Finding the Time
Even if you’re going to do a Virtual Retreat “in the comfort of your very own home” (see yesterday’s post), you’re still going to have to find time to actually do the meditation. At least 20 minutes, I’d say. And if not every day, that at least most days.
So how do you do that?
I wish there were an easier way, but really, what you have to do is — you have to take a good hard look at your priorities. How much time do you spend “relaxing” in front of the TV? How much time checking e-mail? Reading the paper? Cruising the web?
Because honestly: you are investing your life in whatever you spend your time doing.
So take a good look and ask yourself…where am I investing my precious human life, and what kind of return am I getting?
Then see if you can’t find 20 minutes.
Take a Virtual Retreat
Can’t take a couple of weeks off to sit a retreat with fabulous teachers in the secluded hills of northern California? No problem!
You can listen to each of the morning instructions they gave during the first two weeks of the February 2014 retreat held at Spirit Rock….all in the comfort of your very own home…just by clicking on the links below.
Each set of instructions lasts about 10 to 20 minutes, building progressively on the instructions from the day before, and culminating in a beautiful, 45-minute guided meditation called Expansive Awareness, which is the meditation style (also called Open Awareness) that I was taught at both the 6-week retreat at IMS and at U Tejaniya’s monastery in Burma.
Give it a try!
Day One, led by James Baraz (10 minutes)
Day Two, led by Carol Wilson (18 minutes)
Day Three, led by Greg Scharf (15 minutes)
Day Four, led by Andrea Fella (13 minutes)
Day Five, led by Guy Armstrong (17 minutes)
Day Six, led by Greg Scharf (16 minutes)
Day Seven, led by James Baraz (23 minutes)
Day Eight, led by Carol Wilson (21 minutes)
Day Nine, led by Guy Armstrong (18 minutes)
Day Ten, led by Greg Scharf (21 minutes)
Day Eleven, led by Andrea Fella (18 minutes)
Day Twelve, led by James Baraz (10 minutes)
Day Thirteen, led by Carol Wilson (9 minutes of instruction, then 50 minutes of silence)
Day Fourteen, led by Guy Armstrong (13 minutes)
Expansive Awareness Guided Meditation, led by Guy Armstrong (45 minutes)
What It’s Not
from Mindful magazine: “Debunking the Myths of Mindfulness”
Meditation Is Not About Stopping Your Thoughts
“Whenever there’s a newspaper story about meditation, they trot out a piece of art that depicts a person in flowing clothes with a blissful smile that suggest they’ve emptied out their brain and replaced it with cotton candy.
“Meditation does not involve ending the thought process. It isn’t about trying to achieve a particular state of mind.
“It is simply taking the time to become familiar with how your thought process actually works, since you have the best vantage point to view what’s going on in your own mind. Once you see that, you don’t stop thoughts, but they might not control you quite so much.”
5 Reasons
5 Reasons Not to Meditate (from the April issue of Mindful magazine)
1. Sounds Boring!
Sure, but it also happens to be a big relief to have some time when you’re not obligated to be somebody or do something.
2. I Can’t Sit Still
It’s just fine to fidget. Meditation is a process that develops over time. No one starts out sitting like a rock statue.
3. I Don’t Have Time
Time crunches are stressing us all out these days. But taking a pause from the rush-rush-rush may just help you use your time better.
4. I’m Scared to Be Alone
You’re not alone in that. Our culture has devalued taking time for solitude. It hasn’t always been that way. And it’s not as scary as you think.
5. My Mind is Too Fast
So, let it go fast. If you sit there awhile, it will slow down…and speed up again. You don’t need to try to find an ideal rate for your mind.
5 Reasons to Give It a Try Anyway
1. Understand Your Pain
Mental pain and anxiety are background noise that can underlie much of what we do. Here’s a chance to see firsthand what’s causing it.
2. Lower Stress
There’s lots of evidence these days that excess stress causes lots of illnesses and makes other illnesses worse. Mindfulness decreases stress.
3. Connect Better
Ever find yourself staring blankly at a friend, lover, child and you’ve no idea what they’re saying? Mindfulness helps you give them your full attention.
4. Improve Focus
It can be frustrating to have our mind stray off what we’re dong and be pulled in six directions. Meditation hones our innate ability to focus.
5. Reduce Brain Chatter
The nattering, chattering voice in our head seems never to leave us alone. Isn’t it time we gave it a little break?
