There is a cartoon of two Zen monks in robes with shaved heads, one young, one old sitting side by side cross legged on the floor. The younger one is looking somewhat quizzically at the older one, who is turned toward him and saying, “Nothing happens next. This is it.”

It’s true, ordinarily, when we undertake something, it is only natural to expect a desirable outcome for our efforts. We want to see results, even if it is only a pleasant feeling. The sole exception I can think of is meditation. Meditation is the only intentional, systematic human activity which is not about trying to improve yourself or get anywhere else, but simply to realize where you already are. In fact maybe it’s value lies precisely in this. Maybe we all need to do one thing in our lives simply for it’s own sake.

But meditation is not about “doing”. It is about “being” — being in the moment.

When we understand that “This is it,” it allows us to let go of the past and the future and wake up to what we are now, in this moment.

People don’t understand this at first - they want to meditate in order to:

  • Relax

  • Experience a special state

  • Be a better person

  • To reduce some stress or pain

  • To break out of old habits & patterns

  • To become free or enlightened.

All valid reasons to take up meditation but all equally fraught with problems if you expect those things to happen just because you are now meditating.

There is nothing wrong with not willing to accept certain things in our world such as:

  • Poverty

  • Racism

  • Classism

  • Sexism

Yesterday 20 of us from the Rime Center participated in “Christmas in October.” We along with 6,000 other volunteers throughout Kansas City made a difference - fixing up the houses of those who for reasons of poverty or illness are not able to.

So, the lesson I think, is that we change things that we are able to. But there is no point in worrying or getting upset about things we have no control over. HHDL says what point is there in worry? If we can change things - then we will - if we can’t then why worry about them?

It’s like the Serenity Prayer:

Grant me the serenity

to accept the things I cannot change;

courage to change the things I can;

and wisdom to know the difference.

Nasrudin was eating a simple meal of chick-peas and bread at the same time his neighbor was dining on a sumptuous meal provided by the emperor. His neighbor suggested, “If you would learn to flatter the emperor, then you wouldn’t have to eat chick-peas and bread.” Nasrudin replied, “If you would learn to let go of those sumputous meals and live on chick-peas and bread, then you wouldn’t have to flatter the emperor.”

Nasrudin and his neighbor had different relationships toward eating well. His neighbor was attached to eating well. He neede to eat a certain kind of meal to be happy with. But his need to eat a certain way meant he was beholden to the his desires. He wasn’t free to enjoy a simple meal; he needed sumptuous ones. He was compelled to flatter the emperor; he wasn’t free to to behave in a more authentic way.

On the other hand Nasrudin wasn’t attached to eating well. He had let go of it. Nasrudein could enjoy the simplicity of his meal and didn’t have to flatter anyone.

He didn’t need sumptuous meals to support his image of himself in this way - He was free of that.

When we let go of wanting something else to happen in the moment we are taking a profound step toward being able to encounter “what is here and now.”

So in this coming week…. Try reminding yourself from time to time: “This is it” See if there is anything at all that it cannot be applied to. Remind yourself that acceptance of the present moment has nothing to with resignation in the face of what is happening. It simply means a clear acknowledgement that what is happening is happening.

After all - all we have is the present moment. And meditation is nothing more than “moment-to-moment” awareness. When we practice “acceptance” we are waking up to “what is” - the present moment.

Remember:

“Nothing happens next. This is it.”