At Home In the Muddy Water

-Do you have the patience to wait till your mud settles and the water is clear?  (Lao-Tzu) 

Life is complicated. Have you noticed?

When we first start out along our spiritual path, most of us do so partially because we secretly hope that if we become more spiritual, if we are more in tune with our true selves, if we are walking in the will of God, that life will become easier.   We envy monks who get to live in seclusion, because they can practice undistracted by screaming kids and mind-numbing jobs and the demands of spouses and colleagues.  We long for a time when we can remove ourselves from life's messiness so that we can concentrate on being more spiritual and centered. 



Eventually, though, we begin to realize that if we wait for our lives to be uncomplicated before we can begin, we will be waiting forever.  We begin to suspect that if the flower of consciousness is going to bloom in us, it is going to have to happen right here where we are planted.  The Buddhists have a saying:

May we exist like a lotus

At home in the muddy water.

Thus we bow to life as it is.

 
So how do we learn to be at home in muddy water?  First off, we learn to see the mud as inconsequential.  The lotus flower gets its nourishment from the water; the sand and other matter suspended in that water are merely distractions which the lotus simply ignores.  Eventually, we learn not to see the mud at all.  Finally, we begin to figure out that if we are very, very still, the mud will all settle to the bottom and the waters of our mind will be crystal clear.  The Buddhists have another saying.

Water, if you don't stir it, becomes clear.

The mind, if you don't stir it, finds peace.

Learning to be at home in muddy water requires us to learn to still our minds so that all of the distracting  junk can fall away.  Meditation helps tremendously with that.  I know people (not me) who have a daily meditation practice.  For a few minutes once or twice a day, they empty their minds and sit thinking about absolutely nothing.  I've noticed that these people are centered, and not easily thrown off track when one of life's complications shows up in their path.

There are other ways of emptying our minds without sitting in zazen.  Many of us have a hobby that we can get lost in.  While we are playing at our favorite activity, time drops away and we think of nothing else but our project.  We can even turn washing dishes and folding laundry into a meditation if we can learn to do these tasks mindfully, being completely present to the process of folding a shirt rather than spending the time brooding about how muddy our water is. 

Try this as you go about your chores today:  Stop thinking so much.  Whatever you are doing, do only that.  When you are driving to work or to the store, only drive.  Pay attention to the way your hands feel on the wheel.  Be aware of the cars around you, and be very aware of your own body sitting in the car,  driving.  Have you ever noticed that sometimes you get in the car to go somewhere, and then all of a sudden you've arrived without even noticing that you ever drove?  What I'm suggesting is the exact opposite of that.  Simply drive.  Don't think about whether you'll be on time, or what you have to do when you get there.  Drive.  Breathe.

I wish I could tell you that when you learn to let your mud settle that life will become less complicated.  It won't.  But, like the lotus flower, you can learn not to let it keep you from blooming into the beautiful flower that you are meant to be.