All the time I hear, "Oh, I can't do mindfulness--my mind just doesn't work that way."
When you were a kid, did you learn how to ride a bike? Remember how discombobulating it was a first? OMG, the WOBBLES!
But almost all of us really, really wanted to ride a bike. We kept at it. It didn't take nearly as long to learn to ride as we feared. Probably not a person reading this blog got good enough to do bike tricks. Probably everybody reading this got good enough to go places, to ride with friends, to occasionally experience the amazing freedom and joy that comes simply by being on bike.
Mindfulness is like that. There's a learning curve. But within a week or two with a little regular practice and we begin to find that blessed sense of balance.
And we go places.
Below is our lectio from Monday Mindfulness. It's a piece from Jack Kornfield's A Path With Heart. He's writing not so much about how we initially find our balance. He's writing more about where we're able to go as we do begin to find that balance.
Wise words follow... (If you're looking for simpler instruction on how to begin, try here)
---
We cannot easily change ourselves for the better through an
act of will. This is like wanting the mind to get rid of itself or pulling
ourselves up by our bootstraps. When we struggle to change ourselves, we, in
fact, only continue the patterns of self-judgment and aggression. We keep the
war against ourselves alive.
The purpose of a spiritual discipline is to give us a way to
stop the war, not by our force of will, but organically, though understanding
and gradual training. Ongoing spiritual practice can help us cultivate a new
way of relating to life in which we let go of our battles.
When we step out of the battle, we see anew. We see how each
of us creates conflict. We see our constant likes and dislikes, the fight to
resist all that frightens us. Our prejudice, greed, and territoriality. All of
this is hard to look at, but it is really there.
When we let go of our battles and open our heart to things
as they are, then we come to rest in the present moment. This is the beginning
and the end of spiritual practice. When we come into the present, we begin to
feel the life around us again, but we also encounter whatever we have been
avoiding. We must have the courage to face whatever it is. As we stop the war,
each of us will find something from which we have been running.
You may have heard of "out-of-body"
experiences" full of lights and visions. A true spiritual path demands
something more challenging, what could be called an "in-the-body
experience."
With wise understanding we allow ourselves to contain all
things, both dark and light, and we come to a sense of peace. This is not the
peace of denial or running away, but the peace we find in the heart that has
rejected nothing, that touches all things with compassion.
