Open Road Meditation & Mindfulness Dialogue

 

December 15, 2020

 

Welcome to our fourth meditation and mindfulness dialogue! The numbers below refer to passages from the book Your True Home by Thich Nhat Hanh. (JS)

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Dear M & M Dialogue,

 

Greetings to all the mindful ones and those learning the art of being mindful. And don’t worry if you are new to mindfulness, even the ones who have been practicing mindfulness for awhile are still learning to be mindful.

 

I am no expert in mindfulness, but reading a message a day from Your True Home has been a wonderful experience and ritual, which in itself has brought me joy and mindfulness. Then Johnny suggested that I journal my thoughts, feelings and whatnot on my daily reads, so I have started doing just that, which has brought me a new level of mindfulness and joy.

 

At first I thought I would have little to say, if anything at all, for most of the daily messages, but I have found that to be a wrong assumption. Some of them are only one or two lines, although I try to keep them short in order to be sure I get my point across and so that others can understand what I’m saying. Anyway, here are a few excerpts from my journal:

 

10/25/20  #354 The Energy of Love: Love yourself! Without that first, there can be no true love in your life. You cannot love another, nor they love you without truly loving yourself first. This reminds me of a saying I found that takes today’s love and yesterday’s suffering (10/24/20  #355 Your Suffering Needs You) and puts them together.

 

“To love is to suffer. To avoid suffering, one must not love. But then, one suffers from not loving. Therefore, to love is to suffer; not to love is to suffer; to suffer is to suffer. To be happy is to love. To be happy, then, is to suffer, but suffering makes one unhappy. Therefore, to be happy, one must love or love to suffer, or suffer from too much happiness.” (By unknown.)

 

Once you have mastered self-love, love of another will find you and satisfy your need to be loved. To master that will make not only them happy, but you will be happy too. I’d rather suffer with love than suffer without love, and suffering from too much happiness sounds wonderful to me.

 

10/27/20  #352 No Enemy, No Savior: I honestly struggle with the meaning of the words “self” and “nonself.” Does it mean self is like yourself and nonself is like other people? I that is the case, I think of neither. We are all part of humanity. There is no self or nonself, there is one. One planet, one society, one humanity, one human race, and one love which is love for all.

 

That is it for me this month. I could write more, but Johnny said he can’t publish all my journal entries, as he has to leave room for others. Upon my release, I plan to loan my journal to Johnny to read and publish the entries he sees merit in. Peace, love and happiness to you all.

 

—Josh Underhill

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(Michel is keeping a meditation journal on an almost daily basis. He sent a treasure trove of meditations. Here are the first three of twenty. Hopefully, we’ll be able to do a special edition of the Meditation & Mindfulness Dialogue that features more of Michel’s meditations.) (JS)

 

November 5  AWARENESS OF BODY

 

Thây spoke first of sitting meditation; which reminds me of Zen—always the “sitting,” “just sitting” (shikantaza). I’ve been told that this act of simply sitting (or sitting simply?) is the foundation of all mindfulness practice. While this may be true, I found value and calm from sitting. In the Zen class here at TRCI, pre-COVID, that is what I experienced: sitting for no reason but to just sit (simply). I often struggle to make time for this in-cell. A book, recently gifted to me, talks about healing past traumas through several steps; the first involves an awareness of body. The author’s idea is that one effect of childhood trauma (no matter the intensity/severity) is the disconnect from body awareness. There are times when I would rather not be so aware of this body’s goings on. There are other times when I wish I could be more tuned-in to what is happening with my body. I guess I’ll be thankful for the times I am aware—pay more attention—and learn to “lean in” to the less aware times: hoping that paying attention when I’m more aware will leak over and affect the not-so-aware times. The body is always present. It is easy to become numb or ignore whatever is being experienced as common. I think by not being mindful of the “common” it is more challenging to become (or be) mindful for the extra-ordinary. It looks like I access the parts of life I think I’m missing out by paying better attention to the ordinary ones.

