A zen friend shared this wonderful Ballard Street cartoon from earlier in the week (April 15).
Kind of says it all, doesn’t it? When we let our guard down and open up? WOW!
Ballard Street is filled with quirky characters from the wildly creative mind and pen of Jerry van Amerongen.
Sharing a meditation space with others helps me as a meditator. It actually encourages me to sit, to sit more mindfully. I also feel that it helps soften many of the mental barriers my mind habitually erects between “I” and “Other.”
Of course, meditating together isn’t always possible. Everyone has a different schedule. So here are a set of audio resources that will help you sit whenever you decide and wherever you happen to be: Sit Now. These resources include links to guided meditations and simple audio streams that consist solely of a bell, a timed period of silence, and three more bells to close. You can sit now! (And you can also sit again later.)
>> A Sit Now link is located at the top every page at this web site. See ‘Sit Now’ next to ‘Resources’?
The next few weeks could be one of the most emotionally intense periods that some Reedies will have ever experienced. If you are having a hard time, don’t hesitate to check in with Health & Counseling Services, Student Services, or Community Safety. They are standing by and ready to help.
If you are looking for some quiet, a place to reflect on the swirl of thoughts and emotions that often rise up at the end of the semester, come find a spot at one of our meditation sessions. (Extra sessions are being planned for Finals Week. Stay tuned.)
I’m not saying that meditation will hold life’s pressures at bay. It might, but it might also do the opposite: open your awareness to whatever turmoil is just below the surface. Because life is unpredictable, let’s talk about what you can do when you sit in meditation and the Emotion of the Moment grabs you by the neck and starts shaking.
This week’s Oregonian featured a multi-part series, Mindfulness in policing, on a mindfulness-based resiliency training (MBRT) program that the Hillsboro Police Department has been operating for its officers. As Hillsboro Police Lt. Richard Goerling put it, “being a cop kills you.” So he worked with fellow officers and local meditation experts to develop a program that is intended to help officers manage stress and also become better police officers. According to Goerling, “mindful cops are better listeners and make better decisions. They are more mentally healthy.”
Where do we sit when we meditate? By this I don’t mean, do we sit on a cushion or on a chair? I don’t even mean, do we sit in our bedroom or under a tree?
What I am asking is simply this: where do our minds sit? Are the thoughts that ‘run round our heads’ the thoughts of our work, of our relationships, our dreams, our concerns? Noticing this, and seeing that these are just thoughts, just one aspect of experience that comes and goes, is the heart of sitting.
Here’s an A.A. Milne poem that talks about this (illustration by Ernest H. Shepard):
Halfway Down
Halfway down the stairs
Is a stair
Where I sit.
There isn’t any
Other stair
Quite like
It.
I’m not at the bottom,
I’m not at the top;
So this is the stair
Where
I always
Stop.Halfway up the stairs
Isn’t up,
And it isn’t down.
It isn’t in the nursery,
It isn’t in the town.
And all sorts of funny thoughts
Run round my head;
“It isn’t really
Anywhere!
It’s somewhere else
Instead!”
image from http://www.thelovelys.com/poetry-milne-800.htm
I admit it, when a sentence begins with “studies show …” I get hooked every time. I read right to the end. What did the study show? Do I believe the results? Hey, who am I to judge? Why do I even care? Hmmm.
Here are links to two recent studies on the effects of meditation, one that addresses the extremely serious problem of depression, and the other, well, you make up your own mind how serious this is.
Study Suggests Meditation May Lead To Relief From Depression, Pain (posted January 7, 2014). “A new study from Johns Hopkins University suggests that mindfulness meditation can improve anxiety and depression along with reducing pain. The study, published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine, included 47 different trials involving 3,515 different people. Results showed that the meditation had small but positive effects on pain, anxiety and depression.” read more
You Are Not Your Chocolate Cravings (posted March 22, 2014). “A new study by Canadian researchers says that mindfulness can reduce chocolate cravings. Lead study author Julien Lacaille, a psychologist at McGill University in Quebec, told Reuters that practicing mindfulness meditation, which emphasizes identifying and distancing oneself from certain thoughts — without judging them — weakened chocolate cravings among people with a self-declared sweet tooth.” read more
I will be away from campus next Wednesday (March 19) so I cannot join you in the chapel. I will return on March 26. -Alan
Two views of meditation run through my mind: a practice for getting somewhere and a practice that treasures where I already am. Maybe these aren’t so different? Pearls Before Swine (Mar 13, 2014) has a very practical take on this dilemma.
You do not need to leave your room.
Remain sitting at your table and listen.
Do not even listen.
Simply wait.
Do not even wait.
Be quiet, still and solitary.
The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked.
It has no choice.
It will roll in ecstasy at your feet.
– Franz Kafka
The world is already here. Can you open your heart to it?
“I have a problem with my sitting. When I sit, I get relaxed, but when I get relaxed, I fall asleep.” “Then sleep!”
This exchange took place between me and my zen teacher a few years ago. Sleepiness and naps continue to be frequent companions during my sitting meditation. Sometimes this annoys me, but mostly I’ve accepted that sleepiness is not a problem. It’s a welcome part of life, especially as the semester escalates.
Robin and I have been discussing sleep, why it seems to come when we don’t expect or want it, e.g., during the noon meditation, and why it dodges us when we most desire it, say, at 4 AM. She also came across this lovely blog post on using meditation techniques to fall asleep.
The thought, “I must stay awake, I must not fall asleep,” is just a thought. Something to notice, but not something we have to believe in or punish ourselves for. And sleeping, like breathing or sitting, is just another part of life, and not something to punish ourselves for either.
Don’t worry about falling asleep during our weekly sessions. No one has slept through the ringing of our meditation bells yet.