Digesting Our Karma

When we begin a meditation practice it is often quite shocking so see our very busy mind. I have heard many people say they initially felt worse after beginning to meditate. Previously, they had never slowed down enough to realize what a thought-producing machine their mind was. Some thoughts are easy to drop, but there are others that take a great deal of courage to even face, let alone eventually learn from, appreciate, and then release.

My teacher used the metaphor of a cow chewing on its cud. This very fibrous diet must be swallowed, regurgitated, chewed on some more, swallowed and then passed through four stomachs. It's not easy! So yes, maybe cultivation is not the right word, but for most of us, it takes a huge amount of digesting our karma before we can begin to breathe more easily and perceive the Way.

—from The Hidden Lamp, eds. Florence Caplow and Susan Moon