There Is a Still Place in the Midst of Chaos

You can return to it. Always.

This past Saturday, I did not take to the streets.

I sat quietly in my backyard and meditated for an hour.

Stillness is not escape.

It is intimacy with what is.

I took refuge in what is—

Not pushing away any feelings,

Nor the sensations,

Nor the thoughts.

Just being.

What arises will also pass.

Awareness is not touched by any of it.

For that one hour, my mind raced and slowed.

My perspective shifted.

From feeling like the world was ending

To sensing something deeper:

In the midst of doom, of pain, of heartbreak—

There is a center that holds.

The center is not somewhere else.

The center is here, in you.

I write this on a Monday.

Soon I will sit in a room with students who are incarcerated.

Some are serving life without parole.

Some have just come out of 15 years in solitary confinement.

The world builds cages.

The heart knows freedom.

For me, the prison is a microcosm of the constructed world we’re all living in.

Hellish, yes.

But even here, there are Buddhas—

People who sit quietly,

Who take refuge,

Who find stillness in the fire.

There is no place where awakening cannot happen.

Even in hell, there are Buddhas.

My students remind me:

I too can be a Buddha.

The path is not reserved for the pure.

It is walked by the willing.

So if you are reading this

In the midst of whatever you’re going through—

Grief, pain, confusion, overwhelm, or numbness—

Know this:

You are not alone.

The center holds.

You can return to it. Again and again.

Take good care.

-Carlos