 

November 6  CONSTANT TRANSFORMATION

 

IMPERMANENCE: Thây’s first word today. Ouch! One of my biggest life challenges has been accepting the reality of change—nothing in my world can conquer impermanence, it’s all subject to change at some point in some way (even if it is just how I “see” it). I used to hate change. I still am not very fond of it; changes have often caught me unawares and have seemed to my small mind like “BIG” upheavals and trauma in life.

 

As I review my history: the problem was my efforts to fight for permanence, resisting entropy. Maybe, one day, there will occur a major change, where we all get nirvana, paradise, heaven, or whatever, and this place of “perfection” might be permanent. I am beginning to wonder if that would be “good.” I recall a saying Jake and Sara used with us last year on Julius Caesar: “‘Perfection’ is boring.” It’s true. For my experience to be “alive” it has to be imperfect, mutable, transient, “impermanent.” The alternative is a kind of “Groundhog Day” sort of life, where it is always the same, predictable, “Boring!” It is hard for me to not desire to be “safe.” Predictable is safe. Reliable seems safe. Change is not, because I may not know something, or how to do something. So, I’m weak. I’m vulnerable. I’m not safe. That place can be scary and difficult to live in, without some level of fear (“concern”).

 

Learning to be comfortable with “me” and what I can do helps, as I learn to be comfortable with IMPERMANENCE. Thây had two more words which stood out for me today. Within each, separately or together, I may find an answer: SELFLESSNESS, INTERDEPENDENCE. (hmmm….)

 

November 9   THE GREAT INSIGHT

 

I like, and I’m even attracted to the idea that we all can become a buddha—fully enlightened being. Further, while “becoming,” we are all already Bodhisattvas on the journey; aiding and benefitting others’ journey. I am also aware, and like the idea, that we are all already buddhas and have only to discover the buddha within. Both of these line up in agreement, as the second describes what I see/understand as the journey. Isn’t that always the challenge?: Getting out of the way of reality as it is, not as ego (“I”) tells a story to convince the self that reality is something totally different. I see ego as the source of duality and suffering—the idea of a separate “self” identity. I don’t have confirmation (complete), but this seems to be a portion of the truth.

 

—Michel Deforge

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“Teaching is not done by  teaching alone. It is done by how you live your life My life is my teaching. My life is my message.”  Thich Nhat Hanh

 

This is not in the book Your True Home, but it is by TNH, and when I read it I thought of my parents. 

 

My parents lived the life they loved. They hiked and backpacked and climbed mountains; they played the violin, viola, piano and harpsichord, and welcomed twice weekly chamber music gatherings in our home. They read for hours everyday; the library and bookstores were constant haunts. And art, all the time. They were nerds. They caused me constant embarrassment as a teenager.

 

Over dozens of years my mother took in friends of theirs and friends of ours who were struggling in life – for weeks, months, sometimes years. This was often to our young and selfish consternation: “Why do the Jacksons have to come again for Thanksgiving? Their kids always have snotty noses!” 

 

Every two months, my mom and dad donated blood. “Why in Heaven’s name wouldn’t we?” my puzzled mother mused. 

 

There were vegetable gardens and flower gardens and small tree farms. I smacked my lips waiting for blueberry pie, then watched as my mom picked and gave away our entire crop most years. “What about your own family’s needs?” we whined. Dad joined in on that one, but he also grew and gave away every fir seedling he nurtured to Christmas tree size. One year he said, “Don’t worry, I’m planting a new crop and I’ll make sure to save you one.” Good luck, he was 90 years old at the time.

 

So their lives were their teaching. There was no didactic teaching, no conscious ‘modeling’ to achieve ‘results’ in their daughters. They just lived life with passion and dedication. 

 

Of course now I donate blood every two months, and am hitting 150+ units drained from my system, having started when I was 18 yrs. old. (“Why in Heaven’s name wouldn’t I?” when someone asks me why.) And hiking, backpacking and wildflowers are my passion. I have huge gardens so I can give away baskets of golden raspberries and strawberries, and yes, blueberries. I grow way too many peonies and iris so I can cut huge bouquets to give away. I read, read, read, and do art, art, art. 

