A Practice without an End Goal

This week I'll be using Poppy Palin's Waking the Wild Spirit tarot deck, published by Llewellyn. I'll also be using the 2nd edition of her companion book, Stories of the Wild Spirit, published by Slippery Jacks Press. I'll also be drawing from Saltwater Reading Cards, created by Laura Bowen and published by Rockpool Publishing. Today's cards are the Two of Water (Cups) and 'Whale:'

          Palin's keyword for this Two of Water/Cups is 'dream,' but not the random nighttime kind. This is an intentional mental picture that turns the mind toward what is healing and what brings reconciliation. Many people who meditate for the first time (or irregularly) feel like it uncorks a bottle of nonstop, arbitrary thoughts and feelings. What they don't realize is that this is the same indiscriminate thinking that flows in the background of their mind all day long; without attention, it isn't noticed. Tonglen and Metta meditation are good examples of working with conditioned patterns - both cultivate tenderness and compassion towards ourselves and others. Yet sometimes spiritual work can make us feel like a self-improvement project that never shows much progress. Here Whale appears, breaching through the surface of the ocean and reminding us to take a breath of air. Psychiatrist Mark Epstein emphasizes that the point of meditation is not supposed to be goal-oriented. Instead, it allows us to objectively watch our thoughts and emotions so that we see them as impermanent rather than solid; there's no need to react to them. We can open to the flow of spacious 'nowness' always available to us - a fresh breath of air.

Past and future preoccupy us because we are trying to control things, while being in the present necessitates openness to the unexpected...We surrender to impermanence when we meditate. Wherever it may lead. ― Mark Epstein