist or Shambhalian or any other tradition.
It is intrinsic to human beings.
In any moment in our lives, the whole process of meditation is happening. We describe it as a practice, but it's not a linear thing.
And although we go through stages when we connect with meditation, we are not going anywhere. We are uncovering, and discovering what's happening here and now, and that deepens with practice. So we are not practicing for some later accomplishment, as in practicing sports or a musical instrument. We are practicing being ourselves on the spot.
Meditation is a simple technique for being human.
Ultimately, the point of meditation is not to create a perfect life, but to appreciate what's going on, to look at the whole situation. Then we are able to be more curious, more intelligent, more human, more skillful, and more cheerful. We are able to incorporate more of the actual energies of the world and learn. That way we build up our dignity, enjoyment and strength.
As we progress in our practice, the only difference with advanced practice is that we are able to deal with more and more of the actual energies taking place. The actual progression in our training is developing more and more confident awareness about what it is to be a human being, and how to be.
And this is how the idea of wisdom enters in, because we can relax and learn from the situations we have.
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