Meditation for Saturday, August 6: Drink from the living well of the present.
Yesterday, halfway through my run, I decided to take a spontaneous detour through Duke Divinity School and Duke Chapel, to refresh myself with water from the Div School water fountain and to enjoy standing over the massive floor air conditioning vents in the dark serenity of the chapel. Even in the few, quiet breaths of time I spent in those places, they offered me an oasis from the blistering hot day.
Today, I encountered an oasis of a spiritual kind, upon receiving a blessing from a man standing in the traffic median soliciting money. He had a sign that read, "If I can smile, so can you!" And I thought, how true. When I gave him $2, he said to me, "Bless you, ma'am. I pray that you receive this back one hundred times over when you need it."
The experience reminded me of the Flower Sutra, a story from the Buddha's ministry (sutra roughly translated means "teaching," but literally means, "thread that holds things together;" think of the medical term, suture). One day, the Buddha tells his disciples he has nothing more to say to them, and holds up a flower. One of his disciples smiles with understanding, and to this disciple, the Buddha promises his legacy.
The cardboard sign with writing on it was not as hard to decode as a flower, but it made me smile with understanding. Upon reading it, I realized the richness of the present moment, in which I had everything in the world to smile about. As I smiled, I sensed myself touching the eternal.
When we awaken to the present as I did in the car today, is the deepest well we will ever encounter. Like an oasis in the desert, we should receive it with joy.
From the Book of Isaiah, chapter 55, verse 1:
Come, all you who are thirsty,
come to the waters;
and you who have no money,
come...
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