The ground is underneath our feet. It is there all the time. The ground of being is like this: already present, there all the time. This inner presence is always inside. Thus, if one has practiced one’s practice – off the cushion in one’s life as well as on the cushion faithfully – then the ground of being is becoming known to you. Like the ground under one’s feet, you’ve begun to appreciate it, notice it, and live from this essential wholeness.
The qualities of Being include qualities that we have worked with from the beginning of The Practice. Some of them are patience, kindness, and light. We’ve interacted with them in every step of The Practice thus far: through Smile, Breath and Flow, Softening and Opening, and even Asana. Other qualities in the experience of innate Being include humble confidence, surety, core, and the stable foundation of the heart.
Thus far in The Practice, we have focused on the upper centers and the top of the practitioner. Smile and face, tip of the nose and eyes, heart, lungs, and the flow of the breath are all in the upper half of a person and thus entrain one to these higher or refined ingredients of self. Now, we will add the lowest chakra: the root center (base chakra). With that, we can begin to stabilize ourselves in the ground of being. The experience will feel familiar because its qualities were awakened with the first several Steps of meditation.
Buddha in Meditation, late 6th–mid- 7th century
Southern Thailand,
As such, the qualities of the heart and luminous awareness will combine with the integrity of Asana, of the core of one’s being, and the rootedness of the root center. With practice, one experiences a maturing of shamatha (serenity and clarity) into an immovable or truly stable meditative state. The quality of clarity will itself mature or ripen into a truer perception of reality (vipassana). Combined, these make one’s meditation practice indestructible, and one becomes part of the expansive ground of Goodness.
Downloadable: Entry: Indestructible
Filed under: Current Round, Entry Level Tagged: clarity, ground of being, indestructible, shamatha, vajra, vipassana
