Rest & Relax

Don’t recall. Let go of what has passed.

Don’t imagine. Let go of what may come.

Don’t think. Let go of what is happening now.

Don’t examine. Don’t try to figure anything out.

Don’t control. Don’t try to make anything happen.

Rest. Relax, right now, and rest.

While Tilopa’s sage advice was originally carved into the stone of a ‘how to meditate’ tablet, it can be just as useful today for folks using the modern manifestation of the tablet. 

Let go of what has passed. That means up to - and including - what happened as recently as yesterday. I do not, as the Speaker just amplified, need to add unnecessary hate onto an already toxic situation. Plenty currently exists without my topping it off with another spin on the theme, no matter how appropriate the firefight. This one has been a particular challenge to me for as long as I can remember. Not a day passes without some form of trying to remember to forget. I find forgiveness and gratitude particularly helpful in the practice of this principle, or nail, as Tilopa might have driven it home. 

Let go of what may come. Yikes! For nearly the same period of time, now stumbling into decade number seven, I have seen ‘the goal’, ‘the prize’ or ‘the result’ as a motivator. Something which keeps me on the path that I have chosen. The hope of a brighter tomorrow. I see the wisdom in nail number two, that of keeping it here, occupying the present and swimming with the current, but, I reserve the right to ‘see’ what my daily practice prepares me for. I also reserve the right to be totally wrong about this. 

Even to the extent of letting go of what is happening right now? I think (oops) the third nail, a sixteen penny vinyl-coated sinker if ever there was, illuminates the ‘paralysis by analysis’ conundrum. We tend to over think things to the point where the ‘thinking’ becomes more dominant than the ‘doing’. Interestingly I do OK with this one despite hearing the refrain warning that Fools Rush in where Wise Men Never Go every time I decide to act on impulse. Sooner or later, I contend, one must have the faith in oneself to trust the training and act. I have yet to satisfactory answer the question as to whether this is ignorance or valor. It may vary by circumstance. 

There are things which I have accepted to be beyond my limited scope of understanding. As hard as I try, the reality of eternity and the meaning of love, escape me. I confess to being agnostic. Still I find great reward in learning something, or many connected things, every day. This applies to music, physical fitness, political science, writing and communication arts. I LIVE to learn. There is nothing like figuring out a mechanical issue through successful troubleshooting, no greater reward than the crafting of an inspirational message, and nothing finer than hitting your 10K target. I suppose Tilopa was referencing the random access memory used in the process of trying to figure out things that are inapplicable to the current situation, and therefore inefficient and borderline wasteful. We all know what happens when we run low on memory. 

Control and making things happen are not mutually exclusive. One is a noun and the other a verb. The can be used together, but in my experience (declining to abuse control over others) this usage means self-control. Which leads us, hard-wired to seek movement, to either join those that are ‘happening’ or initiate our own. I see the danger in this usage. Too much of anything means too little of one. The only element I wish to increase, to make happen, is growth on this path that I have chosen. I will make that happen. If that includes an element of control I will add more presence and flow to the mix to counteract. 

The finishing nail(s), completing the project, driven with the aid of another tool, the nail set, instruct us to rest and relax. 

On those you will get no argument from me. Not even a pithy commentary. I have nothing to add to their simple beauty and wisdom. 

Tilopa has hit these nails on the head. 

Rest and relax, right now.