Which way does the wind blow?

by chermesch

Your mind is not a substantial thing, it is a weather pattern. Sometimes it’s sunny, sometimes its cloudy. -Lama Lena

The mind is fluid like the sky. Different factors influence what weather arises in the sky at a given location. Similarly, different factors influence the perceptions that arise in the sky of our mind. We spend time a great deal of time trying to control the what happens in the sky when our efforts are more wisely spent on learning how to move with the weather that is unfolding. We can learn the weather patterns of our inner selves and how to move with them rather than fight what we frequently pathologize as problems/ symptoms (which are more appropriately named adaptive behaviors to environmental circumstances).

Interbeing

by chermesch

Interbeing
The sun has entered me.
The sun has entered me together with the cloud and the river.
I myself have entered the river,
and I have entered the sun
with the cloud and the river.
There has not been a moment
when we do not interpenetrate.
But before the sun entered me,
the sun was in me—
also the cloud and the river.
Before I entered the river,
I was already in it.
There has not been a moment
when we have not inter-been.
Therefore you know
that as long as you continue to breathe,
I continue to be in you.

-Thich Nhat Hanh

The image of love vs love

by chermesch

“He thought he was in love with a person, when in fact he was in love with an image projected upon that person. Cheryl was not a real person with needs and desires of her own; she was a resource for the satisfaction of his unconscious childhood longings. He was in love with the idea of wish fulfillment and–like Narcissus–with a reflected part of himself.” ― Harville Hendrix

Imago therapy, both as a couple’s therapist and as couple’s therapy clients (with my partner), has helped provide me a previously unconscious view into the our patterns of playing out our childhood wounds in our significant relationships, especially our romantic relationships. This helps us to see from direct experience how relationship difficulties are not demons to haunt us but instead are old wounds looking for healing.

Now What?

by chermesch

“Understanding comes through awareness. Can we, then, approach our experience– our sensations, feelings, and thoughts– quite simply, as if we had never known them before, and, without prejudice, look at which sensations and feelings, “shall we look at?” I will answer, “Which ones can you look at?” The answer is that you must look at the ones you have now.” ~Alan Watts

A Callarse/ Quieting Oneself

by chermesch

By Pablo Naruda in Spanish and English

«Ahora contaremos doce

y nos quedamos todos quietos.

Por una vez sobre la tierra

no hablemos en ningún idioma,

por un segundo detengámonos,

no movamos tanto los brazos.

Sería un minuto fragante,

sin prisa, sin locomotoras,

todos estaríamos juntos

en una inquietud instantánea.

Los pescadores del mar frío

no harían daño a las ballenas

y el trabajador de la sal

miraría sus manos rotas.

Los que preparan guerras verdes,

guerras de gas, guerras de fuego,

victorias sin sobrevivientes,

se pondrían un traje puro

y andarían con sus hermanos

por la sombra, sin hacer nada.

No se confunda lo que quiero

con la inacción definitiva:

la vida es sólo lo que se hace,

no quiero nada con la muerte.

Si no pudimos ser unánimes

moviendo tanto nuestras vidas,

tal vez no hacer nada una vez,

tal vez un gran silencio pueda

interrumpir esta tristeza,

este no entendernos jamás

y amenazarnos con la muerte,

tal vez la tierra nos enseñe

cuando todo parece muerto

y luego todo estaba vivo.

Ahora contaré hasta doce

y tú te callas

y me voy»

Quieting oneself

«Now we will count to twelve

and let’s keep quiet.

For once on earth

let’s not talk in any language;

let’s stop for one second,

and not move our arms so much.

A moment like that would smell sweet,

no hurry, no engines,

all of us at the same time

in need of rest.

Fishermen in the cold sea

would stop harming whales

and the gatherer of salt

would look at his hurt hands.

Those who prepare green wars,

wars with gas, wars with fire,

victories with no survivors,

would put on clean clothes

and go for a walk with their brothers

out in the shade, doing nothing.

Just don’t confuse what I want

with total inaction;

it’s life and life only;

I’m not talking about death.

If we weren’t so single-minded

about keeping our lives moving

and could maybe do nothing for once

a huge silence might interrupt this sadnes

of never understanding ourselves,

of threatening ourselves with death;

perhaps the earth could teach us;

everything would seem dead

and then be alive.

Now I will count up to twelve

and you keep quiet

and I will go».

Interbeing

by chermesch

“We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly.”

-Martin Luther King Jr. Letter from Birmingham Jail.

As we grow in our mindfulness practice it is natural and necessary to see the deep interconnectedness of everything. Indigenous peoples have this woven into their cultures but in “civilization” we most often lose site of this fact as we get lost in our daily obligations. No matter how fiercely independent a person might be, they are just as dependent as everyone else on other people, beings, and even nature in order make it through the basics of their day. This includes the sunshine, the rain and soil that nurture the plants and animals that we consume for nutrition. It also includes the farmers, agricultural laborers, processors, delivery people, cooks, waiters, grocery store workers, and so forth. When we drive our cars we are interdependently linked with the ancient trees and dinosaurs whose organic material has converted to the oil used for our gasoline as well as old swampy plants turning into the coal used to power our world. On the most basic level, without plant life’s ability to photosynthesize light into sugars, the rest of the ecosystem, let alone “civilization” would not have developed.

As you move through the day, challenge yourself to be aware and grateful of the interbeing that surrounds us. Even the oxygen we breath being interconnected with the trees that surround us, the bee that helps to pollinate the flowers we enjoy, down to the rolly pollies that help decompose organic material and metals. There is no end to inquiring into this interbeing, if we just place our attention there.