SAILING OUR BOAT IN THE OCEAN OF MEDITATION

With regards to are relationship to meditation, The analogy of the sail boat can be used. We are the sail boat, Our nature the wind, meditation the ocean with all its vastness. It is this vastness that may give us both the chance and the magnitude of space that we need to explore the aspects of our nature without causing harm to our self or another. It is when we are confined and unknowingly allow our nature to dictate our actions that cause at times harm in our self and the world around us. The sail and anchor are also important parts. Just as the sail when raised, allows the wind to propel the boat and the anchor when dropped brings it to a stop. So to does will power and awareness, give us the means to take an action or cease from action. We are the wind which is our nature. At times it is powerful, strong and intense and at other points, it is calm, mild and caressing. We are the sail and the one raising and lowering it. We are the anchor and the one dropping it to hold us steady or lifting it up to prepare for movement. Often we move about this world, not knowing that we are doing these things. Sometimes the result is unknowingly doing good or harm.
To watch our own nature within us without acting is to begin seeing ware and when we create joy and when we cause harm both within our selves and in other creatures. And, how we unknowingly lift our sail when the wind is strong, resulting in losing control of our speech and our actions, which at times cause harm. Yet at other times we suppress and deny our thoughts. This can cause much misery as well. So how do we find the mid ground? How do we express without causing harm? How do we integrate the unconscious? Meditation is not only exploring stillness of mind, It is also getting to know our own nature. We may have all sorts of visions and heightened experiences, but they mean nothing if we are not learning about our own nature and getting to know our patterns. Are patterns that are both negative and positive, harmful and benign. Meditation is an action that we take to explore potential actions or non actions. Most of us explore are potential actions to some degree. To set aside regular time for meditation is to deepen this exploration of potential action, inaction as well as probing into stillness with it’s inner and outer affects.