Insight and Liberation
by Michele McDonald-Smith
This practice is really all about facing change. By patiently putting in our time with the mindfulness practice, we will see for ourselves the intense transformation that happens within. We see that how we are reacting to the pleasure and pain in our lives does change. Before I did this practice, my only hope for peace in this human world, whenever I was suffering, was to go seek refuge in nature for as long as I could. This is a wonderful spiritual way and still is one of my spiritual roots, but I didn’t feel free. I would have to keep leaving the human world, run from the pain, to manage being in the human world. I’ve found that the mindfulness practice has given me deep reserves and courage, wisdom and compassion, for facing the human world. There is a quotation from the book, Gift From The Sea, by Anne Morrow Lindbergh that I would like to share. It’s about patience and mindfulness:
“The sea does not reward those who are too anxious, too greedy or too impatient. To dig for treasures shows not only impatience and greed but lack of faith. Patience, patience, patience is what the sea teaches, patience and faith. One should lie empty, open, choiceless as a beach, waiting for a gift from the sea.” -Anne Morrow Lindberg
Patience, lying empty, choiceless as a beach, this quality of awareness is the soft readiness of mindfulness which leads to insight. There is no end to the depth of insight possible for us as human beings — and the resulting great wisdom, compassion, and freedom that brings great light into the darkness of this world.
