There is no guarantee that you will survive,
even past this very day!
The time has come for you to develop
perseverance in your practice.
—The Tibetan Book of the Dead - Chapter 1
I’ve been meditating to this soundtrack of wind chimes, Tibetan bowls, and the like. When I can empty my mind and focus on the sounds, I call that “Reality.” When the mind drifts into thoughts of the past, speculation of the future, or nonsensical daydreams, I label that “Illusion.” When I catch myself drifting into Illusion, I refocus and center myself in Reality. Taking this a step further, anytime a thought seems productive or conducive to my well-being, I observe it and let it go. But anytime a thought seems counterproductive, negative, or nonsensical, I “pluck” it from the garden like a weed (to use an unoriginal metaphor).
I spend a lot of time reading various sources of ancient wisdom—in search of how to achieve happiness or prosperity, I suppose—but while that may be good for planting the occasional flower, I’ve realized that no one can weed the garden but the gardener themself. This concept is nothing new, of course (it’s been around for more than a couple of thousand years), but I think it hit me in a new way this morning when this question arose out of the abyss: “How can you bend Illusion to serve your Reality?”
Something about that line, paired with reading the above quote just before laying down for meditation, seemed noteworthy.