I had one of those aha moments this morning. i've been concentrating on the practice of opening for the last little while and this morning got a glimpse into the place where opening and inviting meet. There have been plenty of opportunities to practice opening into discomfort and pain, to notice contraction and closing, and to exercise opening and breathing into them. i finally got it this morning that i don't have to wait for these experiences to arrive. i can go out and invite them. (har har har) Yep. That invitation isn't just about following attention or stretching to embrace a new possibility. It's about the everyday stuff too--you know, the icky stuff. The things that make your guts churn--that normally you'd avoid like the plague. Yes, THAT CONVERSATION...you know the one...
While invitation is about the good and the true, we sometimes forget that the true often doesn't look so good--that it can be scary and ugly. I saw this morning that there is a beauty in inviting the ugly truth--a real power and joy in inviting the willingness to open into our suffering. A next depth of practice, if you will--that opening to suffering and pain as they arise is one thing and actively inviting the possibility of opening to them is another.
Chris Corrigan writes at Michael Herman's great wiki collection of OST resources, "Invitation...follows on the openess of vulnerable intention, intention that wants to reach into the world." I am glimpsing an interesting flow between opening and invitation--where the vulnerability and letting go of opening meets the probe?, the gentle current, of invitation.
Not a big aha, just a quiet expansion into what's next.
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