The Smiling Lantern

In Thailand there was a meditation teacher with amazing light named Ajahn Chah. One of the important characteristics of the last Guru is his amazing discipline. He was not only very discipline to the others, he was also very discipline to himself.

Whenever there were students who were afraid of being alone, they will immediately be sent to the silent forest to meditate alone. Whenever there were students who were shy, do not like to stay in the crowd, they will be sent to the crowded places such as traditional markets.

For the ordinary people, this approach of learning sounds very scary. Some people even choose to run away. But for the deep spiritual seekers who have grown mature, this approach  of learning is very challenging. Especially for mature souls who need to enter the unvisited inner darkness.

For the people who never visit the inner darkness, the inner darkness  will come to the surface in the form of fear, the harming enemies, ignorance, as well as a number of the other spiritual barriers. And the most important thing, the unvisited inner darkness are prone to guide spiritual travelers towards spiritual downfalls.

Every spiritual friends who grow deep on the path of meditation especially, an encounter with any kind of discomfort such as fear and shame is an encounter with the deeper parts of ourselves. Discomfort is similar to a padlock which lock the door. When we frequently visit the inner darkness like discomforts, one day the door will be opened.

In the deep practice of mindfulness, the encounter with discomfort is an encounter with wholeness. While the ordinary people hate anger, hatred, envy, sorrow, sadness, bad luck, in the deep practice of mindfulness the negative emotions and the negative experiences are beautifully hug with a beautiful smile.

In the language of one of Ajah Chah's students named Jack Kornfield: "to put the tiger of anger into the cage of mindfulness". Anger is not thrown out. Meditators learn to take good care of anger in the cage of mindfulness. Similar to the nature outside complete with day and night, the nature inside also contains elements of darkness.

One day Lord Buddha was asked about his cousin Devadatta who wanted  to hurt him many times, this perfectly enlightened Guru calmly replied: "Devadatta is part of my inner darkness". In other words, even the perfect enlightened teacher who has experienced perfect enlightenment still have dark space within.

It is like darkness and light. Both are one. Without darkness, there will be no light. And the task of meditation is not to dispel the darkness completely, but to beautifully hug darkness using the hands of wholeness. This perfect encountering  with perfect wholeness is often called enlightenment. In plain language, enlightenment is a beautiful inner blooming. There's waste in flower, there's flower in waste.

That is why, the deep and marvelous practice of mindfulness is often called the smiling lantern. Meditators do not only beautifully smile to the inner light, but also beautifully smile to the inner darkness. Welcome home beautiful souls.

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