Naturopathic Basics

I'm still here! This month I will begin a new series of short articles focusing on the basics of naturopathic medicine. For a quick intro, see my article for Chronic Babe, first published in 2007.

Metta Practice

“Metta” is shorthand for the Buddhist practice of compassion, in which we send peaceful intentions—sometimes known as “lovingkindness”—to ourselves, to our loved ones, and even further out into the world.

Here is a short, sweet version of the prayer:

Metta Prayer
May all beings be peaceful.
May all beings be happy.
May all beings be safe.
May all beings awaken to the light of their true nature.
May all beings be free.


Try it when you are feeling most peaceful; share some of that feeling with the world.
Then, try it when you are feeling most agitated, and share some of the peaceful feeling with yourself.
You can find the full version of “The Great Peace Prayer of Buddha”, in many different translations, online.
Also see the works of Pema Chodron and Sharon Salzberg, both North American Buddhist teachers, for more information.
May you awaken to the light of your true nature.

-Stephanie

Living Well, or Why We Do the Things We Do

As Stellaria continues to grow, I am often asked "why". Why do we offer such a range of classes? Yoga, t'ai chi, and meditation seem to fit with most people's ideas of "health", but why belly dance? Why knitting?
Like most questions that matter, the answer is deceptively simple: health is not just a physical concept. The longer I practice natural medicine, the more I cherish the philosophy of holism, defined by the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary as "...a theory that the universe and especially living nature is correctly seen in terms of interacting wholes (as of living organisms) that are more than the mere sum of elementary particles." Medicine is notorious for taking a compartmentalized view of the human being, and while it can be a useful perspective, it is also a severely limiting one.
Having a healthy body--one that has passed physical exams with flying colors, one without symptoms--doesn't guarantee feelings of wellbeing; nor is having a chronic illness an insurmountable impediment to feeling whole. Each of us is more than meets the eye, and an awful lot more than can be experienced through microscope, stethoscope, psychological assessment, or even the much-hyped full-body MRI.
My favorite of the Principles of Naturopathic Medicine is "Treat the Whole Person". For me, the whole person doesn't end at the physical, or even the psychological. What makes us whole is that which moves us to passion and to compassion. For most of us, it's more than one thing. Family and friends, of course; social and political issues; the power to make a difference in the world, to create and to change. I don't think I can emphasize that last thought enough. Human beings have a need to create, and if we don't fulfill that need, we feel stifled, empty, unwell.
What is it we long to create, what will fulfill that need? I can't answer that question for anyone else, but I do know some things that work for many of you: self-expression through writing, dance, and other arts; tangible assembly of something new through carpentry, knitting, sewing; nurturing growth through gardening, teaching, cooking. All of these things are important, and each of these things has the power to heal someone I know. Usually we don't know what works until we've tried it; there's no lab test or assessment we can offer you, to find out what will light that inner spark.
What we can offer is a place to try new things, and all within the perspective of the whole person. I select classes for our schedule that have the power to affect our students in a multitude of ways. Yoga and t'ai chi have well-recognized holistic benefits. The physical benefits of meditation continue to be fodder for scientific studies. Knitting and other forms of needlework are touted as stress reduction practices. Writing--a future offering--combines self-expression and self-examination, two valuable skills for living well.

Now, I'm not saying that any one of these things is the magical key to return you to harmony and bliss, any more than eating an apple a day really keeps the doctor away. But finding something that moves you is a key part of the picture. Always remember that you are more than the sum of your parts, and that honoring our wholeness is the first step to integrated wellness.

Worshipping the Orange

This is one of my favorite exercises in mindfulness. We discussed it
in the Meditation Level 2 class this week, and it was dubbed
"worshipping the orange" by one of the students. Quite appropriately.

First, find yourself a beautiful piece of fruit. This time of year, I
prefer citrus--luscious oranges, assertive grapefruits, sprightly
tangerines--you get the idea. If citrus disagrees with you, try a
banana or anything else of tropical origin.
Look at the orange. Allow yourself to admire it. Draw it with pastels
or crayons, watch how the sunlight creeps across its skin. Realize the
miraculous nature of this orange, a product of sunlight and warmth,
existing in our currently frigid climate. Let yourself be grateful for
that. (And, just for a moment, let yourself be grateful, instead of
guilty, for the supply lines bringing us food from around the world).

