Stilling the Background | Ovāda

Our life is made up of many moments that lend significance and give us a sense of time. These milestones can include things like the first day of school, winning an award, getting a first job, receiving a promotion, getting married, and so on. These events and their significance form what we might call the background of our life. However, when a person begins to practice the Dhamma and devotes more of their time to meditation, the things that lead up to these small milestones—such as parties, the development of relationships, etc.—start to fade away. As this happens, our life may seem boring from the outside. However, what we're actually doing is stilling the background so that we can focus on what's happening in the foreground of our life—our thoughts, perceptions, desires, and attachments to all these external things. When we still the background and the foreground becomes more prominent, we gain a greater opportunity to see what we're doing to cause ourselves happiness and what we're doing to cause ourselves suffering.