Finding the Center Within: The Healing Way of Mindfulness Meditation. by Thomas Bien
Authors: Thomas Bien
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all that baking? Just eat the separate ingredients, then jump up and down for a while to mix them, and let them bake in the heat of your body. Isn’t that the same thing? But this oversimplification has a point. Who told you that you were a problem to fix? You are not a prob- lem to fix any more than a flower is. A flower is there to appreciate. You are much more like a flower than like a Rubik’s Cube. Be wary of anything that teaches you that you are a problem to fix, that sets you at war with yourself, diminishes you, and reduces your capacity for peace. Practice for Week One
1. Do the practices contained in the chapter:
• “Where Are You?” (p. 8)
• “Acknowledge Your Many Roles” (p. 10)
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• “Reconnect with Your Roots” (p. 15)
• “Be Aware of Self-Punishing Thoughts” (p. 17)
• “Become the Beloved” (p. 20)
2. Try this special daily practice: “Take Up Your Robe, Sandals, and Begging Bowl” below.
PRACTICE
Take Up Your Robe, Sandals, and Begging Bowl
Wearing special clothes contains power. I knew a minister who wore a clerical collar every day. At one point he considered leaving the church, but in the end he decided to stay. What held him was a simple thought: He couldn’t imagine not putting on his collar in the morning. When a traditional Buddhist monk or nun wakes in the morning, there are no choices to be made about what to wear. Every morning, he puts on his robe. Every morning, she puts on her sandals. Every morning, he takes his bowl to beg food for the day. Every time you put on your clothes in the morning this week, or change them during the day, or take them off at night, say to yourself,
“This is my robe, these are my sandals.” Whenever you take out your wallet to pay for something, say to yourself, “This is my begging bowl that the universe has filled.” Use this as a way to remind yourself that, whatever role that you may be playing at the moment, your central calling is the same as that of anyone under religious orders: to be a person of peace, of calm, of mindfulness, of lovingkindness and compassion, of joy, and of equanimity. This is your true career.
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2
Week Two
F I N D A PAT H T O T H E C E N T E R
o
In the immediate experience of the Presence, the Now is no mere nodal point between the past and the future. It is the seat and region of the Divine Presence itself. No longer is the ribbon
[of time] spread out with equal vividness before one, for the past matters less and the future matters less, for the Now contains all that is needed for the absolute satisfaction of our deepest cravings.
—Thomas R. Kelly, A Testament of Devotion (1941) Peace can be elusive. If you seek it but fail to find it, the problem is not always lack of effort. Sometimes you are looking in the wrong place. If the problem is something lacking in you that needs to be filled from the outside, then whatever experiences you seek will only disappoint you. You are left in the realm of overexpectation, fragmentation, and disconnection. You find yourself in the land of the hungry ghosts, where you remain empty and unsatisfied despite the abundance all around you.
Of course, if you lack the necessities of food, shelter, and clothing, it is difficult to find peace. Moreover, if you need more success and appreciation, if you need a partner, or if lack of money prevents you from enjoying many of the good things in life, these are important, too. It is 23
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a mistake to be so spiritual that you do not honor such needs. But if peace means having all our needs met in a totally satisfactory way, we will never find it.
For most of us, our dissatisfaction is not about fulfilling basic needs. It is about endlessly searching outside of ourselves and our own experience for what was never missing in
1. Do the practices contained in the chapter:
• “Where Are You?” (p. 8)
• “Acknowledge Your Many Roles” (p. 10)
01 BIEN.qxd 7/16/03 9:44 AM Page 22
22
F I N D I N G T H E C E N T E R W I T H I N
• “Reconnect with Your Roots” (p. 15)
• “Be Aware of Self-Punishing Thoughts” (p. 17)
• “Become the Beloved” (p. 20)
2. Try this special daily practice: “Take Up Your Robe, Sandals, and Begging Bowl” below.
PRACTICE
Take Up Your Robe, Sandals, and Begging Bowl
Wearing special clothes contains power. I knew a minister who wore a clerical collar every day. At one point he considered leaving the church, but in the end he decided to stay. What held him was a simple thought: He couldn’t imagine not putting on his collar in the morning. When a traditional Buddhist monk or nun wakes in the morning, there are no choices to be made about what to wear. Every morning, he puts on his robe. Every morning, she puts on her sandals. Every morning, he takes his bowl to beg food for the day. Every time you put on your clothes in the morning this week, or change them during the day, or take them off at night, say to yourself,
“This is my robe, these are my sandals.” Whenever you take out your wallet to pay for something, say to yourself, “This is my begging bowl that the universe has filled.” Use this as a way to remind yourself that, whatever role that you may be playing at the moment, your central calling is the same as that of anyone under religious orders: to be a person of peace, of calm, of mindfulness, of lovingkindness and compassion, of joy, and of equanimity. This is your true career.
02 BIEN.qxd 7/16/03 9:46 AM Page 23
2
Week Two
F I N D A PAT H T O T H E C E N T E R
o
In the immediate experience of the Presence, the Now is no mere nodal point between the past and the future. It is the seat and region of the Divine Presence itself. No longer is the ribbon
[of time] spread out with equal vividness before one, for the past matters less and the future matters less, for the Now contains all that is needed for the absolute satisfaction of our deepest cravings.
—Thomas R. Kelly, A Testament of Devotion (1941) Peace can be elusive. If you seek it but fail to find it, the problem is not always lack of effort. Sometimes you are looking in the wrong place. If the problem is something lacking in you that needs to be filled from the outside, then whatever experiences you seek will only disappoint you. You are left in the realm of overexpectation, fragmentation, and disconnection. You find yourself in the land of the hungry ghosts, where you remain empty and unsatisfied despite the abundance all around you.
Of course, if you lack the necessities of food, shelter, and clothing, it is difficult to find peace. Moreover, if you need more success and appreciation, if you need a partner, or if lack of money prevents you from enjoying many of the good things in life, these are important, too. It is 23
02 BIEN.qxd 7/16/03 9:46 AM Page 24
24
F I N D I N G T H E C E N T E R W I T H I N
a mistake to be so spiritual that you do not honor such needs. But if peace means having all our needs met in a totally satisfactory way, we will never find it.
For most of us, our dissatisfaction is not about fulfilling basic needs. It is about endlessly searching outside of ourselves and our own experience for what was never missing in
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