10/05/2026
The Ground And Atmosphere
From The Online Gatherings
www.NeilMcKinlay.com
As the Online Gatherings move beyond July and August, when our focus was more practice-based, and return to our core contemplation, we’ve been reviewing our basic practice. In doing so, it made sense to begin at the beginning: with the ground and atmosphere of our practice, our community, and our lives.
Basic brilliance is the ground. This living affirmation—that qualities such as clarity, tenderness, communicativeness, ease, well-being, stability, and mindfulness are alive and well in all of us—is our ground. These qualities belong not to any one person, tradition, or practice, but are alive in all of us.
It is a living affirmation because we give it room to breathe in our midst. We allow for the possibility that each of us might have something insightful, fresh, or helpful to contribute to our understanding of meditation. In this way, we quilt together our practice, experience, and understanding.
And when it becomes living, it gives rise to the atmosphere in which we sit, rest, and practice. The atmosphere of our Gatherings, our practice, and our lives rises like heat waves from the ground of basic brilliance.
With this affirmation—that basic brilliance is alive and well in all of us—comes the sense that stability, clarity, tenderness, ease, and well-being are alive in us no matter what.
Then gradually, glimpse by glimpse, we begin to live in this atmosphere. We can trust ourselves a little more, have a little more confidence and curiosity, and appreciate our lives as they are in this moment.
So, in reviewing our practice, we’ve returned to the beginning: the ground and atmosphere of our practice, our community, and our lives. Basic brilliance is the ground. And the trust, confidence, faith, curiosity, and appreciation that arise from resting on that ground become the atmosphere that surrounds us.