Pick up the orange. Run your fingers over its surface. Map it with
your fingerpads. If you were blind, would you recognize this fruit?
Bring it to your face, and inhale its fragrance. First with the skin
intact. Then nick the skin (or open the peel, with a banana) and let
the intensity of its aroma fill your senses. Feel gratitude for this
small miracle, the potency of the scent.

Peel the orange. Continue to admire it, and to immerse yourself in
your senses. Feel the texture of the skin against your fingers, and
the stickiness of the juice. Note all these sensations with gratitude.

Finally, take a bite. Again, immerse yourself in sensation and feel
gratitude for it. Repeat with each bite you take. Finish the orange
with admiration and gratitude.

Carry this feeling with you into the day.

**Cross-posted here and to the Stellaria Meditation Group

You can dance right through your life...

My graduating class at the National College of Naturopathic Medicine named me "Most Likely to Turn Her Clinic Into a Dance Studio." I wasn't too long into the organizing of my wellness center that I realized that clinic as studio was a perfect description of what I wanted to do. Why? Because movement is at the heart of my experience of health.

I've always been a dancer. Or, more to the point, I haven't ever been able to stop dancing. I saw the movie Flashdance at the tender age of 9, and decided right then that I was going to be a dancer. I was too young to realize the silliness of the plot--that a nightclub dancer could make it into a prestigious ballet school on sheer force of will. I only knew that the main character wanted to dance, and so did I. She danced in a loft; I danced in my parents' basement. She didn't have the means to take dance classes; I had to take CCD and go to soccer practice on the two nights my hometown park district offered ballet. Still, I danced.

It would be years before I performed in public, and even longer before I took a formal dance class. Still, dancing was the thread that ran through my days. I played sports, I did aerobics, I lifted weights and jogged and swam and did yoga, and sometimes I did none of those things. But I could never stop dancing. A few days without that kind of movement--and it wasn't just movement, of course, it was self-expression--left me feeling cranky and sick. I had to dance. It wasn't about staying in shape, or honing my technique; it was about preserving my sanity.

Some people feel this way about writing, others about playing an instrument, or cooking. In a way I was lucky that it was moving that made me feel most like myself. I didn't need to force myself to go to a gym to meet the requirements for "healthy movement"--I could get my workout in any of the tiny apartment bedrooms I lived in. When I moved to New York City, I feared having to give up my dancing due to lack of space. Instead I found myself living in a loft in Brooklyn--a very raw artists' den, a sublet of a sublet--but I had room to dance.

So my blood pressure and heart rate stayed low, my muscles stayed strong, and I stayed sane.

I've been dancing now for 3/4 of my life, and there's no end in sight. If I had a wish for all of my patients, all of my students, all the people who come into my center, it would be this: I wish you find the way to move that moves you. Because moving should be a joy, not a chore. Forget about comparing the aerobic benefits of yoga to the estimated caloric expenditure in weight lifting to the predicted joint damage incurred by running. Just keep trying different things until you find yourself having so much fun moving that you don't want to stop. And then-- don't stop.

You never know. Finding the joy in movement might lead you somewhere entirely new.

The Gold Star Method

I've been thinking a lot about change lately. For one thing, it's the beginning of a brand-new year (Welcome to the Future!). For another, it has become very clear to me that the main purpose of my job is to help people create change in their lives. I don't erase the world's illnesses with magical natural substances (as wonderful as that would be), nor do I open the door to some esoteric knowledge that allows those around me to rise to a higher state of consciousness. Quite simply, I assist my clients in choosing the things they would like to change, and then I help them find the tools, and the will, to make those changes.