 

And if I’m not mentoring, tutoring, or otherwise being engaged in connection with others not like me, I am at a loss for meaning in my life.

 

—Jude Russell

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138   I Think, Therefore…

 

This insightful page has inspired my Yoga routines lately! When I do this form of Yoga, I treat it like meditation. For me, it’s been a struggle my whole life to just “sit there” and not “be” with so many things constantly on my mind. It’s been nice to just be in the moment and focus on form, breathing and not everything else. For me to truly be there in that moment I cease all those fleeting thoughts for those 30 minutes every other day. Then, when I’m done, I enjoy the practice so much I begin doing stretches while practicing mindfulness. This has become my favorite part of my days lately, and it’s very peaceful. I encourage everyone to, at the very least, stretch and practice just being.

 

—Jeff Kuehner

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Wandering Thoughts

 

My friends, I must be honest. I have written this paper six times over!

 

I started out writing about good and evil, page 156. Setting out, I had in mind an ideal of vanquishing good, evil and the universal duality….But I lost!

 

Duality has successfully wriggled its little fingers into every last nook and cranny; it won’t be going anywhere soon. And after thwarting my attempts at the highest level, it opened my eyes.

 

I’ve realized my “Not Sowing Karma” theme is wrong. Let me elaborate; we all were born upon a set of scales that started to tip in one direction or the other since our birth. There will come a time when we all will make a choice to either live with balance, or not. Without balance you can only tilt in one direction, until eventually you fall. With balance you will never fall, you only have to get there. Only then is there a chance of escape. Escape. Everyone seems to think there are a variety of ways to escape, but true escape is when you live in every moment and every thing is balanced.

 

Duality seems to offer a reasonable solution, and offers the key to any that seek.

 

Could co-existing be the harmony we seek, could it shine light on the hidden path? The wonder of wonders keeps me wondering still…

 

Well guys, those are this month’s thoughts. Let me apologize if it seems a little screwy. To be honest, I didn’t think something that seemed so simple would really be complex. Maybe it’s both!

 

Ahhhh, I’ll sign off now, before I have to re-write it all.

 

peace & love & everything else

 

—Joshua Barnes

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From Thich Nhat Hanh’s book Be Free Where You Are, pages 37-40.

 

Being able to practice mindful breathing under duress, in an emotional state, or any unhealthy mindset. This is most likely a life long journey of practice and patience. “An emotion is only and emotion, we are much more than an emotion.” If we can recognize an emotion before it gets us on to becoming a wreck, then we can put it under a mindful breathing exercise and meditate on it, “you will see that you are strong—strong enough to withstand the storm.”

 

But, “don’t wait until you have a strong emotion to practice. If you do, you will not remember how to practice. You have to practice now, today, while you are feeling fine.”

 

I will speak for myself. So often when an emotion arises that I don’t want to have I bury it. But what happens when there is no more room for them?

 

This practice of mindful breathing to calm the storm or just wait it out without incident is the key, for me, to getting through many a bad day.

 

There are many forms of breathing. The point I am trying to make is: let’s just take a look at what is going on in the inside of us, grab ahold of it and examine it under a practice of mindfulness, calm breathing, and then maybe we can get a better understanding of what it is that makes us tick…or get ticked off.

 

Thanks to everyone who writes in the M & M dialogue. This is fun.

 

—Brandon Gillespie

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#89 An Invitation from the Buddha

 

Mr. Underhill, I am really glad to hear you have started your countdown. I think that reading a passage a day is a good way to finish your set. I know you as a very good, caring guy and I wish you all the success in the future. Never forget all you have learned these last years and the good people you have met along the way

 

The first line of this—“We live in a time when everyone is too caught up in the preoccupations of everyday life,…”—how true this is for this year! It seems everywhere we turn there is nothing but blame for this or that, or: you don’t believe the things I believe, so I hate you. I believe our differences should be the thing that makes us love and understand each other all the more. Our uniqueness is one of the most special gifts we have.

