What’s that?
You say you want to meditate?
Then be sure not to fall into the trap
of rigid contrivance.
The Buddha was a sage of Matriarchy:
centered, acquiescent, and spontaneous.
All who are born will die,
and the Buddha was no exception.
After his death
it did not take long
for so called leadership vacuums
to be filled by minions of Patriarchy:
scattered, aggressive, and manipulative.
The difference of matriarchy and patriarchy
is not a matter of reproductive hardware
but rather of neurological orientation;
with matriarchy being the wise team
of Mid-brain and forebrain
and patriarchy being the merely clever team
of brain-stem and forebrain.
Remember the tales
of the Buddha’s cousin Devadatta
who was clever enough
to divide the Sangha of monks
but not wise enough
to meet the spiritual needs
of his stolen disciples
who soon abandoned him.
Cleverness,
it would seem,
is a poor substitute for wisdom.
Patriarchy is rigid and controlling
so of course they promote concentration
which seeks to control and constrict
our experience of perception.
Matriarchy is flexible and flowing
and practices the mindfulness,
which is antithetical to concentration,
and seeks to relax all perception
giving it free rein.
Simply put
concentration seeks to forcefully calm the mind
which is rather like making love
in the name of virginity;
whereas mindfulness merely relaxes
into the eye of the storm
content to watch the chaotic maelstrom
that is our life.
Patriarchy promises that peace is found
when we have repressed
all sensation, flavor, scent, sound, sight,
emotion, intention, reason, recollection, and imagination;
whereas matriarchy experiences peace
as it passively blends non-conceptual noticing with inhalation
and physical relaxation, as well as mental release,
with exhalation.
When we read the three meditation manuals
attributed to the Buddha:
the Anapanasati Sutta,
the Satipatthana Sutta,
the Maha Satipatthana Sutta,
and the seven enlightenment factors taught therein,
we see that it was the gentle path of matriarchy
that the Buddha taught
and not its patriarchal counter-part.
So buckle-up, and enjoy the ride
of this morning’s guided meditation
and you will learn all you need to master
the Buddha’s path of mantra meditation.
Tonight we’ll explore
silent meditation.
Let us conclude
with a simple
call to action
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