Which leads me to ponder, once again, the question of how best to encourage change. We hear a lot about negative methods--"If I don't lose five pounds by Wednesday, I cannot eat anything that tastes good. Ever." Advertising is full of supposedly positive messages built around a core of self-loathing "You would feel so much better, if only you could..." "You deserve to look this good! (Why don't you?)" and so forth. Negative methods are certainly familiar, but are they effective? I'm not so sure.

Without the tools of punishment or self-abasement, how can we create change? We all choose goals that should make us feel better, in and of themselves. But if the goal is too large, too unattainable, we set ourselves up for failure, right from the start. This is the classic problem with New Year's Resolutions. We make a Great Big Promise to make a Great Big Change in our lives, and when that change doesn't materialize, we have a Great Big load of Guilt to add to our pile. Happy New Year!

Last month I visited my youngest nephew and his family. He is nearly four years old, and like a lot of people his age, he has a chart on his refrigerator. The chart lists the things that he is meant to do every day, and each time he does one of those things, he gets a check mark. When he has enough check marks, he gets a sticker on his chart. Does this sound familiar? My nephew gets rewarded, in a small but tangible way, each time he does the things he needs to do--gets himself dressed, brushes his teeth, says "thank you", and so forth. His small reward teaches him that it's good to do these things, and over time, these things become habits. Good habits, at that.

The Gold Star Method--do the thing you're supposed to do, get a star. Collect enough stars, and you've earned yourself a new good habit. When I thought about it a little more, I realized I'd used this method a lot in my own life--developed a strong Yoga practice, worked up to running two miles a day, studied for Board exams, rehearsed for endless performances... In November, I even met a huge writing goal this way. (See Nanowrimo for a wonderful approach to self-motivation.)

When we're talking about making changes for better health, and a better life, what you do matters much more than what you didn't do. If you go for a walk three days this week, be proud of those three days; don't waste your time berating yourself about the other four. The fact that you did walk matters so much more than the fact that you should have walked more.

We've talked about 30-day challenges before. This month, instead of a challenge, here is my offer to you: choose a habit you'd like to create in your life. Then do that thing, as much as you can. If you collect seven check marks--representing seven days of your good habit--come and see me (or send me a message). I'll give you a Star. We can repeat this as many times as you like. I have a lot of stars on hand.

Oh yeah, here's what I'm intending to do more of in 2008: Yoga. Write. Create. Give out lots and lots and lots of Gold Stars.

Meditation Challenge: Day 32??

From a series of posts sent to our Meditation 30Day Challenge group.


Hello!

I have to confess, June got the better of me. By Saturday, the 30-day Challenge had come down to a Day 30 Challenge: I was bound and determined to meditate that day. As fate and scheduling would have it, though, I spent the morning well into the afternoon working on business, then the evening was devoted to the production and performance of our latest belly dance extravaganza. Still, I was determined that when I got home...alas, when I got home, I fell asleep. So did June come to an end.
Sunday I spent up in Michigan, picking black raspberries. We picked 10 quarts worth, between 3 of us. By the end, I was thoroughly scratched, sunburned, and serene. If you have ever spent hours gleaning fruit from bushes, you may have known the joy of one-pointed focus as I did. It was a marvelous day, but despite my best intentions, I never made it to the cushion.

At first I felt that I'd let all of you down. Today, I have a different perspective. I would like to continue the challenge: It's a brand-new month, with 30 days left in it. I will keep the Yahoo! group up and running, and continue to send out periodic missives. How do you feel? Would you like to keep this going?

Meditation Challenge: Day 26

One of a series of messages sent to those participating in our 30Day Meditation Challenge. This was sent just after midnight, June 27.


Well, I must apologize for my absence. I didn't fall off the face of the earth, but I did fall off my own wagon in terms of sending you messages every day. The weather, both internal and external, has been tempestuous. All part of everyday life, of course. I remind myself, by reminding you, that we practice meditation in order to be practiced in meeting life where we find it. Some days are harder than others. Some days we are too tired, or angry, or just plain sorry for ourselves to make it to the cushion.--though we may know that those are the days we most need to sit, quiet our mind, witness ourselves.
I hope that your practice is going well. Whether you have sat as many days as you meant to or not, I hope that this challenge is teaching you something--some things--about yourself and your own mind.

