Good Environments...

Many years ago one of my two teachers, Kwong Roshi, knew I was going to go out into the mountains backpacking for a few months, so he taught me how to find the right place to stay at night. It's not that he gave me information on how to do it. He just talked about it for a while, and then all of a sudden I realized that I would be able to directly sense the environment that was right for me.

Just as we can feel our environments, we can feel when there is a harmonization of spirit and matter in our environments. Those are good environments to hang out in, and they quite naturally harmonize us.

The more harmonization there is, the more there is an intensification of the Truth, or radiance, within us. Of course the radiance is everywhere. We can't get away from it. But for a period of time, it's helpful to have some intensification in our environment. It's useful to have support because we can lose the sense that there is radiance everywhere all the time.

As we go deeper, we will experience the radiance everywhere, even if it doesn't appear in a concentrated, potent, or powerful way. We come to that by being willing to expose ourselves to experiences and places that make it more potent.

~ From: Emptiness Dancing, by Adyashanti