 

I think taking the time to discover who we are, really down deep, is the true essence of life. When we start to understand ourselves more deeply, we can then open our eyes to the way others feel and have compassion for their ideas. We must remember that we are all brothers and sisters on this earth. It doesn’t matter what geographical location you come from, or the shade of your skin. These things have nothing to do with a person’s character. If we could stop and tell someone hello, give them an honest smile when we see they have a frown on their face, or, if you have to, tell a corny joke. I am sure, if the response isn’t immediate, that they will think about it later and hopefully have a moment of joy—that some stranger would say something so stupid to them. These little things we can do for one another to me are the true nature of life.

 

—Aaron Gilbert

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Thanks to everyone who wrote last month. It is very moving to read about your experience of meditation and of Thich Nhat Hanh’s writing. 

 

Johnny asked if I might write about some of my experiences hearing Thich Nhat Hanh speak. I have heard him several times, but the only time I remember the content of the talk was the first time, on the eve of the first Iraq war in 2003. He began by saying, “Bodhisattva George Bush and Bodhisattva Sadham Hussein had a quarrel.” And in my heart I did a little bow and thought, “You’re a better man than I am!” He explained that a Bodhisattva is responsible for many beings, which, certainly, Bush and Hussein were. Thây (that’s what his students call him) said that the United States had barely begun to recover from the psychic damage of the Vietnam war, and there we were embarking on another. He spoke about the young men, the soldiers in both countries, whose lives would be wounded by their experiences, and the pain this would inflict on both countries after the war had ended. I don’t suppose he could have foreseen all the little wars to come, including Afghanistan, the longest war in our history; twice as long as the Vietnam war, and counting. The other night I heard that Trump’s vaunted withdrawal of troops on the ground in Afghanistan only means that there will be more bombing, hence less targeted violence, hence more civilian casualties. Thây said, “I have not practiced enough, I have not practiced deeply enough…” and then he began a kind of litany: “you who are a teacher, you who are a student, you have to practice with us; you who are an artist, you who are a filmmaker, you have to practice with us…”and so on. This wasn’t really his talk, which he also gave… it was his response to the news of the day. 

 

Thây suggested that each one of us in the audience could adopt a veteran, a young person who had been damaged by their experience of war and who could be helped to heal by being befriended. We could invite them into our homes, break bread with them, become real friends. I haven’t done this, I confess, although I have attempted to “adopt” some people who have been hurt by other circumstances of life. I’ve talked with many veterans who are on the streets, and, of course, the healing is mutual. It’s not a question of one helping the other–if a connection is made one can be a friend, even if the encounter is only for a few minutes. Johnny has embodied this approach to life as fellowship. 

 

There were many other things in this talk–a lot of the breathing exercises in his book The Blooming of a Lotus were given that night. He told a story about his own war experience as a monk in Vietnam, counting bodies of bombing victims and the song they sang about the beauty of the sky and earth to keep themselves in remembrance of the gifts of life. He talked about someone bringing him food and he said, “I got enlightened” which is to say it awakened him to the blessing of preparing food, serving it, enjoying taste, even in these circumstances. He said, “Enlightenment is always about something. Buddhist enlightenment is about the nature of the self.”

 

So what is the nature of the self? If you practice with Thich Nhat Hanh and sit quietly you see that the self is always changing. It has no permanent identity. In the image of Suzuki Roshi, “I” is like a swinging door that comes in and goes out with the breath. A swinging door is not a fortress. It has a relative amount of importance, but not much; certainly not enough to start a war over.  

