Affirmation for 2013

Love After Love

The time will come
when, with elation
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror
and each will smile at the other's welcome,

and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you

all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,

the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.

 

Derek Walcott

 

I heard this poem being recited by mindfulness meditation  "guru" Jon Zabat Zinn during the NPR show "On Being". To me, it exemplifies what we do when we sit. We get to know ourselves intimately. 

My goals in 2013 are to develop and express a deeper compassion for all and to get to know myself more intimately. I have other goals, of course, like spending less, saving more, getting super fit and healthy, and getting organized, but compassion and self awareness are interwoven in all of that.

In addition to this affirmation, there is a practice that I read about in a recent Buddhist magazine that I am going to try. During a sitting, you listen to the silence, and then, to yourself, in your head, say your name, repeatedly. I think this practice helps to unearth how even our name is, just that, a name, but it does not define us. I don't know how to say it more eloquently, but I get the feeling that sometimes we cling so much to things that we think define us, like our jobs, our relationships, our name, our status. When none of that defines our true nature.

2012 was a hell of a year. I am sure 2013 will be in its own way. I am leaning into what will be, hoping that my continuous practice will sustain me and help me to be a bodhisattva, preaching, teaching, and healing all sentient beings.

Namaste Ase

Tonglen and Right Speech: Part One

May the words of my mouth and the 

meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight.

Nommo:

Word sound is Power 

I don't meditate much. Meditation is an important component to Buddhist spiritual practice, but its not the only one. Lately, I have read and learned through discussions that the focus on meditation is more of an Western tradition than it is part of the Eastern tradition. Whatever the case, at this moment in time, meditation is not the center of my spirituality. I find that other practices are more useful to me, and like Buddha says, take what is useful to you in the study of the Dharma.

I am currently reading Pema Chodron's The Places That Scare You. Well, that along with about 50-11 other things...but this book is the focus of my spiritual reading right now. I am reading it on a Kindle that was gifted to me by an ex, which is an interesting exercise within itself, for a number of reasons. But in terms of reading a spiritual book electronically, I thought at first it would prevent me from being able to easily go back and reread important passages. But I am learning to work with it, so we shall see.

Anyway, one of the practices that I have been working with is the tonglen practice. Tonglen means 'sending and taking'. In tonglen practice, you take in the suffering of yourself and others and send out happiness and the end of suffering. Its intertwined with compassion, which is perhaps the most important spiritual practice of all (to me at least). You have to have compassion to be willing to work with suffering. 

Pema talks about 4 stages of tonglen; first where you are still or open; second where you are working with the energy of the suffering; third where you breathe in the unwanted and breathe out the relief; and fourth where you expand your focus to others who are experiencing the same. I think of it as energy, breathing in "negative" energy (even though I am not sure I should assign values to the energy) transforming it within myself, and breathing it out as positive energy that I transmit out.

A basic example: I take the Metrorail to and from work every day. Often, my train is delayed and there are tons of irritated folk on the platform. That coupled with the large crowds of non- Metro savvy tourists who often visit my city leads to a lot of frustration for myself and others. When I encounter this, I have made it a practice to put a slight smile on my face (which I learned about doing in another book by a Buddhist teacher), and I breathe in the frustration of us all and breath out patience and peace. I take a few slow, deep breaths, then I just breathe normally, visualizing the energy flowing through me and out to others.

I also practice this when I see frustrated service workers, mothers snapping at their kids, even pissed off people ranting on Facebook or in an online forum. Tonglen helps me to actively be compassionate and less judgmental. As a result, I contribute less to the suffering of the world. In particular, I then practice more right speech, which is the other spiritual practice that I focus on daily. I will discuss right speech more in Part Two.

Namaste Ase