Inner Work

For the week of October 30, 2006

Ordinary Presence

Although it has its highs and lows, most of life is ordinary. We live in the usual and the typical, in the routine and the repetitive. This mass of ordinary moments, toward which we feel neutral or even bored, offers a gateway toward peace and equanimity through presence. Even the most ordinary of moments contains the miraculous secret of life. Here we are: breathing and aware, inhabiting this fabulously complex body, earth and universe. That is, if we are aware.

A bizarre blindness descends on us as we half-close our heart and mind to this ordinary moment. We want special. We want different. We want new. But it is special, always different, and ever new. If we can enter this ordinary moment, accept it as is, our wanting subsides and our awareness grows. The less we want, the more we see. The more we see, the less we want. And in that way we find peace, equanimity, and the extraordinary richness of ordinary life.

In our more extreme moments, the ups and downs of emotion, we identify with inner and outer events, naturally wanting to have the good and be rid of the bad. Even more than our ordinary moments, the extremes bind us, robbing our inner freedom. But deeper presence in the ordinary carries over to pacify the extremes.

For this week, practice ordinary presence. In your usual and routine moments, be there. Be present inwardly and outwardly, to yourself and your surroundings.

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