I Think Of Desire As

I Might Find That I Have A Habit Of Being Jealous And Comparing Myself With Other People And Riveting My Attention On How Much Somebody Else Is Accomplishing Or Doing, Or How Much Better They Are At Such And Such. First, I Might Recognize The Story - The Mental Images And Internal Dialogue - And Say, "okay, Comparing Mind." Then, Rather Than Staying Caught In The Content, I'll Bring My Attention Into My Body And Open To The Immediate Feelings That Are There.

In Bullfighting There Is An Interesting Parallel To The Pause As A Place Of Refuge And Renewal. It Is Believed That In The Midst Of A Fight, A Bull Can Find His Own Particular Area Of Safety In The Arena. There He Can Reclaim His Strength And Power. This Place And Inner State Are Called His Querencia. As Long As The Bull Remains Enraged And Reactive, The Matador Is In Charge. Yet When He Finds His Querencia, He Gathers His Strength And Loses His Fear. From The Matador's Perspective, At This Point The Bull Is Truly Dangerous, For He Has Tapped Into His Power.

With Mindfulness Training We Are Able To Recognize When We Get Lost In Our Mental Dramas, And Bring A Kind And Nonreactive Presence To The Feelings That Accompany Them.

I Speak A Lot About What I Call "the Trance Of Unworthiness" Which Is Really Epidemic In Our Culture, This Sense Of "i'm Not Enough," Or "something's Wrong With Me." Most Of Us Have Some Level Of It Because Our Culture Has All These Standards (handed Down Through Our Families) Of What It Means To Be Okay.

What Would It Be Like If I Could Accept Life--accept This Moment--exactly As It Is?