Verse 29 of the 37 Verses of a Bodhisattva teaches how we can free our mind. It reads,

Understanding that emotional reactions are dismantled

By insight supported by stillness,

Cultivate meditative stability that passes right by

The four formless states- this is the practice of a bodhisattva.

verse 29

Imagine this: you just finished meditating and you feel so calm and centered. You get into your car to head to work and within ten minutes, you get an anxious text, someone cuts you off in traffic, you get a phone call. All that calm has flown out the window. You find yourself dreaming about going back to the meditation cushion where you can just be away from all of this chaos.

Well, this is natural and also a bit misguided. Meditation guides us eventually toward what the Dalai Lama calls calm abiding. It’s when our practice happens beyond the mat, when things get messy and it matters most.

The reason we don’t experience this is often because we are demanding the world to be a certain way. How dare morning traffic ruin my vibes?! This is simply another form of attachment. Ken McLeod likens it to feeling confident kayaking on still waters only to get toppled when a wave comes. That’s not skill; that’s the weather.

True meditation teaches skill. And this requires us to see beyond the surface of things and recalibrate as needed. It’s that embodied feeling of balancing on a paddle board, or riding a wave. In Buddhist teaching, when we reach this stage, we free our minds.

To free your mind means seeing beyond the illusion of a fixed point, or a solid reality. It means taking life moment by moment, just as it is.

Ken McLeod writes, “When you understand that there is no way to keep yourself from moving with the ocean, you see that you have to be supple and flexible, you move with the ocean and constantly adjust your balance.” This is what verse 29 means by meditative stability.

Notice this week where some old attachments are causing you suffering. Can you let them go and find some calm abiding instead?