It is a gorgeous day here in Metroplex, USA. Yes, it is thunderstormy, but it's the right kind of thunderstormy, i.e. the kind without tornadoes or hail. I love the rain, and not just because it gives me an excuse to ignore some of the tasks on my lists. I slow down on rainy days and listen to the thunder, which reminds me about the smallness of my body in this great big universe, and the pitter-patter of rain, which reminds me that my spirit is much bigger (and more powerful) than what the confines of my physicality can contain.
On days like these I like to be still in my cozy sweats, sip hot tea, and allow myself the time to be. There are two things I'd like to share today. The first is that I am constantly amazed by my students. One of them, Julia S., wrote a lovely post on Communitas, our shared litmag blog that promotes the spirit of community. The post is called "For the Price of Two Cups of Tea." Take a look.
Secondly,I decided to pull one of my Thich Nhat Hanh books off of the bookshelf and do a little refresher course on mindfulness. The book I pulled is called Creating True Peace: Ending Violence in Yourself, Your Family, Your Community, and the World. Violence in this instance is not just referring to physical violence, thought that is particularly relevant in this day and age, but it is also talking about the violence we create in ourselves and in others by not being mindful of our words and our actions.
When talking about peace I mean practicing actions that bring about peace and working at cultivating "understanding, love, and compassion, even in the face of misperception or conflict."
Thich Nhat Hanh says, "Peace is the practice of mindfulness, the practice of being aware of our thoughts, our actions, and the consequences of our actions." In practicing mindfulness we, in-turn, nurture our spirits and "diminish violence."
That being said, and without getting too woo woo about things, I have to remind myself of something extremely troubling. That is : "A person who is not happy cannot make peace... To bring about peace, our hearts must be peace."
If you have read any of my blog posts recently, you probably know that most of me is buried alive in anxiety, in exclusion, and in the things that I cannot control (mindlessness). I am, at the moment, anything BUT peaceful. So this is the part where I decide to accept that this mindlessness is a part of me right now, and also that these attitudes of violence against myself (which also affect my community in a violent way) are passing. They will die if I practice mindfulness, even if I have to start at square one. And that's where I am today..back at square one: Breathing.
Here is my meditation from the book today (feel free to join me):
1. Breathing in, I am aware only of my in breath. Breathing out, I am aware only of my out breath... In, Out.
2. Breathing in, I am aware that my in breath grows deep. Breathing out, I am aware that out breath grows deep... Deep, Deep.
3. Breathing in, I am aware that my in breath goes slowly. Breathing out, I am aware that my out breath goes slowly... Slow, Slow
Thank God for rainy days.
8 comments:
mmmm I love hot tea and good books on rainy days......
Seems like a lovely day to be on Spring Break!!
Love ya!
when there is anxiety, i'm not sure that that means you're not being mindful. the buddha never said that nirvana was a state that lacked unpleasant feelings, rather he was getting at a way to end our agitation in response to unpleasant feelings. not adding to them, in a sense, so whatever comes up, pleasant or unpleasant, or neither pleasant or unpleasant, one is simply watching without inner movement, for or against.
so the buddha invites us to abide in those feelings, however easy or difficult, recognising their impermanence and therefore refusing to grab at them to keep or push away, all without agitation or clinging; contemplating cessation in buddhist terminology, or simply letting go. giving up the desire to control the state, so there are no preferences, just freedom of being within the context of simply watching what's happening.
apparently just by watching, indra became king of the gods
so: oh, it's like this now. oh, and now it's like this. breath by breath, moment by (miraculous) moment.
make any sense?
so i don't think that mindfulness is a state that necessary lacks unhappiness, or happiness, rather it is the method by which the path to a fully lived, and felt life - for better or for worse and the freedom that this brings - can be revealed..
or, in other words Submitting to the Will of God = Peace. if you want to fight it, you can - and sometimes that is useful and successful but don't expect it to be particularly pleasant, however mindful you are. in fact, mindfulness make rebellion even more painful.
isn;t it strange how rebelling again the state of things can have a positive (political) or negative (spiritual) slant depending on how you look at it.
sounds like sympathy for the devil?
you got it!
M - I think you are right about mindfulness not necessarily being a state without negative emotion. I think that it is difficult to understand being at peace even with those emotions of anguish. In other words, the peace should come from the acceptance of the emotion, good or bad. But the two - anguish and peace - don't seem to go together.
