After that first meditation session I guided, I never imagined how far things would go…
I did not expect that, soon afterward, a highly progressive meditation practice for the new era would be sent to me and that I would represent it by sharing and guiding meditators. That is Awakening Meditation. However, in this book I wanted to write about meditation generally, simply, rather than only Awakening Meditation. It remains something extraordinary for which I am immensely grateful. Receiving an entire new method for both the majority (with basic steps) and a smaller group of highly progressive people who can go deeper (continuing with the practice's later steps) is a profound fortunate connection. I did not spend “a penny” to receive this meditation practice. The universe gave it entirely free. So I also charge nothing to teach Awakening Meditation in the 7-day to 7-week practice program, “Awakening Meditation for Life Purpose.” I want to give this practice to everyone just as it was given to me.
I never expected some meditation courses to attract several thousand registrations, with a thousand meditators actually attending from across the country and other nations, all serious and diligent about learning. I never expected my responsibility to become guiding thousands of other meditators. This was never the life plan I sketched a few years ago.
That is why I have had the opportunity to meet many meditators and people needing healing and listen to their stories.
It really is very diverse, my friend. Everyone is different, every tree has its own flowers, every family its own circumstances…
Someone carries a terrible relationship with her mother. She has never found true peace thinking about her mother or being in what she calls that “damned” relationship. When apart, their text exchanges are only somewhat tense; true “hell” appears when they spend time together. They insult each other with the harshest words imaginable. The energy in their screams and curses is terrifying. The mother continually “bothers” and berates her. The daughter also has an enormous ego and often wants to “mother her own mother.” Like water and fire, they cannot live harmoniously together. Sometimes she confides that she “loves her mother, but there are people we love whom we simply cannot bear to live beside.”
For one woman, her husband had sexual difficulties yet was passionately involved with another woman because of that woman's many accomplished bedroom techniques. He was not entirely bad. He voluntarily confided in his wife, hoping she would help him escape this trap. Yet he never managed it; instead, he sank deeper into sexual passion with the other woman. His wife suffered terribly because she still loved him deeply. If only he were simply a bastard who had cheated! She was deeply emotional, but at that time lacked true compassion for herself and clarity of wisdom. She was “stuck” in a hopeless tangle, unable to find a solution. Let go or hold on? Support her husband or love herself? She drifted between these two paths, unable to find peace. Each long night, she buried herself in self-blame: “Maybe because I know nothing about sex, because I'm so ‘boring’ and terrible, my husband is like this?” She sank deeper into an inner crisis, tormenting herself increasingly…
Some people have a complex about money. A man carries “hidden” anger toward money. He wants to earn more to care better for his wife and children, yet somehow never feels financially satisfied. Whatever he earns “disappears—where did it all ‘fly’ away?” His wallet is often empty, cards often maxed out, and accounts often “burned through”; generally, he is frequently broke. This also creates enormous family tension. He wants respect as a man, yet faces many difficulties and accumulates negative memories in the role of family breadwinner. This makes him even angrier and more irritable. Because money has not “satisfied” his self-esteem, he “compensates” with shouting, raised voices, and harshness, wanting respect, recognition, and genuine love. He confuses different aspects of life, believing he needs money to be respected. He feels very “tangled” and thinks he needs “untangling.” Clearly, he has never been at peace with money. This topic always causes stress, anxiety, and even fear, and those feelings spread to family, relationships, health…
Dear friend, these are just a few among the countless “fates” we encounter in life today. What do they have in common?
It is just one word: “An” (meaning “peace”).
They do not have true peace with money, with their husbands or with their mothers. When we are unwell, we are not at peace either (a healthy body brings a peaceful mind). When we lack necessities, we are not at peace. When our relationships are troubled, we are not at peace. When we face problems at work, we are not at peace. Whatever it may be, perhaps everything we do in this world is simply an effort to return to that state of “Peace”—peace, stability and serenity within ourselves. Meditation can help us find peace. Is that not precious?
So it can be said that, ultimately, life needs only this one word. Not ‘money,’ ‘power,’ ‘love,’ ‘desire,’ ‘fame,’ or ‘wisdom’… These also play necessary roles, but in the end, life needs only one word…
AN
In the end, being at peace is enough!
(Trích dẫn sách “Ai cũng thiền được“)
Day 8/21 of meditation for creating personal and collective peace.