 

As I look over what I have written, one thing that I notice is the absence of self-cultivation. Meditation is not about getting better. “Meditation” has been co-opted by the American religion of self-enhancement: we want to be better, thinner, stronger, more beautiful, wealthier, and we also want to be smarter and calmer and wiser, and we think of these properties as products that we can purchase for money or time. The meditation salespeople tell us that “practice” is a good tool to put in our shopping basket along with face cream and exercise and vegan or paleo diet and vitamins, eight glasses of water, and all the rest of it. But in Thây’s “Buddhist enlightenment” we meditate to end suffering, to see clearly, to meet life in all its beauty and horror as it is, to get over ourselves and befriend our fellow creatures. We don’t need years of practice and we don’t need to cultivate special psychological states; right now in this very moment, breathing in and breathing out,  looking into the eyes of the veteran, or the neighbor (who well may be a veteran) or the cashier or our partner, we can be present, awakened, kind. I have arrived! says Thich Nhat Hanh; we have already arrived in our own true home. 

 

—Howard Thoresen

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My homework for today: study my distress and dissatisfaction. Doctors, nurses, and therapists use this format to diagnose physical/mental ailments, the SOAP format. Bhikkhu Analayo recommends applying the same format to our distress. Identify the problem by its (S) subjective and (O) objective components, (A) assess the cause, and then make a (P) plan. My problem today and every day is that I WANT THINGS TO BE DIFFERENT than they actually are. That person shouldn’t be rude. The rules shouldn’t be so arbitrary. The soup should not be so hot, and it definitely should never be cold. The subjective is my experience of distress/dissatisfaction/discontentment. The objective, the cause of my distress, is my desire for things to be different. (Notice the cause is NOT the “errant” situation!) The assessment is that I really need to learn how to accept things as they are OR be more effective in making necessary changes (complaining is not changing). The plan, using the jargon of this meditation tradition, is the Eightfold Path, or learning to behave differently, shift my mental focus, and learn to understand how the world actually works, as opposed to how I fantasize it works. YTH #7, 19, and 317 relate to this.

 

—Shad Alexander

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As I sat still this morning at my writing desk, before turning on the light, in the darkness and silence the weather in my mind began to clear from yesterday’s worries and conundrums, something began to come into focus. In time, I turned on the light, and wrote down this thought: 

 

A loss is first a pang, then a memory. Then , by writing or telling, it may become a story. Then, if told with curiosity and courage, the sorrow becomes a possession, an element of identity, and finally a treasure, a smudge of wisdom.

 

Then, as my habit each morning early, I explored this thought by shaping it into something like a poem:

 

               Schooling Sorrow 

 

When a sorrow’s young, it’s pure—stunned 

pang at breakup, betrayal, failure, death. 

You weep, rant, brood, slump. And then  

 

in the morning, sorrow starts its epic 

journey into memory, becomes an island 

in your archipelago of sufferings. 

 

Then, if you are strong, and lucky to have 

a listener—you begin to apprehend its quirks, 

to tell it, shape it, watch it grow into a story. 

 

And if you tell your story well, with curiosity

and courage, it then becomes a possession,

and in time a treasure, a smudge of wisdom. 

 

This can be your gift, your offering—but

if you don’t school your sorrow into story

it can never be your friend.

 

—Kim Stafford

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Dear Johnny

 

Thank you for your continued support and love through all you do. I have very much enjoyed (and do continue to enjoy) your recent newsletters. Funny thing, to me at least, is I keep feeling like I want (almost to a need) to give you something profoundly insightful to share and lately felt at a loss, as I’ve read so many things (in your publications) that seem to already say what I would say. So I keep trying to think of something new and exciting—still, to no avail. Then, recently (last week), not trying to think of anything, a concept occurred to me on the subject of fate and “predestiny.”

 

Throughout my life I’ve pondered fate, choice and destiny. There have been many times in my life when I’ve wondered about the “what ifs.” What if I had made a different choice at any number of crossroads in my life? Would I still be the same person with the same resolve? At times the “could have beens” seem whelming, at best. Recently, the idea occurred to me that maybe both fate, that you make choice, and predestiny both exist simultaneously. The example, or visualization, that came to me is that maybe life, our experience, is like a long, vast river filled with twists, turns, smooth parts, rapids, falls, obstacles, and that our “fateful” choices steer us around or into these, yet we still eventually arrive at the same “pre”destination, no matter what course we take in this river.

 

Anyway, it’s a concept I’ve been mulling over lately.

