Shift your attention to joy
~Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche
It
is most important to acknowledge the existence of our pain identity and
to have the proper relation to it. Often, pain goes unrecognized. For
instance, you could be sitting on a bench in a beautiful park waiting to
meet a friend for lunch. Perhaps you are checking your e-mail on your
phone without hearing the birds or seeing the play of light on the
trees. Physically you are breathing, but you may have no connection with
your body. You could be caught up in your thoughts about some work
issues, strategizing various solutions. Nothing is truly fresh and alive
when you are caught up in your habitual patterns of body, speech, and
mind. And it is not that easy to recognize these habitual patterns
unless your discomfort becomes more acute. There are many in-between
moments in our lives when we are waiting for the next “event.” These are
excellent opportunities to turn to the refuge. We can be anywhere—in a
business meeting or at a lovely celebration—and recognize that we are
not fully present. The bottom line is that we are often distracted and
disconnected from our own creative energies and from what the natural
environment and others have to offer. Each of us can find many
opportunities throughout the day to become aware of habitual
disconnection and to shift our attention to the refuge.
Until you
recognize your pain identity, whether you experience it as boredom,
disconnection, or some other manifestation of discomfort, no path of
healing is available. Recognizing pain is the first step on the journey
to awakening the sacred body, authentic speech, and luminous mind.
Directly
in the midst of a bored, confused, or agitated experience, simply draw
your attention to your body, and experience the stillness that becomes
available. As you find stillness again and again, you will begin to
realize that it is always available. It is a matter of turning your
attention to the right place. Finding stillness sounds so simple that
perhaps you might think it is not very convincing as a remedy for your
problems. And because it is so simple it can take years or a lifetime
for someone to make that shift of drawing attention inward to discover
what becomes available when they do so. Many do not make that shift and
will always perceive the world as dangerous and threatening. But if you
are able to make that shift of attention again and again, it can cause a
remarkable transformation of your experience of yourself and the world.
It is important to know that at any given moment of challenge or pain,
there is another way to experience that very moment. Connect with the
fundamental stillness of being. It is already there, but unrecognized.
When
there are competing internal voices, hear the silence. It is right
there, within those voices. We do not listen to inner silence or have a
good relationship to it. We are drawn again and again to the stimulation
and distraction of inner dialogue, negotiating and rehearsing. And we
are pleased when we come up with a good strategy. At other times we try
not to think about something that is bothering us, and with effort push
it out of our minds, distracting ourselves with other things. Whether we
arrive at what we consider a good strategy or actively distract
ourselves from thinking about something, it is all pain speech from the
point of view of the inner refuge. As we listen to the silence that is
truly available in any given moment, whether we are in the middle of a
busy airport or sitting at a holiday dinner table, our inner voices
dissolve. These are the moments when something fresh and alive becomes
available.
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