Back From Pilgrimage

Just back from India. What a trip it was! I had planned to blog about my journey, but ended up being caught instead in an almost continuous flow of sensory impressions and moment to moment experiences, leaving no time for reflecting and writing, or taking photos even. Talk about being in the moment(s) . . .

Contrast with habit I had formed prior to pilgrimage, of dutifully documenting my practice, causes me to question the impact of becoming one step removed from moment, during such mundane activities as blogging, or sharing tweets.

From U Pandita, in In This Very Life, part on Unbroken Continuity:

One should try to be with the moment as much as possible, moment after moment, without any breaks in between. In this way mindfulness can be established, and its momentum can increase. Defending our mindfulness prevents the kilesas, the harmful and painful qualities of greed, hatred and delusion, from infiltrating and carrying us off into oblivion. It is a fact of life that the kilesas cannot arise in the presence of strong mindfulness. When the mind is free of kilesas, it becomes unburdened, light and happy.

. . . Apart from the hours of sleeping, yogis on retreat should be continuously mindful. Continuity should be so strong, in fact, that there is no time at all for reflection, no hesitation, no thinking, no reasoning, no comparing of one’s experiences with the things one has read about meditation — just time enough to apply this bare awareness.

This is not to say, I will stop reflecting, and blogging altogether about my practice. Only, I will do so in a much more deliberate way, paying attention to the intention behind writing each post, and whether or not doing so serves greater purpose of enhanced wisdom.