Month: December 2020

Difficult year, 2020 has been. In the northern hemisphere it is the time of winter solstice. Darkness in the daytime cycle is dominant, but that is about to change. The planet is about to tilt its northern half back toward the sun, and the light will begin to dominate. It is a good time to be mindful. Recognizing that everything changes and nothing is permanent, once again learning to let go, we bid farewell to the darkness and realize the light. And as we do so, mindfully, we realize that all of living can be embraced and accepted, even the Difficult.

But what is Being Mindful?  Roger Keyes give us the gift of “seeing” life through the eyes of an elderly artist who has seen through shadows and disguises; who now simply “sees.”  At least that’s my interpretation. It’s a good poem, and I’ve chosen to read it as part of the meditation. Here it is, if you’d like to read it as well.

Hokusai Says

Hokusai says look carefully.

He says pay attention, notice.

He says keep looking, stay curious.

He says there is no end to seeing

He says look forward to getting old.

He says keep changing,

you just get more who you really are.

He says get stuck, accept it, repeat

yourself as long as it is interesting.

He says keep doing what you love.

He says keep praying.

He says every one of us is a child,

every one of us is ancient

every one of us has a body.

He says every one of us is frightened.

He says every one of us has to find

a way to live with fear.

He says everything is alive —

shells, buildings, people, fish,

mountains, trees, wood is alive.

Water is alive.

Everything has its own life.

Everything lives inside us.

He says live with the world inside you.

He says it doesn’t matter if you draw,

or write books. It doesn’t matter

if you saw wood, or catch fish.

It doesn’t matter if you sit at home

and stare at the ants on your veranda

or the shadows of the trees

and grasses in your garden.

It matters that you care.

It matters that you feel.

It matters that you notice.

It matters that life lives through you.

Contentment is life living through you.

Joy is life living through you.

Satisfaction and strength

is life living through you.

He says don’t be afraid.

Don’t be afraid.

Love, feel, let life take you by the hand.

Let life live through you.

— Roger Keyes

Video and audio of the meditation is below.

Peace!

Jim

In our last meeting we focused on staying present with our inner experiences, whether pleasant or unpleasant.  This time of year is marked for most of us as a time of lower energy, maybe even lower mood resulting from the shortening of the daylight hours.  By staying present with our inner experiencing we can come to terms with it, learn how to work with it, and find contentment no matter the feelings.

In the same way our mindfulness practices call for us to stay present with the experiences around us, especially the experiences that flow from our way of being with all living beings, not just other people.  Today we focus on noticing how we affect the world around us.

How does my presence affect this person I have encountered? What is the impact of my smile? My frown? My way of being?

So often during the course of a normal day we do things that make the lives of other people a little bit better. Yet do we pay attention to this? Do we allow ourselves to have the pleasant feeling of having brought joy, peace, safety, or acceptance to another?

This is part of our self care. To not only have the intention to be an instrument of peace, but then to notice that peace, share in it, and find ourselves somewhat healed in the process.

Here are two poems by Naomi Shihab Nye that speak to us of noticing how we affect the world. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

Famous

The river is famous to the fish.

The loud voice is famous to silence,   

which knew it would inherit the earth   

before anybody said so.   

The cat sleeping on the fence is famous to the birds   

watching him from the birdhouse.   

The tear is famous, briefly, to the cheek.   

The idea you carry close to your bosom   

is famous to your bosom.   

The boot is famous to the earth,   

more famous than the dress shoe,   

which is famous only to floors.

The bent photograph is famous to the one who carries it   

and not at all famous to the one who is pictured.   

I want to be famous to shuffling men   

who smile while crossing streets,   

sticky children in grocery lines,   

famous as the one who smiled back.

I want to be famous in the way a pulley is famous,   

or a buttonhole, not because it did anything spectacular,   

but because it never forgot what it could do.

— Naomi Shihab Nye

So Much Happiness

It is difficult to know what to do with so much happiness.

With sadness there is something to rub against,

a wound to tend with lotion and cloth.

When the world falls in around you, you have pieces to pick up,

something to hold in your hands, like ticket stubs or change.

But happiness floats.

It doesn’t need you to hold it down.

It doesn’t need anything.

Happiness lands on the roof of the next house, singing,

and disappears when it wants to.

