#718 How Can We Best Let Go near Life's End?

     How can we let go of clinging to life, near the end of life?

     “Be happy in every moment. … You don’t need to change anything. Let everything happen just as it comes. Just flow with it. It’s the process; everything dissolves into you, so change with whatever happens.” 


      “What practice makes it easier to let go of this life?”

      “The best practice, is calm abiding. Remain with the breath. Develop calmness inside. Join awareness and the breath. Trusting these. Trusting the knowing. Trusting the calmness. Not pushing yourself to make any changes. And not paying attention to what others say about it.” 
            Khandro Rimpoche in: Olivia Ames Hoblitzelle. “Ten Thousand Joys & Ten Thousand Sorrows. A Couple’s Journey through Alzheimer’s.” Penguin, NY, 2008.



     “If you accept life and death without any conditions, your life will become supple instead of rigid. You will not create strife."
            Katagiri D. “You have to say something. Manifesting Zen insight.” Shambhala, Boston, 1998.  

 

#706 Change, Catch our Breath, More Change ...

www.elephantjournal.com

#690 Interwoven Flowing

     “aboriginal languages [are] not so much noun-centered as they [are] verb-centered, trying to emphasize not the thing aspect of Creation but rather the pattern, flow and function aspect. … When Indian eyes look upon Creation, they see a much more fluid, transforming and interconnecting reality than Newton ever did, with his linear, billiard-ball chains of cause and effect.

     things [aren’t] separate at all … Instead, all things acted within complex webs of relationships. Whatever happened with one rippled out to touch and affect all others. If you talked about one, you were talking about all, and any point in their relationship would do. … the real essence of Creation lay in what was going on between things. That’s where attention [is required], to all the relationships that bind things together so strongly that a question about blueberries gets an answer about bears.”

       Rupert Ross. "Indigenous Healing. Exploring Traditional Paths." Penguin, Toronto, 2014.

#636 With Wise Persistence, Everything is Workable

     "The image of water is used over and over again in Taoism to describe the qualities of humility, flexibility, adaptability, persistence and acceptance. Water is described as giving life to all things yet not contending, flowing down to the humblest levels, adapting itself to whatever shape it finds itself in, and embodying patience and perseverance in its ability to cut through mountains, drop by drop.
     Over and over, Taoist writers use the image of water to emphasize the soft overcoming the hard. Water can overcome obstacles, not only by going around them but by simply biding its time and slowly eroding the obstacle, bit by tiny bit, until eventually a canyon is formed! This is a central tenet in Taoist philosophy. We can meet obstacles in our lives and find ways to creatively and constructively deal with them. The idea is not to avoid or run away from them or, on the other hand, try to ram head-on into them. But by slowly and assuming the quality of water, we can, perhaps, find a way to flow around, over or under them. Like water, we must be patient and persevering enough to realize that in time things will change, because that is the nature of things. The only constant is change."

       Solala Towler. "Chung Tzu - The Inner Chapters. The Classic Taoist Text. A New Translation of the Chuang Tzu with Commentary." Watkins Publishing, London, 2010. pxvii 

#607 Riding Liminality & Loving Life

     How do I relate to my breath? When we start mindfulness practice, focusing on the feel of our own breath can evoke anxiety, rather than the hoped for sense of peace. Gradually, we learn to "surf" or "ride the breath" - a kind of balancing act on top of a constantly moving, flowing, ball of breathing energy.
     Likewise, how do I relate to all other manifestations of constant change - directly to liminality itself? Every fraction of second we're in the now - straddling the past and future. We're not quite sure what just happened, and we sure don't know what's about to happen! Can we learn to surf liminality? Can we learn to ride uncertainty's raw energy? It's the only way to transcend constant anxiety!
     Such a direct, intentional, curious, nonjudgmental, playful engagement with / surfing on / flowing with the energy of liminality itself seems to be the ultimate basis for dismantling anxiety. 
     Anxiety is ineffective striving to avoid challenges - fearful avoidance.
     Mindfulness is brave, competent "leaning into" life-as-it is, difficulties & all - lovingly embracing life. I'm not aware of a better alternative.

Bess - Dec 19, 2014

#597 Flow with - OR - Rigidly Oppose Life ?

     Mindfulness practice gradually leads us to experience life as a constant flow of energy. With psychological flexibility, whatever comes up becomes "workable". We learn to live in a peaceful, synergistic, collaborative relationship with people & nature.

     This comes about naturally as we learn to let go of psychological rigidity: black-or-white thinking, judgmentalism, dogmatism - fear-based reactions of a reified ego against a presumed hostile universe - see: http://www.johnlovas.com/2014/11/painful-mistaken-identity.html At some point, most people come to realize that the old caveman stance simply doesn't work.

Fiona Wiseman   https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.706893482727591.1073741831.100002208364263&type=1&l=3362c32dc6

#595 Surfing the Breath

     What does the meditation instruction to "surf the breath" mean?

     Breath can be experienced as air, the combination of gases (mainly nitrogen, oxygen & carbon dioxide); air, the space that surrounds matter; and also as the energy involved in the process of breathing.
     In all cases, there's movement, which again speaks of energy - life-sustaining energy. While we can breathe intentionally, mostly breathing happens on its own, much like the ocean's waves rhythmically coming to shore.
     Like surfers (or sailors), we can become attuned to the rhythmic energy of breathing, develop an ongoing attentive relationship, and learn to skillfully ride on, or flow with, this vital energy.

     We can gradually learn to surf every type of breath, on sunny and stormy days, dancing nonjudgmentally with mystery - life.

gordzam   www.dpreview.com

#558 NEITHER Avoiding, Stopping, NOR Pushing Away

     "The reality is that we are a river - a living energy system of sensations & sights & sounds, an energy system of changing feelings & thoughts. And the point of meditation and mindfulness isn't to stop the river - which you can't do.

                    "You can't stop the waves, but you can learn to surf."

     That's really the point of mindfulness and meditation - to allow the experience you're having, which is always changing - and to find your composure in it."

       Jack Kornfield: The Case for Mindfulness and Wisdom in Law
       https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLV4Cty06Q4

 

#372 Direct Perception of the Flow of Experience

     “… healing occurs as we learn to move from the realm of concepts to the world of direct experience. Our mental concepts and ideas about things, about people, objects, or feelings, are static and unchanging. But the reality of experience is an ever-changing river. Direct perception drops beneath the names of things to show us their ephemeral, mysterious nature. When we bring our attention to the direct perception of experience, we become more alive and free.”               Jack Kornfield

#120 Openness (Quality 6)

     "Openness = Seeing things as if for the first time, creating possibility by paying attention to all feedback in the present moment."

       Cardaciotto L. Assessing Mindfulness: The Development of a Bi-Dimensional Measure of Awareness and Acceptance. PhD Thesis, Drexel University, 2005.

dspace.library.drexel.edu/retrieve/4264/Cardaciotto_LeeAnn.pdf

     "Beginner's mind", "porousness" and "psychological flexibility" are other terms for openness. Mindfulness training involves gradually letting go of armor - physical, intellectual etc. This requires trust of course. And our bodies have memories too, so there's quite a lag period between when the mind and body are ready to let go of some old wound.

     "Carl Rogers defined fully functioning people as 'allowing awareness to flow freely in & through their experiences.'”
       Walsh R, Shapiro SL. The Meeting of Meditative Disciplines and Western Psychology - A Mutually Enriching Dialogue. American Psychologist 2006; 61(3): 227-39.

Jon Kabat-Zinn "The Healing Power of Mindfulness - Part 3" at Dartmouth College (27min)