There is one particular nature meditation that i really like. Sitting on a beach and listening to the ocean. Specifically the gentle waves of a calm sea breaking on a beach on an island in the tropics.
So it was a pleasant surprise to find out that one of great Bodhisattvas became enlightened doing just that. In Buddhist cosmology a Bodhisattva is an enlightened being who vows to end the suffering of all sentient beings before he exits stage left from the Theatre of the Absurd ie the Realm of Mortals on Planet Earth. Its about the ultimate compassionate act to post phone your release from suffering till everyone else is relieved of theirs. Anyway, Bodhisattvas need to earn their enlightenment like any other sentient being and the beach meditator in question was Avalokiteshvara who's name by the way means 'The one who hears the cries of the world' In the Chinese pantheon taking a female form she is Kwan Yin meaning 'One who hears the sounds of the world'.
Now if you are going to develop a super sense of hearing you are going to hear a lot of human cries out there amidst the more blissful ecstatic music of the spheres. Avaloka (for short) just couldn't ignore the sound of those cries. This was the key to both his Enlightenment and Bodhisattvahood. If thats a word.
Avalokiteshvara at some point on his travels must have ended up on a beach, who knows where, maybe in the Caribbean, and sat on the sand and just listened. Now that is the first step to the Sound Wave Beach Meditation. Just sit on the sand and listen. If you can settle your mind enough from distracting turbulent thoughts you are going to become aware of two things.
1. Sound.
In this case the gentle lapping of the waves breaking on the sand.
and
2. Silence.
What happens in between the sound of the waves breaking on the sand.
It was by focussing on, and becoming absorbed in these 2 states of awareness that Avaloka finally Got It!
What he got of course with his infinate compassion & wisdom, was the profound realisation of the Impermanence of all things, more to the point the impermanence of the 'I' in whom he had identified with as a ME.
He understood that sound (of waves, in this beach meditation method) arises from within silence only to dissapear back into that silence. Conversely the silence dissapeared when waves were heard. With the 2 states being mutually exclusive you have nothing that is permanent to hang onto. All phenomena including who you think YOU are is no different. The reality of any independent 'Thing' being permanent and existing 'Out There' just isn't so. Its pure Theatre. An illusion.
So Avaloka got it big time with the realisation that HE was also impermanent. That being so, there was nothing to hang on to anymore. No 'I- ME- MINE' that bound him to imaginary things. With deep experiential knowledge of this he was able to just let go of his own existential anxiety, his fear of dieing, and let go of his own day to day suffering.
He became Non Attached, rather than attached to something that didn't really exist. Anyway, with that came his ultimate freedom and liberation from the Theatre of the Absurd. And no doubt a subtle Buddha smile lit up his beach tanned face.
,-)
Also what came was compassion for the millions of other sentients in the Universe who remained deluded, who didn't have a smile, or a suntan. And thats when he took the Bodhisattva Vow to end ALL suffering.
So thanks Bro,
next meditation is at Low Tide.
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