Here's a quote:

"This method of synchronizing your mind and body is training you to be very simple and to feel that you are not special, but ordinary, extra-ordinary. You sit simply, as a warrior, and out of that, a sense of individual dignity arises. You are sitting on the earth and you realize that this earth deserves you and you deserve this earth. You are there--fully, personally, genuinely."

-Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior, Chogyam Trungpa

Talk to you soon!

Meditation Challenge: Day 19

From a series of messages sent to our 30Day Meditation Challenge group. I sent this one just after midnight, June 20

We are nearly 2/3 of the way through this challenge. I myself have been finding this commitment to be...well...challenging to keep. I've meditated most days, but certainly not all. I've talked to a few of you who are also struggling. The important thing, of course, is to persevere. I do wonder if there is anyone out there who has managed to make it to the cushion every single day. Don't be shy; speak up and let us know! We could all use a little positive modeling, I think.

Lately I've been thinking about this: whenever I get to a place where I think I have some of the big things figured out--life, love, Right Livelihood, etc.--life comes along and provides me with a new challenge or two. (To be honest, it feels more like a smackdown, most of the time). Now, I know full well that the challenges are part of the journey, and perhaps the most important part. But still I find myself asking "Why? Why me, why now, when I'm trying so hard to live well?"

Here's a short, sweet answer for you, courtesy of Hildegard of Bingen, a cloistered Bavarian nun of the 12th century.

"Holy persons draw to themselves all that is earthly."

Yep. There's no point in making this journey unless you're ready to come back to earth and use what you have learned.

I leave you with one more quote from Hildegard:

"Where do we begin? Begin with the heart."

Amen, sister.
Talk to you soon!

--Both quotes from Meditations with Hildegard of Bingen, translated and illustrated by Gabriele Uhlein, OSF

Meditation Challenge: Day 18

From a series of messages sent to the participants in our 30-Day Meditation Challenge. I sent this one today, June 18.

Can it really be Day 18? Well, yes, it is, though it is early yet, so for me it feels as if this is Day 17's entry. (As I did my usual late-night meditation last night, but decided to write to you this morning).

This was a weekend full of challenges, and I often found it difficult to make time for myself, my thoughts, my inner space, my meditation time. Suffice it to say that the weekend began with a wake and ended with a busted refrigerator, and you'll get an idea of how I'm feeling today. As I did my other Monday-morning work, I've been searching for a decent quote for you. I've been searching, believe it or not, since 8:30 a.m.

3 hours later, here is a little bit of inspiration that doesn't deal directly with meditation, but with the vicissitudes of life that our practice helps us to live through.

"Periods of darkness, times in the forest and the underworld, are times when we are in the cauldron, more aware than during ordinary times of the necessity and possibility of regeneration and healing, in the place of surrender and choice.

To be vulnerable and fallible, to have a shadow and a soul, to make our way through life determining who we become by the choices we make, is what we do here. Over and over again, it seems to me, life comes along and says, "Choose!"...These are the decisions that shape our lives, which ultimately are soul journeys."
--Jean Shinoda Bolen, Crossing to Avalon, 1994

Enjoy the journey.

Meditation Challenge: Day 14

Another from a series of messages sent out to participants in our 30-Day Meditation Challenge. I sent this one on June 14.

Two weeks in, how is everyone doing?I'll keep it brief tonight. Here are two short and simple quotes for you, both from Charlotte Joko Beck's wonderful book Everyday Zen: Life and Work.

"If you are new to practice it's important to realize that simply to sit on that cushion for fifteen minutes is a victory. Just to sit with that much composure, just to sit there, is fine."

"Each moment, as it is, is complete and full in itself. Seeing this, no matter what arises in each moment, we can let it be. Right now, what is your moment? Happiness? Anxiety? Pleasure? Discouragement? Up and down we go, but each moment is exactly what each moment is. Our practice, our aspiration, is to be that moment and let it be what it is. If you are afraid, just be fear, and right there you are fearless."