In the Christian tradition, the one that I am most familiar with, anguish or negative emotion comes with a stigma. If something isn't "right in your spirit", then you need to pray it out, let go of it and trust that God will take care of it, or work it out somehow, using the Bible as your guidebook. The ultimate goal or ideal state is to be spirit-filled and joyous (without anguish - to bask in the glow and everlasting peace of God. Let go and let God.. etc.
Unfortunately for me, when I couldn't "find the peace" in this way, I thought that it was because I wasn't faithful enough.
And this is one of the reasons that I was attracted to mindfulness, because you are allowed to have an array of emotions, accept them, know that they are passing, and then be still.
That being said, it is really difficult to break old habits.
The question becomes: is the goal of living to find happiness and joy (words that seem to be synonymous with nirvana to most), or is it to experience all of the emotions of life and learn to accept and find peace in what comes to us?
And yeah, everything has a political slant - remember Paradise Lost. According to one's interpretation, Satan was the oppressed party and he (and a multitude of protestors) wanted to overthrow the political regime in heaven. Their agenda failed of course, but it's easy to feel sorry about it..
Who is Indra?
And to be clear, I think that one can be mindful and Chirstian or mindful and Muslim, Jewish, etc..
I (try to) practice mindfulness in conjunction with my faith.
hi G that's interesting you bring up satan and political rebellion. there is the strange paradox in Xtian theology that angels do not have free will, ie they all follow god only yet lucifer/satan, supposedly an angel somehow rebelled. but also, in some muslim traditions (there is some dispute here) satan (who is called iblis in islam)is not actually an angel at all but a jinn. jinn are invisible spirits (eg like thought forms) some of whom worship God and some of who do not.. ie they have free will
to my mind if lucifer is bringer of light he is not all bad. rebellion against the order of things, when they are unjust must be god-sanctioned rebellion. an example of a good kind of anguish, dissatisfaction with the present unjust order. suffering as in the passion of christ who challenged the powers and was demonised, objectified and scrucified by empire, just as trees, animals and human life forms are today.. all in the capital pursuit of money, power & worldly profit, over humanity
bring on the resurrection
Hi M, :)
To clarify for all, the Bible mentions a fallen cherub (without name)a few times, but doesn't detail the fall of Lucifer. People believe that Isaiah 14:12 which talks about a Babylonian king is actually a reference the fall of Satan. SO nowhere in the Bible does it actually mention the ill-fated story of the "light bringer" (Latin), Lucifer.
The widely accepted story of Satan's fall comes from Milton's epic and has made its way into Western theology somehow (maybe in the same way that Dante transformed Italy), and BOTH Milton and Dante had v. political agendas in mind as they wrote.(!)
In this way, I'm not sure if we're talking about a paradox in the actual doctrine of Christianity, OR if we're talking about accepted tradition. I suppose either way one can call it theology (what a weighted word!).
It was interesting when you mentioned "light bringer" as that is also a term used for Prometheus, fire (knowledge)bringer. The story goes the same as Milton's Lucifer's:
Prometheus saw that the poor masses were being oppressed and deserved better lives -knowledge, freedom, enlightenment, a power change -and to win justice Prometheus had to rebel against the perceived tyrannic power (Zeus in this case). And he did win.. sort of.
I would argue that in both cases, the results are good and bad depending on what the oppressed do with their uprisings. The decisions/hearts of people create/dictate consequences and/or progress in society. For example, Satan in Paradise Lost vows to use people as weapons against God in his ongoing battle. The people are the ones who choose whether or not Satan wins, using their free will to decided whether or not they will yield to evil or fight for righteousness. In Prometheus, people, again, use their free will
(and newfound freedom that comes with knowledge) for the betterment of society or the destruction of it. (Do we use fire to help create nutrients in our land to yield better crops, or do we use it to create steel for weaponry?)
Either way, we have to trust mankind. I think the question is CAN we afford to trust mankind (ourselves)? Our past performance indicates that we may need some major tutorial work, and maybe even need to be held back a grade or two..
Ick. I sound like an English teacher or something. I promise I don't think my body is only there to carry my head..
Hi,
You have a really good blog. Most people tend not to recognize what mind power can do to one's good results.
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