 

—Joseph Opyd

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I’m interested in co-creating “culture that nurtures” with you, my friends. In #214, “I Don’t Need These Things,” Thich Nhat Hanh says: “…negative forces are everywhere. When you turn on the television, for instance, you run the risk of ingesting harmful things, such as violence, despair, or fear.” Elsewhere, he talks about “mental junk food”—ideas and images which don’t nurture us.

 

It’s not possible to avoid mental junk food, but it’s unhealthy as a regular diet. Where is healthy food to be found? Everyone gets to figure this out for themselves. I’m prejudiced, but I think our monthly meditation and mindfulness dialogue is healthy food. Many of the people participating in this dialogue are currently living in prison—an environment which has a lot of negativity in it. Whether we are living inside or outside of prison walls, it’s important to choose wisely what we read, what we think about, how we spend our time. Life is short. Each day is precious.

 

Because most television fare feels unwholesome to me, I’m trying to create my own culture, my own world—one I want to live in. I make an effort to create an inner world that is rich in meaning, that makes me happy, broadens my understanding, nurtures peace and love in my heart. For me, certain writers are very reliable in this regard. And I’m always on the lookout for the next book that will teach me something new, delight me, give me a fresh perspective, open my mind and heart.

 

—Johnny Stallings

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To: The Open Road & all its Travelers!

 

Hsin Hsin Ming is fantastic. It’s odd, your choice of subject, as this is exactly what I’ve been thinking about.

 

It’s funny, because while I’ve been trying to untangle my own gordian knot, the answers I sought were in front of me the whole time; but, unlike the hero in the story, I used a different way of slicing through my knot. Though I will admit, the process was much the same.

 

I believe one purpose of that story was to show that when we conform to a certain belief, or thought process, we are limiting ourselves, and in doing so will only fail.

 

I have been limiting myself for a very long time, but, thankfully, we all can change!

 

As I said in my last letter, I’ve come to the conclusion that indifference will never do. Balance, on the other hand, is a very different story. When using both the positive and the negative, you allow them to cancel each other out. The same goes for weights and counterweights. This, when done correctly, would leave you floating happily in between, neither drifting to one side or the other, but in the middle…Balanced.

 

The Hsing Hsin Ming said: “…Make the smallest distinction and heaven and earth are far apart…” and “…If you want to experience it, don’t be for or against anything…”

 

The only way I can see this working is by achieving balance, and, like I said before, there is only one way to balance the scales.

 

This led me to my next thought and another very helpful piece: “…Caught in duality, how can you know oneness?”

 

You know, I puzzled over this for a long time, and then, when reading the next line, found a wonderful answer staring up at me from the page….Unity and understanding. Two beautiful words. Unity is balance and understanding is realizing there can be no balance when striving towards any one thing alone.

 

I don’t think the texts are about condemning duality or escaping it, I believe they speak of duality being the weight and counterweight, the true keys to achieving balance, “oneness,” in order to escape the samsara. We are caught in duality and must make it work. Duality is in man’s nature for a reason, and like the wise words on page three say: “…following our nature, we are in harmony with the way, wandering freely, without a care…”

 

And here is where I’ll make my last stand with a final quote: “…to accept everything is to be enlightened…”

 

Peace & love

 

—Joshua Barnes

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Today, December 13, is Bodhi Day, the Buddhist holiday that commemorates the day that the historical Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, experienced enlightenment. In Thailand, where my youngest son has lived for the past eight years, there are numerous temples that display the key moments in the Buddha’s life in a frieze that goes around the inner walls. So that we might step into the scene along with his disciples and remember the teachings. 

 

I thought it would be a good time to tell the story of the Buddha’s awakening and the happiness derived from following his teachings. It may be familiar to most of you but worth hearing over and over. I have studied with Thich Nhat Hanh for many years and taught classes with Rev. Bob Schaibly. These teachings are for all; there is no reason to be a Buddhist or practice Buddhism as a religion. But it is good to know the essence of what we are talking about and to honor the original source.  

