Sitting here
Sounds all around.
Seagulls sqawking,
Dogs barking,
Cars trafficking.
People talking.
Construction work
and the odd chainsaw.
Cars scrunching the gravel
as they come and go.
I meditate.
Investigate.
The Buddha's teaching to Bahiya.
To let a sound be just a sound.
To let that which is sensed
be only that which is sensed.
Awareness and knowing,
being just that.
Without adding any more to it.
Without the 'I' making.
The story of
the person.
Neither here, nor there, nor inbetween the two.
This, the Buddha said, is the end of suffering.
It's the longing, the loathing, and conceit.
The impatience.
The angst.
The getting stressed
and taking it personally.
That's what gets in the way.
That's the problem.
That's what I need to let go of.
Without that there is just this.
And when there is just this.
there is no subject, no object.
The self disappears.
And when that happens there is peace.
-Asoka