Contemplate/Activate

From the Ferret Tarot, the High Priestess; from the Nature's Wisdom Oracle, Owl:

There has to be breathing in as well as breathing out. We need to have both the active and the contemplative. —Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo

          Regardless of what social media says, the purpose of meditation is not to escape the world but learn to live in it with wisdom and compassion. We first cultivate purposeful attention (concentration) that allows our normally discursive mind to calm and stabilize (along with our body). Once we are anchored, things seem more spacious rather than constricted. Then we can begin experiential inquiry, looking deeply and questioning the habitual patterns of thought that lead to unhelpful, reflexive action. We start to realize how often we misperceive, assume, and generalize; we come to understand the suffering we cause ourselves and others. Yet the Owl appears with more wisdom to offer. Knowledge might be power, but it is action that will produce change.