Adjusting Oneself 
 
This is a subtle one so I hope I do it justice.
 
Sometimes when I’m sitting in the meditation room at Jayakula, our Buddhist community house in Coogee and someone enters or leaves the space I adjust my posture. And I adjust it because I want to be seen having a good meditation posture. I want to be taken seriously as a practitioner.
 
I’m aware that they may look at me and make an assessment.  So what this reveals to me is that old friend and foe, my ego, wants to be involved. I care about what others think about me for not always the right reasons…..  And of course I do this in multiple situations in life multiple times a day. Adjusting the way I speak, respond and present myself.
 
I have this sense that if I am really living with authenticity then there should be no need to adjust myself so that I’m seen in a particular light …. I could experience the freedom of just BEING. I’m pretty sure that’s what the Buddha would have experienced.
 
So it’s quite a deep calling to just be oneself in an unguarded, unconstructed way wherever one goes and whatever one’s doing. It’s not that I want to be insensitive to the effect I have on others, I actually want to be ever more aware of who they are and how I am affecting them but in an entirely unselfconscious way if that makes sense ….
 
Meditation helps me do this. It allows me to notice myself even in the quietness and muted light of the meditation room adjusting myself in order to make a good impression

Hope you can meditate with us this week:

Sunday   8 - 9 am

Tuesday 6 -7.30 pm

Metta

Dharmalata and Padmadakini …