“In Buddhism, simply resting in a relaxed, open, spacious state of mind without purpose and without a goal is considered the highest form of spiritual practice…
This spacious awareness is considered both an advanced practice and a practice even the merest beginner can do.
This seems pa
radoxical, but when a beginner does it, it has the quality and substance of a beginner’s awareness, and when an advanced meditator does it, it has a deeper quality of advanced awareness.
That is why I like to call it a prayer of silence. Prayer is not really something you get “good” at, like other skills — although people who pray regularly have cultivated a prayerful attitude toward life.
A prayer is in essence a surrender and
a supplication to that which is beyond ourselves.
In this sense the Buddhist practice of spacious awareness has a universality that makes it kindred with other religions.”
~ Lewis Richmond
Aging as a Spiritual Practice
[originally posted on 15 Dec 2013 on my former site dharma yoga arts]
tscottmiller 