Oh boy! Friday I start a retreat at Insight Meditation Society. Because we need to bring all our bedding, I’ve been rubbing the twin-sized sheets in our closets to see which are softest, and glad that my stepdaughter Chloe favors pretty, floral patterns. And worrying about my outfits (true confession — I caught myself checking how certain pants will look from behind in the lunch line). This sweet, silly human mind is hoping that I’ll be feeling happy and comfy protected while I’m there. I’m going to miss David and lots of things.

I guess I will have to rest right within whatever happens. Here’s the kind of instruction I find so very comforting. I borrowed it from Thubten Kway, a Facebook practitioner.

“Obsessive use of meditative disciplines or perennial study of scripture and philosophy will never bring forth this wonderful realization, this truth which is natural to awareness, because the mind that desperately desires to reach another realm or level of experience inadvertently ignores the basic light that constitutes all experience. ” “Let go of what has passed. Let go of what may come. Let go of what is happening now. Don’t try to figure anything out. Don’t try to make anything happen. Relax, right now, and rest.” —
Tilopa