…there are an infinite number of possible courses of action not just the two or three we may be contemplating.
Sometimes people wonder about using meditation to settle decisions and problems that are weighing on them. Should they leave their job, how might they handle a work challenge in a new way, they aren’t getting on with their partner and what should they do about. How can meditation be used to help with these situations?
One piece of advice I was once given was that when facing a decision, we can bring it into meditation practice, but we should assume…
there are an infinite number of possible courses of action, not just the two or three we may be contemplating.
Another is to hold up each prospective course of action against the following criteria: does it lead to inner peace; does it lead to a sense of humility and gratitude; does it lead to compassion and connection with others. (But this may have less to do with actual time on the meditation cushion.)
Here is one more approach: Rather than taking a problem head-on in sitting, we can remind ourselves that sitting offers a chance to gain access a level of being that is more real and in a sense more important than the details of our daily life, where our existence is wider and more spacious, more commensurate with the mysterious fact that we exist at all. To open up to this kind of awareness even for a little while is helpful and beneficial, and can provide a new perspective from which to view the inevitable challenges and decisions of daily life.
Message from Henry taken from our July 26, 2016 Newsletter.
Image: Infinite Possibility, by Jules Antonio, CC BY-SA 2.0, from Flickr.com