You are happy either way.

Even the fact that you once lived in a peaceful tree house

and now live over a quarry of noise and dust

cannot make you unhappy.

Everything has a life of its own,

it too could wake up filled with possibilities

of coffee cake and ripe peaches,

and love even the floor which needs to be swept,

the soiled linens and scratched records . . .

Since there is no place large enough

to contain so much happiness,

you shrug, you raise your hands, and it flows out of you

into everything you touch. You are not responsible.

You take no credit, as the night sky takes no credit

for the moon, but continues to hold it, and share it,

and in that way, be known.

Naomi Shihab Nye

And here are recordings, video and audio, of a meditation session on this theme:

Peace!

Jim

Back in May of this year I began a meditation with this question: “What kind of life are we called to have during the pandemic?” I noted that ” Zen Master Dogen tells us that ‘Life and death are of supreme importance. Time swiftly passes by and opportunity is lost. Each of us should strive to awaken. Awaken! Take heed, do not squander your life.'”

I decided to reconsider this question in December to address an issue in addition to the pandemic. This is the time of year for Seasonal Affective Disorder, known as SAD, which is felt by many people. SAD happens in degrees.  For some, it’s simply a time to be a little slower, more restful, perhaps put on a few pounds as the food we eat in the winter tends to be richer and the levels of exercise and activity tend to diminish. For others, it is a time of risk for cycling into a full blown depression. And for others there is very little if any change in mood or emotions.

As we continue to lose daylight every day, it is a time when we should be especially focused on self care. Whenever I’ve taught on the topic of self care with mental health professionals there is a response that is typical: “No, not another thing I have to do! All of this time I’ll be spending doing self care is stressing me out!” Well, that’s not I have in mind.

Self care is a moment to moment experience. It begins with being mindful in each moment of what is happening in my mind and body. Noticing the changes, the reactions, the feelings I’m having. Most of these changes are quite mundane, but occasionally one rises above the surface of awareness and demands more attention. With a mindfulness practice I’ve committed to noticing these arisings, not judging them, even if (especially if!) they’re unpleasant. Whatever change comes into my attention, I have to wonder if I can make space for it, be OK with it, see what exactly it is trying to tell me. In that way I can “own” the change, rather than it “owning” me. And still the change may be unpleasant, but somehow it seems less powerful.

Prior to today’s meditation I read an excerpt from “The Miracle of Mindfulness” by Thich Nhat Hahn, followed by the Zen night chant. Both provide food for thought about this idea of staying present in all moments. The opening paragraph, below, is paraphrased from “The Miracle of Mindfulness” by Thich Nhat Hahn.  The following paragraphs are quoted from the same work.

“After sharing dinner with his friend, the writer Jim Forest, the Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hahn rose to wash the dishes before the two of them would share an after-dinner cup of tea.  Jim, the polite guest, insisted on doing the dishes himself as an act of gratitude for the lovely dinner Nhat Hahn had just served.  Nhat Hahn replied: 

“There are two ways to wash the dishes. The first is to wash the dishes in order to have clean dishes and the second is to wash the dishes in order to wash the dishes.  While washing the dishes one should only be washing the dishes, which means that while washing the dishes one should be completely aware of the fact that one is washing the dishes.  If while washing dishes, we think only of the cup of tea that awaits us, thus hurrying to get the dishes out of the way as if they were a nuisance, then we are not ‘washing the dishes to wash the dishes.’ What’s more, we are not alive during the time we are washing the dishes. In fact we are completely incapable of realizing the miracle of life while standing at the sink. If we can’t wash the dishes, the chances are we won’t be able to drink our tea either…The fact that I am standing there and washing these bowls is a wondrous reality. I’m being completely myself, following my breath, conscious of my presence, and conscious of my thoughts and actions. There’s no way I can be tossed around mindlessly like a bottle slapped here and there on the waves.”

Jim replied, “I choose the second way — to wash the dishes to wash the dishes.””

And the Zen night chant:

Life and death are of supreme importance. Time swiftly passes by and opportunity is lost. Each of us should strive to awaken. Awaken! Take heed, do not squander your life.

— Zen Master Dogen

Here is the video of the meditation:

And here is the audio:

Peace!

Jim