A meditation that just came to me!

[Nikolai1]

You are sat on the shores of a lake. It is evening, a breeze is blowing and the reflection of the moon is dancing on the ripples of the water.

 

You look closely at these ripples. You see that the moon is not reflected as a disk, but as an infinitude of individual shards of light. As the waves on the water pass, each shard flashes into existence, endures for a moment or two, and then vanishes.

 

The moon is above you in the sky shining brightly and constantly, but its reflection has been split into a myriad of distorted moons - each one ephemerally existing.

 

This is how the sage views the world. There is both the Light, and there are the reflected shards of light passing in and out of existence. You, I, and all the manifold things of this word are in fact nothing other than shards dancing on the reflective surface.

 

We who are not sages see each shard of light as an existing entity in its own right. We are concerned when one flashes into existence, and concerned when the same vanishes. Worst of all, we see ourselves as one of the shards. We think we are a fragment, looking out at other fragments like us. We cannot be the eye that sees all as reflection, ourselves included.

 

Practice is learning to see the world as a mere play of light. It is allowing each moment to pass into existence, and then allowing it to be annihilated forever. Practice is being detached from the play of light, while simultaneously allowing yourself to be one of the shards of light participating as fully in the play as the next shard.

 

How you ripple and dance about is hardly your concern, it is enough to be docile to life and responsive to the moment. The choreography can be left to God, you can delegate the task to him. But be courteous enough to enjoy the show and to keep your criticism to yourself.

 

Pass judgement on yourself, or on any of the others shards of light, and God will refuse his role. How tedious for you, that you now have to fret about what you were free to enjoy: the lake, the moon and the light.