I did not choose the option.
Instead, I engaged in flat-backed, breath-watching meditation. No major traumas exploded from the unconscious and commandeered the attention centre. The mindbrain was relatively quiet. There was some wandering off on thought trains but when ‘I’ noticed the diversions ‘I’ put attention back on the breathing. There was peace of mind.
I dosed for a while.
Eventually I got up to visit the toilet; and I took the opportunity to wash and dress, to have coffee, and to check the email and the social networks. As I write these words the Sangha will still be sitting and there is a subjective feeling of sharing in their collective energy. I have sat with them on most Saturday mornings over the last ten years.
The present inclination is to say a few words about our practice.
The Sangha schedule is not totally silent. Following sitting, walking and sitting sessions which are silent, there is a period of sharing the dharma. This is either from tape or CD or by passing the text around the circle so we all have the opportunity to read aloud. The source of the dharma is usually Thich Nhat Hahn and it is amazing how often his simple message ‘speaks’ to most of the people sitting in the circle.
In our tradition there is also a session of speaking and listening from the heart. The session comes after three bouts of silent meditation and a dharma sharing. So a mood has been created that allows and encourages people to say openly what is on their minds.
When someone wants to share they make a small bow, say what is on their mind, and then make another bow to show they have finished. There is no pressure on people to share. It is OK just to listen.
This practice permits going behind brave faces. Many people carry huge burdens which are often rooted in relationships. It is possibly good to get such things off their chests. I find that the sharings help me to appreciate the first of the four noble truths of Buddhism that ‘in life there is suffering’ (aka anxiety, dis-ease, stress). Being more aware of the suffering in others I automatically become more compassionate, even when dealing with my ‘self.’
I cannot speak for others but what I invariably notice is that, while the details vary from person to person, there is much that we share in terms of how the mindbrain works. Chief amongst these is appreciation of the “impermanence of all created things” and thus the realisation that our World views have “no abiding reality”. The practice does not encourage zealotry!
Thay talks of ‘interbeing’. There is only the one thing which is the Oneness (everything) although it manifests as the 10,000 things. There are biogeochemical cycles for water and all the elements of the periodic table. The matter on planet earth neither increases nor decreases but it is subject to the ongoing vital churn.
Think of an atom of carbon. At one time it is part of a carbon dioxide molecule in the air. But it gets absorbed into the leaf of a plant where photosynthesis makes it part of a sugar molecule. The plant then gets eaten by a cow that oxidises the sugar to get energy - and carbon dioxide is released back into the air as a waste product – full cycle.
Thay has been meeting with scientists – both ecologists and neurologists. Neurologists have been scanning the brains of experienced meditators. The two separate knowledge traditions are learning from each other. Changes in how the mind is used can make changes in the brain. Changes in the brain can make changes in the mind (unconscious and conscious)
Experienced Buddhist meditators ‘glow’. Devout Catholic Nuns have ‘charisma’. After long years of practice they have changed the structure and habits of their minds and brains. As a result they have the WOW or X factor. Star quality. They have a ‘presence’ (due to non-verbal communicative abilities) such that, when they enter a room, everyone stops talking to look.
The Sangha people can practice in a way that develops ‘presence’ and this will enable them to develop their own mindfulness practice and to promote it more widely.
I publish these short stories to a blog where they might potentially be shared with millions of people.
Let it begin with cyber me.
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