Mindfulness Meditation (For Everyday Life)

or a rock with a hammer, in spite of its hardness, or
actually because of it, the rock chips, fragments,
breaks apart. But if you hit the ocean or a pond with a
hammer, all you get is a rusty hammer. A key virtue
of water power reveals itself in this.
To practice using the lake image in your meditation,
picture in your mind's eye a lake, a body of water held
in a receptive basin by the earth itself. Note in the
mind's eye and in your own heart that water likes to
pool in low places. It seeks its own level, asks to be
contained. The lake you invoke may be deep or
shallow, blue or green, muddy or dear. With no wind,
the surface of the lake is flat. Mirrorlike, it reflects
trees, rocks, sky, and clouds, holds everything in
itself momentarily. Wind stirs up waves on the lake,
from ripples to chop. Clear reflections disappear. But
sunlight may still sparkle in the ripples and dance on
the waves in a play of shimmering diamonds. When
night comes, it's the moon's turn to dance on the
lake, or if the surface is still, to be reflected in it along
with the outline of trees and shadows. In winter, the
lake may freeze over, yet teem with movement and
life below.
When you have established a picture of the lake in
your mind's eye, allow yourself to become one with
the lake as you lie down on your back or sit in