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       # 2024-12-21 - Darkness Becomes Light by Thich Nhat Hanh
       
       Observe the changes that take place in your mind under the light of
       awareness.  Even your breathing has changed and become "not-two" (I
       don't want to say "one") with your observing self.  This is also true
       of your thoughts and feelings, which together with their effects,
       suddenly transformed.  When you do not try to judge or suppress them,
       they become intertwined with the observing mind.
       
       From time to time you may become restless, and the restlessness will
       not go away. At such times, just sit quietly, follow your breathing,
       smile a half-smile, and shine your awareness on the restlessness.
       Don't judge it or try to destroy it, because this restlessness is you
       yourself.  It is born, has some period of existence, and fades away,
       quite naturally.  Don't be in too big a hurry to find its source.
       Don't try too hard to make it disappear.  Just illuminate it.  You
       will see that little by little it will change, merging, becoming
       connected, with you, the observer.  Any psychological state which you
       subject to this illumination will eventually soften and acquire the
       same nature as the observing mind.
       
       Throughout your meditation, keep the sun of your awareness shining.
       Like the physical sun, which lights every leaf and every blade of
       grass, our awareness lights our every thought and feeling, allowing
       us to recognize them, be aware of their birth, duration, and
       dissolution, without judging or evaluating, welcoming or banishing
       them.  It is important that you do not consider awareness to be your
       "ally," called on to suppress the "enemies" that are your unruly
       thoughts.  Do not turn your mind into a battlefield.  Do not have a
       war there; for ALL your feelings--joy, sorrow, anger, hatred--are
       part of yourself.  Awareness is like an elder brother or sister,
       gentle and attentive, who is there to guide and enlighten.  It is a
       tolerant and lucid presence, never violent or discriminating.  It is
       there to recognize and identify thoughts and feelings, not to judge
       them as good or bad, or place them into opposing camps in order to
       fight with each other.  Opposition between good and bad is often
       compared to light and dark, but if we look at it in a different way,
       we will see that when the light shines, darkness does not disappear.
       It doesn't leave; it merges with the light.  It becomes the light.
       
       A while ago I invited my guest to smile.  To meditate does not mean
       to fight with a problem.  To meditate means to observe.  Your smile
       proves it.  It proves that you are being gentle with yourself, that
       the sun of awareness is shining in you, that you have control of your
       situation.  You are yourself, and you have acquired some peace.  It
       is this peace that makes a child love to be near you.
       
       tags: buddhist,compassion,meditation,peace
       
       # Tags
       
 (DIR) buddhist
 (DIR) compassion
 (DIR) meditation
 (DIR) peace