The Morning News

Take some deep in-and-out breaths and check out the morning news, inside. How is the state of your body? How is the state of your mind right now? It’seen running around in the kitchen, running around with our chores for the morning. Now it’s time to stop and take stock, make sure that we haven’t picked up any bad habits, haven’t picked up any stray ideas that are going to give us trouble if we don’t take them out.

So. If you see anything inside the mind that’s not conducive to the meditation, just sweep it away. Think of the breath sweeping through the body, sweeping out all the cobwebs, both in the body and the mind. This is the kind of news where once you know it, you can do something about it. The news in the world outside, all too often, is about things that are beyond our control. It induces a sense of helplessness. But here’s news that you can do something about. How you’re breathing right now is something you can change right now. How you’re thinking right now is something you can change.

So take stock. Take a survey. And then do what needs to be done. Do what needs to be done.

This is an area where you do have some power:Yyour karma in the present moment is something you can choose. We choose it willy-nilly anyhow, but we’re often too distracted by other things to be really clear about what choices we’re making. But here you can take some time and look clearly at what you’re doing. When you intend to do something, you can ask yourself, “What do I expect out of this?” All too often, our choices go on automatic pilot. We have a vague, general idea. How many times have you asked somebody, “Why did you do that?” And they have to stop and think. We’ve often done that ourselves. Someone asks us, “Why did you do that?” And you have to stop and think: “What was my intention?”

This is something you should be in touch with all the time. When you intend to do something, say something, think something, what do you expect? And if you expect any harm, you don’t do it. You have that power; you have that choice.

So this is the most important news that you can be watching right now—the state of your body, the state of your mind right now. And then remember all the tools you have at hand as a meditator for straightening things out inside.