Last night Kathy and I conducted a Medicine Buddha sadhana* in our home, shared with some local friends.
It is a practice of many aspects, including contemplation, motivation, generosity, prayer, meditation, visualization, mantra chanting and dedication of any results to the benefit of sentient beings everywhere.
One of the effects of this and similar practices, along with various teachings and meditations, is that we might become aware that everywhere we go, and in everyone we see, we are accompanied by our mind-elemental Buddhas and Bodhisattvas.
This is true as I sit here at my desk visualizing who will read this, it is true of those who make the music I listen to as I write, it will be true downstairs in the kitchen, petting Diogi, out in the corral with Paddy the horse, driving down the road, etc.
Everywhere, everyone, everything, at all times . . . infinite people and creatures . . . teachers and difficult individuals, events, material situations, even our own thoughts . . . empowering causes and reasons for us to do wholesome work.
***
We don’t need to search for insights of wisdom and compassion in the eyes of gurus, between the covers of books or in films, under ancient rocks, in horoscopes, tarot cards, churches, temples or synagogues.
Being conversant in foreign languages is not necessary, nor are journeys to exotic places, physical challenges or wilderness retreats.
Again . . . there is fertility for awakening insights everywhere, in everyone and everything, at all times.
So . . . eat your dinner, wash the dishes, step outside, breathe the evening air. Gently close your eyes, feel free to smile, be in your safe and fertile place.
Welcome who and what emerges from your mind, be confident knowing that everything you seek is already there.
It might arise in the form of a Medicine Buddha, as was the case for some last night, or a long-passed relative, a parent, son or daughter, a distant friend, a song, Godzilla, your God . . . truly, one never knows.
Don’t strain to see it, just loosen and breathe.
Accept it as it appears, welcoming it with love.
Listen to what it communicates, watch what it does.
Observe your intuitive reactions . . . see them as insubstantial, ethereal even . . . nothing more than learning experience(s).
Recognize your habitual thought-ruts as they present themselves, but no longer allow them to grab you.
Instead, lightly dance with this presence from your mind . . . embrace and love it, thank it for appearing, wish it well, then graciously send it on its way.
(Worry not . . . what you have learned will appear as insight at a later time.)
Another ‘visitor’ will soon appear. Repeat the procedure.
~One need not be “Buddhist” to do this, and neither grief or a broken heart, or fear, precludes you from engaging in it.
(*) A sadhana is a “means of accomplishing something” or “spiritual practice.”
Much of the above “via” the kindness of the Medicine Buddha.