A number of years back I remarked to my old teacher just how much I was noticing I had shed since I'd started practicing: a lot of ideas and concepts, to be sure, but also a lot of habits, possessions, demands on time, worries, etc. It wasn't as though I'd been trying to get rid of them, either. It just sort of happened.
He reassured me that such was one of the fruits of practice. One comes to experience a contentedness and a sufficiency that isn't predicated on more and more and more but that also comes about without a specific focus on less and less and less. Things, ideas, habits, etc. just fall away of their own accord.
My dharma brother mentioned to me yesterday that he noticed he just wasn't as into watching sports as before, even to the point of not even paying attention to the NCAA championship, even though it was on the TV in the restaurant where he worked. He wasn't consciously not watching it; he just wasn't watching it.
I passed on to him what had been passed on to me, and I found myself grateful to have the honor of hanging around with people (he's not the only one around here) who seem to be shedding all over the place!
He reassured me that such was one of the fruits of practice. One comes to experience a contentedness and a sufficiency that isn't predicated on more and more and more but that also comes about without a specific focus on less and less and less. Things, ideas, habits, etc. just fall away of their own accord.
My dharma brother mentioned to me yesterday that he noticed he just wasn't as into watching sports as before, even to the point of not even paying attention to the NCAA championship, even though it was on the TV in the restaurant where he worked. He wasn't consciously not watching it; he just wasn't watching it.
I passed on to him what had been passed on to me, and I found myself grateful to have the honor of hanging around with people (he's not the only one around here) who seem to be shedding all over the place!
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