Awake?

With palms together,

When we open our eyes in the morning and get out of bed, we are not necessarily awake. We might be thinking of what we have to get done this morning or what we must do this afternoon or this evening. We might be feeling a bit tired or grumpy or our muscles might need a stretch. We might smell the coffee in the air or the car exhaust as we leave our homes to go to work. We might see a flower and say to ourselves, that's an awfully pretty flower!

But this is only awake to our thoughts, feelings, and sensations. It is not being awake.

Being awake is being before the thoughts, the feelings, the sensations. Being awake is seeing directly with a clear mind reflecting only what is there, and in so doing becomes us. Thought is just thought. Feeling is just feeling. Smell is just smell. Flower is just flower.

If we open our eyes like this, our Buddha-nature opens with them. Our Buddha-nature and the thought is one. Our Buddha-nature and our feeling is one. Our Buddha-nature and the flower are one.

Does it matter?

Second guessing, concern, worry...all take us away from being fully present. When we are not fully present we are living in something that has no foundation, no reality. Thoughts, feeling, and sensations have no reality of their own. How can we be present with the flower or our wife, husband, child, co-worker, client, worlk, when we are only with their idea?

So, this is our practice: be with what is there without regard for what we "think" of it, "feel" about it, or "sense" about it, and more, without regard for the next moment.

Be well.