Finding the Center Within: The Healing Way of Mindfulness Meditation. Read Online Free Page A
Author: Thomas Bien
characteristics are changed to preserve anonymity. 00 BIEN pref.qxd 7/16/03 1:54 PM Page xx
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P A R T
I
o
The Key
If you want peace, peace is already there. If you want joy, love, harmony, understanding, wisdom, and happiness—these, too, are already present, right in the nature of things. You do not need to travel to Tibet or India. You do not need to find the perfect teacher or the perfect retreat. You do not have to do anything special whatsoever. All you need to do is open yourself gently to receive what already is, as the earth receives the rain, as a flower opens to the sun. Perhaps the most painful and damaging illusion of all is the notion that peace and happiness are to be found in the future. When we finish that degree or find the right job or the right relationship, then, we believe, we will be happy. And these may in fact be good things. But peace and happiness can only be now. If we can touch peace and happiness in this moment, future moments will also contain peace and happiness. If we cannot touch peace and happiness now, when will we?
Practically speaking, however, we are prone to lose our way. Both spiritual and psychological practice are a kind of medicine to help us find the means to recontact peace when we no longer seem to know how.
In Part I, we describe the nature of the problems we face in the modern world, and how mindfulness or holding to the center can help. Today many of us see life as a problem to be solved rather than an experience to be lived, looking everywhere but within, everywhere but at our own experiencing. We suffer from fragmentation, disconnection, 1
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F I N D I N G T H E C E N T E R W I T H I N
negative emotions, and low self-esteem. We burden our primary relationships with impossible expectations, and live for the never-arriving future.
Mindfulness, on the other hand, centers us in our own lives, empowering us to find our own internal authority. Mindfulness is deeply connected also to the practice of no self, which we introduce in this section. Part I provides you with the essential background and understanding of mindfulness. It eases you in to the more formal practices beginning in Part II.
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1
Week One
K N O W W H E R E Y O U A R E
o
If you are trying to know God, you must imagine that death is already gripping you by the hair. If you are trying to win power and fame, you must imagine that you will live forever.
—Swami Vivekananda (1863–1902)
Pushing the Stone Uphill
Judy flew home from the peaceful retreat center on the northern California coast. The day was cold and gray. Newark airport was busy as ever. Though she half expected it, the indifference and suspiciousness of the travelers and the airport workers shocked her. Reflexively, she smiled at one person as she had been doing all week on her retreat. He looked away quickly, as if to say, “What do you want?
Leave me alone.” Men touched their pockets to check for their wallets; women guarded their purses.
The airport atmosphere contrasted dramatically with the smiling, happy people at the retreat with the famous author. She felt well, whole, and calm just being there with him and all those friendly people.
3
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F I N D I N G T H E C E N T E R W I T H I N
As she stepped into the dark emptiness of her house, everything she’d left behind engulfed her: the loneliness, the half-completed plans and projects, all the unfulfilled good intentions. Even her cat’s gaze induced guilt for leaving him. As cats sometimes do, he punished her for her absence by pointedly ignoring her. Six messages from work nagged at her, and her heart sank when she heard them. They were like a strong undertow pulling her down with great force. She reminded herself quickly that her next retreat was only two months away. For although this had been her fourth retreat this year, she always had
01 BIEN.qxd 7/16/03 9:44 AM Page 1
P A R T
I
o
The Key
If you want peace, peace is already there. If you want joy, love, harmony, understanding, wisdom, and happiness—these, too, are already present, right in the nature of things. You do not need to travel to Tibet or India. You do not need to find the perfect teacher or the perfect retreat. You do not have to do anything special whatsoever. All you need to do is open yourself gently to receive what already is, as the earth receives the rain, as a flower opens to the sun. Perhaps the most painful and damaging illusion of all is the notion that peace and happiness are to be found in the future. When we finish that degree or find the right job or the right relationship, then, we believe, we will be happy. And these may in fact be good things. But peace and happiness can only be now. If we can touch peace and happiness in this moment, future moments will also contain peace and happiness. If we cannot touch peace and happiness now, when will we?
Practically speaking, however, we are prone to lose our way. Both spiritual and psychological practice are a kind of medicine to help us find the means to recontact peace when we no longer seem to know how.
In Part I, we describe the nature of the problems we face in the modern world, and how mindfulness or holding to the center can help. Today many of us see life as a problem to be solved rather than an experience to be lived, looking everywhere but within, everywhere but at our own experiencing. We suffer from fragmentation, disconnection, 1
01 BIEN.qxd 7/16/03 9:44 AM Page 2
2
F I N D I N G T H E C E N T E R W I T H I N
negative emotions, and low self-esteem. We burden our primary relationships with impossible expectations, and live for the never-arriving future.
Mindfulness, on the other hand, centers us in our own lives, empowering us to find our own internal authority. Mindfulness is deeply connected also to the practice of no self, which we introduce in this section. Part I provides you with the essential background and understanding of mindfulness. It eases you in to the more formal practices beginning in Part II.
01 BIEN.qxd 7/16/03 9:44 AM Page 3
1
Week One
K N O W W H E R E Y O U A R E
o
If you are trying to know God, you must imagine that death is already gripping you by the hair. If you are trying to win power and fame, you must imagine that you will live forever.
—Swami Vivekananda (1863–1902)
Pushing the Stone Uphill
Judy flew home from the peaceful retreat center on the northern California coast. The day was cold and gray. Newark airport was busy as ever. Though she half expected it, the indifference and suspiciousness of the travelers and the airport workers shocked her. Reflexively, she smiled at one person as she had been doing all week on her retreat. He looked away quickly, as if to say, “What do you want?
Leave me alone.” Men touched their pockets to check for their wallets; women guarded their purses.
The airport atmosphere contrasted dramatically with the smiling, happy people at the retreat with the famous author. She felt well, whole, and calm just being there with him and all those friendly people.
3
01 BIEN.qxd 7/16/03 9:44 AM Page 4
4
F I N D I N G T H E C E N T E R W I T H I N
As she stepped into the dark emptiness of her house, everything she’d left behind engulfed her: the loneliness, the half-completed plans and projects, all the unfulfilled good intentions. Even her cat’s gaze induced guilt for leaving him. As cats sometimes do, he punished her for her absence by pointedly ignoring her. Six messages from work nagged at her, and her heart sank when she heard them. They were like a strong undertow pulling her down with great force. She reminded herself quickly that her next retreat was only two months away. For although this had been her fourth retreat this year, she always had
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