How good it feels when we return to ourselves through meditation.
When our mind acquires stillness, we go under our own shelter – our own protection. We experience that contentment. We experience peace.
When we are not connected with ourselves, the mind is running, imagining situations that are good or bad, taking us away from reality. Whatever the mind is running towards is just an imagination. Coming under your own protection means coming back to yourself, to that center.
Having a place, time, and routine is very helpful when you are starting any kind of spiritual practice. Something is better than nothing, but if you want to get to the depth, there has to be a continuity. There has to be consistency. There has to be a form. From the form, you go to the formless. In the beginning, we need a form to discipline our mind—something that it can wrap itself around. Then our heart opens, and we connect.
There has to be an element of discipline. It is through discipline that we set ourselves free. How? If you haven’t practiced all the notes of a musical instrument, you can’t improvise. You have to have the discipline to master it. Then, you are free of all the rules. Then whatever you do becomes music. If you just pick up an instrument and start banging on it and say, “I’m making music,” you are just creating noise.
In order to go under your own protection, find that stillness, find that oneness, having a formal practice, without expectation, is very helpful. The practice doesn’t have to be complicated. It could be just focusing on your breath as it comes in and goes out. When you are doing even the simplest practice for an extended amount of time, the mind acquires stillness.
May our practice be so simple that it does not need anything from the outside.
Our mind likes to complicate things. It wants more information, but actually more information is just more baggage. May I be able to live and practice what I already know. Practice it, give it some time, and have some patience. If the mind suggests, “I need to know more, I want to see more, I want to experience more,” recognize its trick to get away from that commitment of time and continuity. The mind does not like any kind of discipline; it likes to be spontaneous.
Sometimes a situation appears in our life that’s unpleasant. Try to watch the mind in those moments. What kind of suggestions and thoughts is it presenting? Those thoughts are just an imagination or an attachment to something. Can we shift the attention to something positive, something true, or best of all, to our Self? Instead of going into fear, can we say, “I will handle it, I’ll be okay, I’ll make the best out of it”? That is called going under your own shelter, your own protection.
We have the energy, we have the strength, and we have the capacity within to meet any situation or challenge that comes our way. It’s all possible through a little discipline of the mind.
Spiritual practice is not about solving day-to-day problems—it’s not an answer. Spiritual practice connects you with your strength, and then you find the answers. If you are connected with your Self, the answer comes.
That which you are seeking dwells within you – it’s not outside of you. You can get there by yourself, too. Just have a little patience. Have a little continuity. Carve out a little time.
It’s all right here.
