There was a darkness inside of me today as I tried to meditate. I attempted to force light in but that didn't work. My efforts to bring colorful vistas into my meditation were also futile. But I did get once piece of wisdom as I sat in lotus - "if we wallow in the emotions of the past, we can not live in the present moment." Cool....thanks "Yodaish" guide. It wouldn't be accurate to say today's meditation was a struggle but to let it unfold in its own way seemed to be ...um...the dilemma. I wanted to run and skip along the dirt path that I have been on for the past two days...discover new virtues in the baskets along the way! But no! Today's journey was to reexamine the baskets from the past two days.
So, to recap here's what I found. On Friday I found a basket filled with patience. A virtue that is in opposition to anger. When one has patience one is not so reactive. This anger that rises up inside of me is troublesome. The Buddha said that "the greatest praxis is patience." Hm? So yes, I had to look up the meaning of this word PRAXIS. Praxis is the process by which a theory, lesson, or skill is enacted or practiced. It is a practical and applied knowledge to one's actions. So as I work on Character Development I am aware today that the opposite of Anger is Patience but also that tolerance and forbearance are also necessary components. And I thought I was just gonna skip down the dirt path to bliss! Evidently, this new journey is going to be more in depth that I had anticipated!
