Coming Home

You already are what you want to become. ~Master Lin Chi

Background

All of us go through times of transition, challenges, and difficulties. We may have faced or will face times of loss, confusion, or heartbreak, when we realize we cannot control the way our life is unfolding, whether in our personal lives or in the world around us. With mindfulness, we can learn to move through these intense, challenging times in ways that don’t add to the suffering and difficulty that are already there. We can even learn to open our hearts to the richness and wisdom these times of immense disruption can bring us.

A key step that can help us begin to settle ourselves when we are profoundly unsettled is to come home, to ourselves, in this moment, whatever is happening. This is one way of speaking about mindfulness, or being present: coming home to ourselves. No matter what happens around us, if we can find this home inside of us, we are always safe.

When we touch this experience of coming home, it is like we have finally arrived home after a long journey. We experience a sense of peace and even freedom. Coming home to ourselves feels like belonging; it is a state that holds us and enables us to hold others.

How do we do this

One of the ways is to stay with what is here and now, on the platform of the train station so to speak, watching the trains of our thoughts and plans come and go, rather than jumping on a thought-train that is heading into the future, or another thought-train that takes us into the past. Learn to notice those thoughts and take good care of them rather than get carried away by them. Bringing our attention to our breath or to the sensations in our body helps us stay on the platform of the now. The past and future are not the place where we can come home to ourselves and resource ourselves with the elements we need to move through our difficulties. We can only come home to ourselves in the present moment, in the here and now.

Let’s practice

Sit, lie, or stand in a comfortable position that supports you to be alert and also relaxed. You are welcome to have your eyes open or closed. Begin by feeling the contact between your body and whatever surface is supporting you. Let yourself rest in this place, returning to this moment, here and now.

Pause

Allow yourself to settle right here in your body and notice what is here. Is there tension, relaxation, some pain, some pleasure, or a neutral feeling? As much as you can, bring an attitude of openness to whatever you encounter, without judging your experience… …Whenever you’re aware that your mind is distracted in thinking, gently bring it back to your body, to what is right here.

Pause

Set the intention to come home to yourself, to be present for yourself. You deserve this care, you are precious and unique, in all the world there is no one else who brings the precise combination of gifts that you bring… …Allow yourself to arrive here as fully as you can. And welcome the many parts of yourself home.

Pause

You may already begin to feel yourself settling into the home inside of you: The place of your strength, wisdom, and clarity. A place that is trustworthy and capable of providing you with refuge in the storm. But if not, continue to stay with awareness of your body sensations, sounds, or breathing. A sense of coming home will develop over time. It may not happen the first time you meditate, but as you become more attuned to yourself, you will find that you have been at home all along.

Pause

Repeat inwardly:  I have arrived. I am home.

You can connect the words with your breath: Arrived, with the in-breath. Home, with the out-breath.

Pause

Arrived in the present moment, home in myself, just as I am.

Arrived, arrived,

at home, I am at home,

dwelling in the here and dwelling in the now.

Solid as a mountain, free as a white cloud,

the door to no birth and no death is open,

free and unshakeable.

This is an excerpt from Kaira Jewel Lingo, WE WERE MADE FOR THESE TIMES, 2021