 

Bodhi Day is observed in the Buddhist traditions in Asia from India and Japan to Thailand and Vietnam. Bodhi Day serves as a reminder of the wisdom that is naturally available to us all, the wisdom that comes from looking deeply in the present moment, of cultivating our minds, and recognizing that everything is interconnected.  

 

Siddhartha, was born around 530 BC. He grew up in India, as a Prince born and raised into a wealthy family, who lived surrounded by beautiful gardens in a spacious palace.  When he was born his parents were told that their son’s destiny was to be a great warrior or he would become a great spiritual teacher. His parents wanted him to carry on with their established life, they wanted a warrior. Like all parents they also wanted their son to be safe and grow up satisfied. So they tried to isolate and protect him from the world and meet his every need and desire. But as he grew into his teenage years and adulthood he felt like he was imprisoned. Sound familiar!?

 

One night Siddhartha and a servant went out of the palace gates into the surrounding villages. 

 

They first came upon an old man who was stooped over, using a walking stick,  and balding. 

 

Siddhartha asked, what does this mean?  His servant explained that this is Old Age.  

 

They went on and came upon an ill person with sores who was in terrible discomfort.  The servant explained to Siddhartha again, this is Illness.  

 

They then came to a corpse in the road.  And Siddhartha was shocked and asked again. 

 

And his servant said, All living things pay a price for life and this is Death.  Siddhartha was frightened by all this suffering.

 

Then they came upon a simple ascetic carrying a begging bowl, who did not want anything to do with commerce and the travails of the modern world.   We too recognize this. 

 

Siddhartha soon decided to leave the palace and follow the path of the ascetic to see if he can find release from his fears and this suffering.   He went out into the world dressed in his servant’s clothes, an 18 year old young man. He went in search of knowledge with this group of poor and dedicated ascetics.   He fasts to the point of exhaustion and realizes ultimately that this will not work for him.   

 

The life of hedonism in a palace as a prince and a life of starvation are not giving him any more understanding about the world.  So he adopts what is called The Middle Way.   

 

He sits, determined to pay attention to what is happening.   He sits under the Bodhi tree, meditating until he comes to some wisdom.   He overcomes all temptations after a period like 40 days and 40 nights.   He realizes enlightenment and in the moment of touching the earth he takes it as his witness.   He finds that concentrating on our breath we can be happy in the present moment.  One of his most important teachings is about calming the mind so that we are not overwhelmed by our emotions of fear and anger.  From that day on he started teaching the eight-fold path to inner peace. 

 

Compassion and understanding are what comes from mindfulness and meditation  and the practice of looking deeply at our and others’ suffering.  Compassion then can come about and one can move from being to acting without being overcome.  Without compassion fatigue.  This story is related to the western story of the Good Samaritan who helped another without worrying about the consequences from the rules of his religion or culture.  

 

The Buddha in his enlightenment came up with an eight-fold path to follow for living with awareness and happiness for ourselves and others. The essence of the teachings are based on the  five remembrances of the human condition that is a reality for each of us: 

1. I am of the nature to grow old.

Oh how we try in vain to keep our youthful looks.  We even find it hard to believe we are not still our younger selves when we look in the mirror.  Even in our seventies we can feel close to those young adult years.  

2. I am of the nature to become ill.  

If we live a healthy life we often feel it is not fair if we get sick, as though it was a justice issue. We all will become ill as life goes on.

3. I am of the nature to die.     

This is something live most of our lives in denial about.  In our culture especially we keep death hidden away. 

4. Everything that I care about will pass away.
   This is the teaching of impermanence. Everything changes. We will lose those we love, and our possessions, and even our ideas and ideals.
5. Only my deeds will survive me.   

May I act well to make a world that is lovely and loving. What we do, and how we do thing things makes a difference.  This is the secret of  peace and happiness and freedom.  

 

Remember to pass it on, pay it forward, even with a smile, but especially with our stories.

 

I’m so glad you all are enjoying our monthly sharing of Mindfulness and Meditation! 

 

Peace and love, I miss everyone in person. Be well.    

 

—Katie Radditz