Mindful Reading
My teacher, Mirabai Bush, has an article in the April issue of the new Mindful magazine. She writes about Mindful Reading, Mindful Writing (including Mindful Emailing), Mindful Listening and more. Here’s a sample:
Mindful reading is radically different. It slows down the reader and the reading–that alone changes the experience. It is a process of quiet reflection that requires mindful attentiveness, letting go of distracting thoughts and opinions to be fully in the moment with the text. It moves the reader into a calm awareness, allowing for a more powerful experience and understanding…
Savoring a Resonant Phrase
Sit quietly, and then read a short piece, perhaps a page long. What phrase stands out for you? Return to that phrase and repeat it to yourself, perhaps several times. Just sit with it. What does it evoke? Notice what images or ideas or memories arise. Do any of the words have meaning beyond the obvious? What meaning does this phrase give to the rest of what you’re reading? Hold the phrase in your mind, giving it time to suggest more to you. Now re-read the full piece. How is it different? Has your relationship to it changed?
***
Want to read more (mindfully)? Click here.
Something Will Happen
OK, well my plan was to fly from St. Louis to Chicago tomorrow at 8:20 am, to catch the 11:40 am flight to Seoul, where I was to meet my traveling buddy and then we were going to fly together to Yangon for a month of pilgrimage and practice in Burma. But a major snow storm came through yesterday and this morning I found out that my flight to Chicago has been CANCELLED.
Uh oh.
I had thought that my biggest problem was going to be shoveling a little path from my front door to the street and then keeping from freezing in the sub-zero weather while running out to the taxi without boots/parka/gloves/etc, which I will not need…as it will be 90 degrees where I’m going!
But now things have gotten a lot more complicated.
This reminds me of the story Sharon Salzberg tells about going to the airport to pick up a very famous Tibetan Lama, who was coming to teach a big, sold-out retreat in the US, and then finding that all the flights had been cancelled because a volcano somewhere had erupted and no planes were going to be able to fly anywhere — for several days! She said that she stared to freak out…but then thought that she might as well just relax because: Something will happen.
And so it did. The Lama never made it to the US, but somehow somebody managed to fix up a video feed…and he was able to lead the retreat from the airport!
***
Update: The airline says there’s no way for me to make my connection to Seoul tomorrow, so my flights have all been rebooked…but the earliest I can leave is Thursday! So now instead of meeting up with my travel buddy in Seoul and arriving together in Yangon on Wednesday, I will be arriving in Yangon at 10:30 Friday night–by myself! But at least I was able to call her and let her know about the change of plans. And the group will be staying in Yangon until Sunday, so I’ll still be able to catch up with them and go on from there. Whew.
Celebrate!!!
Today is my birthday!
And I’ve decided to celebrate by being kind…especially to my mother, who 63 years ago today, was having what I can only image as an extremely painful, exhausting, and probably frightening day. But joyous, too, I am told.
Thanks, Mom, for giving me the most precious gift of all–this human life.
I vow to use it well.
How Strange
I’ve been thinking a lot about death….but not in a bad way! It’s just that there seem to be lots of opportunities for me to think about it lately: my sister-in-law is attending her mother’s funeral today; my dharma buddy’s father-in-law died unexpectedly over Thanksgiving; and one of my teachers is at the bedside of her father “from which he will not rise again.”
Last night I had the chance to see a photo of someone who is very near death–he was extremely thin, so that I could see every bone in his chest–and I thought: how strange it is to be alive in these tender, miraculous, impermanent bodies that are so clearly beyond our control.
(image: Music from My Town, by Elizabeth Ortiz
By the Light of the Moon
Last night the moon was full, so I joined with millions of people around the world in renewing my commitment to non-harming and by staying up late to practice.
First I sat with the Maplewood Metta group — Wishing: In gladness and in safety, may all beings be at ease.
Then I came home and sat, and had some tea, and sat again, and then listened to a wonderful dharma talk by Pascal Auclair called Two Ways to Free the Mind, in which he quite delightfully riffs on the teaching that there are two causes for the arising of wisdom: (1) hearing the voice of another and (2) paying wise attention — which means looking carefully at whatever it is that one is paying attention to… and seeing whether it leads to confusion and complications (suffering), or to ease and peace (non-suffering).
I went to bed some time after midnight feeling very glad to have listened to the wise voice of Pascal…and to have paid attention.
(image: Camas Para Suenos by Camen Lomas Garza)
What We Let Go Of
I love what Winnie Nazarko said in the Dharma Seed talk we listened to on Monday night. The talk was all about “letting go,” which we hear a lot about. What I love is her clarity.
“What we let go of…..is suffering.”
So it’s not that we need to let go of what we want. It’s that we need to let go of the suffering caused by wanting what we want.
It’s fine to want something. But if that something is not possible…like, for example, you want the information you’ve been given about the Burmese visa application process to be accurate, reliable, and readily available…then continuing to want it, when it’s clear that that’s simply not the way it is…just adds suffering to what is already a difficult situation.
So….keep doing what you can to comply with the visa application requirements, keep checking to see if the first application has been approved, have a back-up plan in case it doesn’t look like it’s going to happen before the plane takes off….and let go of the continual thought that it shouldn’t be like that.
Whether it should or shouldn’t is beside the point.
It is what it is.
There’s a lot less suffering when you deal with it like that.