sharing trust

original caravan

There were 20 people in yesterday’s sangha meeting. The dharma reading was from Thay about reconciliation and the wounded child. The root message that I took from it was that you have to sort yourself out so that you can be of more support to others. I have ordered the book – it will be here in a few days. The technology is amazing – interbeing.

Several ‘sharings’ caught my attention. Amongst these was that, although the details vary, we are all basically wired up the same way. This is a good thing to know. We are not alone and unique and weird. It would be a good thing to promote this understanding by encouraging people to tell their personal stories about practice. There is the option of doing this via the internet where the audience is potentially enormous.

watering seeds

Thay has the image of seeds – both good and not so good – in the store consciousness. When these are watered (ie given space in the attention centre) they grow. By taking thought and being mindful we can water the good seeds and withhold water from the not so good ones. Thus, in time, the balance of what appears in the attention centre changes. I wondered about the origins of these seeds. Some will be genetic (nature) whiles others will be the result of learning (nurture). To what extent can we change the genetic hard wiring? Neural plasticity – yoh!

Then a big question? Can mindfulness help those suffering from Dementia and Alzheimer’s? Logic suggests that it might help in the early stages but that in time the brain and its mind will be beyond help. Some work is seemingly being done by medical people involved with Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR).

A Tibetan Buddhist nun was in the sangha circle with her robes and cropped hair. But the ‘uniform’ did not dissolve the person inside. She came across as a good humored and non-toxic human being who has given her life to, and enjoys, promoting the dharma. A full time institutionalized practitioner. Refreshing. Inspiring.

Note: In what I have written above I have tried to avoid issues of betraying ‘trust’. I have not linked individuals to thoughts and feelings – other than to myself. This might be viewed as a cyber extension of the sharing process. Individual practitioners could be encouraged to put their personal stories online (possibly on a blog) OR – perhaps as part of the ‘buddy’ system – an author could be given permission to tell the story of a practitioner.