Enjoy your moment!

Meditation Challenge: Day 13

From a series of messages sent to our 30 Day Meditation Challenge group. This one was sent June 13

What a roller-coaster of a week this has been on my end. Our goal of 30 days has sometimes (often) been the only anchor that could drag me to the meditation cushion in the midst of my private turmoil. I've been grateful for that. Though sometimes I think, "Oh no...another 19 days to go. What did I get myself into?"I have a feeling I'm not alone in my feeling. Usually once I've finished meditating for the day, I am grateful to have made it to the cushion, grateful to have kept my commitment. Sometimes not, to be honest; sometimes I feel just as worn out and worn down, just as confused, as I did before I sat. Yet I persevere, my faith in the process undaunted. And knowing that I could never let the rest of you down.

Here is today's quote:

"I can choose, and it is this exercise of volition, an...ancient potential of human behavior, that holds me accountable for the consequences of what I do. I did not set in motion the karmic stream, but it's up to me how I negotiate its currents. I can go with the current, swim against it, or seek a shoreline, but the currents and eddies of the stream are forever shifting and leave me no option but to continually decide what to do. My choices bear upon the stream itself, for it is a mutual stream in which all of creation swims. I can do nothing that will not affect you. You can do nothing that will not affect me. We are awash together, bound in such intricate and binding reciprocity that if anything moves, all moves."

--from "Ten Thousand Mistakes", by Lin Jensen, Shambhala Sun, March 2007

Talk to you...very soon!

Meditation Challenge: Day 11

Hi again! I went away for the weekend...well, okay, I didn't actually go anywhere, but the days were too full of weekend-type activities for me to find time to write to you. For which I apologize; I was thinking about you. Especially on Saturday, when I completely forgot to meditate and then felt a surge of guilt, because I'd somehow let all of you down...Eventually I got over myself, and thankfully also got over the momentary and childish urge to cover up my missed day. We're all human here, right?

In the original article about the 30-Day Practice Challenge, the interviewer asks the creator of the first challenge, Andrea McQuillin if she ever "cheated". She responds, "No, I haven't cheated. There are days when I haven't practiced." Think about that for a moment. What's the difference between cheating and not doing what you've set out to do? Being honest with yourself and others about it. Saturday was the first day I've missed this month--though I'll tell you, it's nearing 12:30 a.m. as I write this, and I am contemplating not practicing tonight. But you know what? I'm pretty sure I will. Something about my commitment to greeting each of you (almost) every day keeps me on the cushion. Thank you for being here with me. (Even though "here" is somewhere else for each of us...and isn't *that* a subject for contemplation?!)

Enough of my late-night ramblings! Back to our regularly scheduled inspiration. Why do we meditate? Here's one answer:

"To be this close to the moment in which our life is unfolding we need to cultivate a deeper awareness through the development of a meditation practice. Awareness is itself a healing quality. Where awareness is focused the deepest potentials for clarity and balance present themselves. Though what we are aware of may be incessantly changing, awareness itself remains a constant, a luminous spaciousness without beginning or end, without birth or death. It is the essence of life itself. It is what remains when all that is impermanent falls away. It is the deathless."
--from A Year to Live, Stephen Levine, 1997

Talk to you tomorrow!

Meditation Challenge: Day 8

From daily messages sent out to those participating in our 30Day Meditation Challenge. This went out June 8.

Today we began our second week of practice, our 8th day of challenging ourselves to sit, to practice. Already it's not easy. Here, we have been gradually increasing our sitting time. Tonight we made it to 15 minutes. 15 minutes!!! It can seem so interminable...and yet in many ways, it seems like no more time than the 5 minutes we began with after the Dalai Lama's visit. 15 minutes is long enough to begin to glimpse something, a brief moment of not-thinking, not-planning, not-scheming. I'd say my practice tonight was about...14 minutes, 25 seconds of monkey mind, and 35 seconds of no-mind. Which is 35 seconds more than I'd had all day.

