The Beauty of Spacious in Nature
Meditation Lesson 7.
Beauty of spiritual Qualities.
Beauty is the key that unlocks the door to spiritual enlightenment. It is this beauty that naturally attracts the mind, and attracts our attention.
The delight of inner peace, of appreciation, of healing, the value of the clarity that comes from Peace. The importance of good decisions that will help to resolve the difficulties of life. We need to see the best direction to take in our dilemmas. Especially painful situations where people and pursuits can be quite disappointing.
All these are spiritual Qualities. These Qualities are worthy of respect, worthy of praise, worthwhile cultivating and practising, and they need protection from self sabotage. Indeed, half the spiritual Path could be described as developing, practising and protecting these Qualities. This is an important theme in spiritual practice.
There are many more spiritual Qualities. They are numerous and varied, and can be conveniently grouped to aid understanding. You are invited to add to this list.
For our Liberation, it’s important to –
This is essential to the Way of Being Liberated in our daily life.
The Goal of spiritual practise could be defined in terms of these beautiful Qualities. This is how we could define the purpose of our life, to move towards these Qualities, and return to them in daily life, and restore them into our experience. As much as we can, as often as we can, whenever and wherever we can, as best we can, given the limitations of the conditions might be under.
In our meditation, we can look for these Qualities, and we can help them arise. This will much strengthen our meditation, and make it more attractive. Indeed, it will make regular meditation far more possible, and far more likely to take place. Focussing on these beautiful Qualities will greatly improve our meditation. In fact, I have spent much of meditation time focussing on these Qualities, making them the object of my meditation.
However, this cultivation of the Beautiful is easier said than done. All too often, there is something that hinders us, and blocks our access to these important spiritual Qualities. Some resistance is active, or brewing. At times like this, cultivation of the Beautiful is just too hard. It might not even be appropriate, let alone possible. People might even scoff at it, or say they “don’t have time”. The inclination is lacking, people don’t feel like this cultivation.
This means that something that needs to be done before we can cultivate the Beautiful. Something needs to dissipate and dissolve first. This is the topic of my next talk, about defilements, and what these might be for us.
The delight of inner peace, of appreciation, of healing, the value of the clarity that comes from Peace. The importance of good decisions that will help to resolve the difficulties of life. We need to see the best direction to take in our dilemmas. Especially painful situations where people and pursuits can be quite disappointing.
All these are spiritual Qualities. These Qualities are worthy of respect, worthy of praise, worthwhile cultivating and practising, and they need protection from self sabotage. Indeed, half the spiritual Path could be described as developing, practising and protecting these Qualities. This is an important theme in spiritual practice.
There are many more spiritual Qualities. They are numerous and varied, and can be conveniently grouped to aid understanding. You are invited to add to this list.
- Inner peace, - and stillness and silence, contentment, being at ease, feeling safe ...
- Determination – and diligence, making effort, renewing efforts, persisting, motivation, competence and confidence, courage ...
- Clarity – and wisdom, tactfulness, perceptiveness, insight, good decision making ...
- Friendship – and finding and sharing good things, trust, forgiveness and tolerance, being supportive ...
- Enjoyment – and appreciation, inspiration, reverence, wonderment, happiness ...
- Healing – and nurturing, caring for, releasing the pain, resolving difficulties, transcendence from suffering
- protecting - and guiding and guarding the mind, practising the spiritual Qualities, cultivating them,
- good companionship - and good leadership, quality service, honesty, integrity, inspiring others, transparency in motives,
For our Liberation, it’s important to –
- recognize these Qualities,
- cultivate them,
- value them,
- speak well of them,
- practise them,
- encourage them,
- protect them, and
- remember to do all these things.
This is essential to the Way of Being Liberated in our daily life.
The Goal of spiritual practise could be defined in terms of these beautiful Qualities. This is how we could define the purpose of our life, to move towards these Qualities, and return to them in daily life, and restore them into our experience. As much as we can, as often as we can, whenever and wherever we can, as best we can, given the limitations of the conditions might be under.
In our meditation, we can look for these Qualities, and we can help them arise. This will much strengthen our meditation, and make it more attractive. Indeed, it will make regular meditation far more possible, and far more likely to take place. Focussing on these beautiful Qualities will greatly improve our meditation. In fact, I have spent much of meditation time focussing on these Qualities, making them the object of my meditation.
However, this cultivation of the Beautiful is easier said than done. All too often, there is something that hinders us, and blocks our access to these important spiritual Qualities. Some resistance is active, or brewing. At times like this, cultivation of the Beautiful is just too hard. It might not even be appropriate, let alone possible. People might even scoff at it, or say they “don’t have time”. The inclination is lacking, people don’t feel like this cultivation.
This means that something that needs to be done before we can cultivate the Beautiful. Something needs to dissipate and dissolve first. This is the topic of my next talk, about defilements, and what these might be for us.
My webpage “Course in Meditation” describes how to
gain the full benefit of these Meditation Lessons
gain the full benefit of these Meditation Lessons
