Meditation – stopping to get started 

Ironically, the best way to start on the path of Zen Druidry is to simply stop! We use meditation as a point that we can return to, again and again, to remind us of how to live in the present moment, fully and with awareness.  We try to live as fully as we can all the time, but when we are just beginning on this path, taking time out to stop and simply be can result in a lifelong, lifestyle change. It really can affect how we live the rest of our lives – something so simple, yet so difficult.

Zen teaches us all about non-attachment. Druidry teaches us about relationship. It may sound contradictory, but both hold each other so deeply it is hard to extricate them.  Non-attachment lets us get on with our lives, to live fully present in the moment, allowing us to see thoughts and actions and then let them go or act on them as we need to.  Druidry, when applied with the mechanics of non-attachment, allow for a total immersion in the present moment, where true relationship can be obtained, where the awen flows as freely as it ever could.  Like the blackbird singing at dusk, we are purely in the moment and by being in the moment, connected to everything and being true to our own nature.

Meditation helps us along the path to both non-attachment and connection.  It stills the mind so that it can find the space to simple “be”.  Once we have achieved that state, we can come to know ourselves, our thought processes, the patterns we create in our head.  Aware of these patterns, we can step outside them and see them for what they truly are.  These patterns no longer impede us on our journey to true connection.  We live with full awareness.

We stop living inside our heads, and venture out into the world to walk our talk.