Here's a quote:

"We say: 'Everything comes out of emptiness.' One whole river or one whole mind is emptiness. When we reach this understanding we find the true meaning of our life. When we reach this understanding we can see the beauty of human life. Before we realize this fact, everything that we see is just delusion. Sometimes we overestimate the beauty; sometimes we underestimate or ignore the beauty because our small mind is not in accord with reality."

-from Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, Shunryu Suzuki

Talk to you tomorrow!

Meditation Challenge: Day 7

Yet another entry written for our group involved in the 30Day Meditation Challenge. Sent out June 7.


I have a cat. He's one of those strange cats who acts more like a dog. We joke that he doesn't quite understand the "cat thing", which dictates aloofness and cool behavior, and instead wants to be included with everything. If left to his own devices, he would follow me around like a puppy, mewling conversationally the whole time. Needless to say, he's right there with me for each meditation session. The first night, he surprised me by coming right up to where I sat--on my meditation cushion, on the floor--and after his meowing elicited no response, stood up on his hindlegs, put one paw on my shoulder, and extended the other to my face, as if to say, "Are you all right?" That was an entirely new move.
Most nights he contents himself with sniffing me (or us, when two of us are sitting), circling our periphery. He'll give a tender nip to my elbow, his usual signal to pay attention. Then he'll leap up to the chair between us, and curl up contentedly, nose tucked under his tail. Cats are supreme meditators.
So I looked for a quote about animals and meditation, but I haven't found one yet. I'll just have to put it in my own words: if you have a pet, you have probably noticed their attraction to meditation. They are drawn to be right next to you as you practice. (I have noticed the same phenomenon with yoga, with rehearsals of both music and dance, and with Shamanic journeying). I believe that animals are drawn to congruency of body and mind, and when we calm our mind, settle into ourselves, and return to the present moment--we are finally in harmony with them.
What do you think? I know we have a fair amount of dog lovers out there--and even one dog professional!


And here's a quote for you:

"In many spiritual traditions, sitting meditation is the universal posture used for accessing the human resource of wisdom. In silence, the sitter becomes the fair witness and suspends judgment of the process that is revealed....Sitting meditation teaches people how to wait, listen, and observe what is revealed...[It] teaches us about the art of observation, where ideas and images are released as quickly as they are revealed."

-from The Four-Fold Way: Walking the Paths of the Warrior, Teacher, Healer and Visionary, Angeles Arrien, 1993.

Congratulations on your first week of meditation!

Meditation Challenge, Day 6

Another short and sweet entry at the end of another day...this week has continued to be tempestuous, at least in terms of internal weather. We've had everything from fender-benders to drastic schedule changes to deal with around here. I hope to have time to write more later in the week, but for now, I leave you with a little inspiration:

"By bringing awareness to thought, the practice of meditation helps you get free of your immediate negative reactions, which are fear-based. Instead of being judgmental, you can become inquisitive about other people and take delight in them. You can take them in completely. You can do this even if you still end up not liking them very much."
Susan Piver, "Out of Fear", Shambhala Sun, March 2007

Talk to you tomorrow!

Meditation Challenge: Day 5

Sent to our 30-Day Meditation Challenge, early in the morning of June 6. (But still Day 5 for me).

Technically, it is Day 6 as I write this; just after 1:00 a.m., and I am wrapping up a very long day. I am about to sit myself down for my daily practice, so I will keep this note short and sweet. Here is a poem for you:

Remember
That to have the eyes of an artist,
That can be enough,
The ear of a poet,
That can be enough.
The soul of a human
just pointed
in the direction of the divine,
that can be more than enough.
I tell you this to remind myself.
Every gesture is an act of creation.
Even empty spaces and silence
can be the wings and voices of angels.

---Michele Linfante (though I found it in A Big New Free Happy Unusual Life: Self-expression and Spiritual Practice for Those Who Have Time for Neither, by Nina Wise, a wonderful performance artist and teacher)

Talk to you tomorrow!

Meditation Challenge: Day 4

Part of a series of messages sent to our 30-Day Meditation Challenge group. Today is Day 4, June 4.

