#59 Alive for everything

 

            “Our intelligence and dignity themselves are developed by our being alive for everything, including the mundane anguish of our lives. Just our awareness of our sensations, of our experience, with no object or idea in mind, is the practice of not preferring any particular state of mind. Intimacy with our activity and the objects around us connects us deeply to our lives. This connection – to the earth, our bodies, our sense impressions, our creative energies, our feelings, other people – is the only way I know of to alleviate suffering. To me, our awareness of these things without preference is a meditation that synchronizes body and mind. This synchronization, the experience of deep integrity, of being all of a piece, is a very deep healing. It is unconventional to value such a subtle experience. It is not encouraged in our culture. We’re much more apt to strive to feel special, uniquely talented, particularly loved. It’s extraordinary to be willing to live an ordinary life, to be fully alive for the laundry, to be present for the dishes. We overlook these everyday connections to our lives, waiting for the Big Event.”                                                   D Cohen

Photo: Aleek Manush   www.dpreview.com

#58 Wise behavior

     In today’s complex global village, we’re finally realizing that we’re each intimately interconnected and interdependent with every other human being, living creature, and ecosystem.
     How long will the human race survive if we continue to use financial, political, tribal, racial, ethnic, color, religious, sexual, & endless other excuses for reptilian self-serving behavior? Neither human civilization nor nature can endure this. It’s either evolve and cooperate – start respecting other human beings (allocentric) and the environment (ecocentric) – or perish.
     Each of us as individuals has thousands of choices each day between being mindlessly egocentric vs fully engaged with humanity, the environment, and life itself. All the alarm bells are ringing - we must live up to our full potential now.
     One definition of wisdom is “the application of intelligence, creativity, and knowledge as mediated by values toward the achievement of a common good through a balance among (a) intrapersonal, (b) interpersonal, and (c) extrapersonal interests, over the (a) short- and (b) long-terms, in order to achieve a balance among (a) adaptation to existing environments, (b) shaping of existing environments, and (c) selection of new environments.”

        Sternberg RJ, Reznitskaya A, Jarvin L. Teaching for wisdom: what matters is not just what students know, but how they use it. London Review of Education 2007; 5(2): 143-58.

Photo: Brigitte Lorenz http://www.brigittelorenz-photography.com/3/Artist.asp?ArtistID=15152&AKey=9a679dkq

#57 Choiceless awareness

     "You can think of it as simply being receptive to whatever unfolds in each moment. Simple as it may sound, practicing in this way requires very strong calmness and attentiveness, qualities that are best cultivated ... by choosing one object, most commonly the breath, and working with it over a period of months and even years. For this reason some people might benefit most by staying with the breath and a sense of the body as a whole in the early stages of their meditation practice…” 
         Kabat-Zinn J. “Full catastrophe living. Using the wisdom of your body and mind to face stress, pain and illness”. Dell Publishing, NY, 1990.

     “A great sense of tranquility comes when we let go of the futile urge to control everything, and instead relate to each moment with openness and awareness.”                             J. Goldstein & J. Kornfield

Photo: mefnj   www.dpreview.com

 

#56 Pain and suffering

     Mindfulness has been shown to be very effective in relieving suffering. 

       Grossman P et al. Mindfulness-based stress reduction and health benefits. A meta-analysis. J Psychosom Res 2004; 57(1): 35-43.

 

     “But the amazing thing, which you can find out only by practicing mindfulness fairly regularly over time, is that paying attention in a particular way to the very sensations, emotions, and thoughts that together constitute the experience of pain – in the present moment and nonjudgmentally as possible (which may be very judgmental a good deal of the time) – actually has within it the seeds of freedom from suffering. This is totally counterintuitive I know; nonetheless, it seems to be the case ...

     Approaching the pain itself, wherever it is most prominent in the body, with bare attention, open-heartedness, and alert interest even for very brief moments, if that is all that we can muster in any moment, can be profoundly healing, restorative, and illuminating. And if practiced over days, weeks, and months, potentially it can make a difference in the quality of your life for years and years going forward. What we are talking about is really befriending your experience at the level of the body and at the level of the mind and heart, and seeing what unfolds.”       Jon Kabat-Zinn

     Gardner-Nix, J. “The mindfulness solution to pain. Step-by-step techniques for chronic pain management.” New Harbinger Publications Inc, Oakland CA, 2009.

Steven D. Hickman PsyD on Chronic Illness (Pt 2 of 5)

#55 Coming home to our depth

     “If we’re not at home with the depth of our feelings, we’re likely to skirt the deep feelings of others. Do we love ourselves / others only when we / they are feeling fine?”

     “Don’t we often try to secure happiness by fortifying ourselves against imperfection?"

        Barasch MI. The Compassionate Life: Walking the Path of Kindness. Berrett-Koehler, 2009.

There is “… a longing for ways of speaking of the human experience of depth, meaning, mystery, moral purpose, transcendence, wholeness, intuition, vulnerability, tenderness, courage, the capacity to love … it arises from the hunger for authenticity, for correspondence between one’s inner and outer lives. … there is a desire to break through into a more spacious and nourishing conception of the common life we all share. … trust, loyalty, and connection, find place and resonance."

Parks SD. Big questions, worthy dreams. Mentoring young adults in their search for meaning, purpose, and faith. John Wiley & Sons, San Francisco, 2000.

Compassion video & music

#54 Staying with discomfort?

     As you've no doubt already discovered, mindfulness holds many surprises. Perhaps the fundamental paradox is that mindfulness practice involves intentionally APPROACHING and STAYING WITH challenging situations, thoughts and feelings. This very same principle is also employed by psychologists to help people deal with phobias eg fear of flying. Directly facing and letting go of fears is essential if one is to directly face and best deal with reality.
     We're conditioned to interpret pain to mean physical injury, that disability or even death is imminent. Our society is so averse to pain, that we even try to avoid discomfort. But the fact is, avoidance does not work. Only directly facing and letting go of our fears works.

     “Meditation is not for the faint-hearted, nor for those who routinely avoid the whispered longings of their own hearts. It is for individuals interested in the adventure and challenges of self-exploration and transformation, for those who wish to taste and explore new ways of knowing and new ways of being - not someone else's, but one's own moment-to-moment experience.”                               Jon Kabat-Zinn & Saki Santorelli

     “Living never wore one out so much as the effort not to live.”                  Anais Nin

Photo: Andre Gallant   http://www.andregallant.com/

#53 Congruent behavior

     “doing the right thing manifests in mature people not in spite of, but because of who they are as persons — because of their identity. Individuals act the way they do because of the nature of their most fundamental identifications. Identifications most often concern furthering one’s self-interests, which seem to out-compete other motives (such as concern for the plight of others) in contemporary society. But … for the fully developed, moral actions are motivated by a kind of enlightened self-interest. This paradox-busting point renders the distinction between self-interest and morality a false dichotomy.” 

     “Most people understand morality as concerns that are quite distinct from personal matters; this much is well established. But to extend this observation to contend that individuals should understand the two to be fundamentally different is to commit the naturalistic fallacy. When maturity is achieved, morality can and should become a sensitized concern for the way one’s choices impact upon one’s social and ecological environments. … choices become subtly but almost ubiquitously informed by moral convictions, and the satisfaction of one is contingent on the satisfaction of the other.”

     “… integration of agency and communion (is) an adaptive goal for adolescent and adult development …”
     Frimer JA, Walker LJ. “Reconciling the self and morality: an empirical model of moral centrality development.” Dev Psychol 2009; 45(6): 1669-81.

Artist: Mark Brennan   http://www.argylefa.tk/