A busy Monday, our first since the challenge began. It was also a gloomy, rainy, tempestuous day, one marked by upsets and challenges for many of the people I talked to. I hope you were able to make time for yourself, and your practice, today.

Personally, my workday began at 8:00 a.m. and is just now wrapping up--9:53 p.m. And that's not counting a rehearsal that I really should squeeze in before finally sitting down to dinner! Do I feel like meditating? Well....er....actually, I do. (I've surprised myself, but I'm really looking forward to sitting tonight). But I would do it even if I didn't feel like it. I don't feel like paying the bills a lot of the time, but I've learned to make myself do it. Or, perhaps a better example, I don't always like rehearsing--but I feel much, much better when I've done it. Even if the rehearsal was grueling, painful, and boring.

That's the strange truth about meditation: it doesn't always feel good. Yet, somehow, it always...feels good. At least in retrospect!

Here is today's inspiration:

"Although meditation may seem like a practice that turns away from the world, it is not a way to avoid problems or difficulty. We meditate partly to have the strength to confront the challenges in our life and world. As you allow your meditation practice to grow, it naturally opens the heart and helps you to connect, feel, and care more deeply for the natural world. With practice, you can allow your own deepening awareness of your interconnectedness with all life to inform how you take action to protect the things you love and hold dear."
--from Awake in the Wild: Mindfulness in Nature as a Path of Self-Discovery, by Mark Coleman, 2006. (Though I found it in the March 2007 issue of Shambhala Sun).

Talk to you tomorrow!

Meditation Challenge: Day 3

An excerpt from a message sent to the 30-Day Meditation Challenge group today, June 3

Here is today's inspiration:

It takes courage to sit well...We have to be willing to do something that is not easy...As we sit, we find that the primary thing we must work with is our busy, chaotic mind. We are all caught up in frantic thinking and the problem in practice is to begin to bring that thinking into clarity and balance. When the mind becomes clear and balanced and is no longer caught by objects, there can be an opening--and for a second we can realize who we really are.

--from Everyday Zen: Love and Work, Charlotte Joko Beck, 1989
Keep up the good work!

Meditation Challenge: Day 2

These messages were sent to those participating in a 30-Day Meditation Challenge. I have cross-posted them here for the benefit of anyone and everyone who might be interested.

Greetings!
We have reached Day 2. I'm sure by this time (it's a little after 5 p.m. as I write this), many of you have already completed your practice for the day. Some of you are probably like me: I prefer to wait until my work for the day is done, and then sit. It provides a break for my busy mind. Whichever time of day works for you is fine. There is no one right time.

I didn't get around to sitting until nearly midnight last night, and when I finished, the first thing I realized was how tired I was. It didn't take long for that feeling to pass, though, and I felt invigorated. Today I have more mental energy than I've had in a long time. I don't always react that way to meditating, and of course the goal of meditation is not really to emerge as a more productive person. (Though "studies show" that can happen, but we think of it as more of a beneficial side effect). What is the goal? Is there one? Probably not...the aim is, I think, simply to be with ourselves, to slow down and sit awhile. What do you think?

By the way, today or tomorrow I hope to have a Yahoo group set up, whereby those of you who wish can exchange ideas and spur each other on.

Today's inspiration consists of two interlocking ideas from the world of Yoga. Yoga as we think of it, the physical practices, are really just one arm of an eight-limbed philosophy for life. The original purpose of Hatha Yoga (the physical poses) was to prepare the body for sitting meditation.

First, from the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, which collect the guiding thoughts of Yoga:

Sutra 2.46: Sthira-sukham asanam.
The connection to the earth should be steady and joyful.

Second, from modern Yoga instructor Rodney Yee:

Sit and feel your connectedness to the earth--

your posture rising from the fluidity of your spine--
the ease with which you can balance over your connectedness--
the small finger of your individual existence on the huge body of the planet

Can you let your mind broaden into a much larger consciousness, supported by your contact with the ground?

--from Yoga: the Poetry of the Body, Rodney Yee with Nina Zolotow, 2002

Sit, and be. Rest in the moment. See you tomorrow!