Hello Readers, It’s been quite a while since I’ve written on this space. As those of you who have read my posts know, this blog, which I started in 2014, has provided a venue for whatever has been most significant or meaningful in my life at a particular time. It began as a travel and food blog, morphed into a place to vulnerably expose my story writing, jumped to a promo site for my film, then briefly reverted to a recipe blog. The beauty of this is that it’s really a place to reflect and if anyone wants to jump in and read what I have to share – all the better.
My current status has led me do what I sometimes need to do when I feel like things are just not quite right. When I feel like my life is off kilter. Skewed. I study. I don’t do yoga. I don’t meditate. I don’t pray. I study. So, I went to the library with no particular book in mind. I roamed through the stacks, perusing book titles, then stopped abruptly when I came upon The Art of Happiness – A Handbook for Living, written by Howard C. Cutler from extensive interviews and time spent with His Holiness the Dalai Lama. I’ve always been fascinated with the notion of happiness and as a philosophy student/professor, I, of course, explored it privately and with my students over the years. Yet, I still never have come up with a satisfactory answer to what it means to be truly happy and how to get there. So, I thought, ok here’s the book I’m going to study first.
After reading the first several chapters and taking notes, it occurred to me that I would be helping myself and possibly others if I summarize some of the points that resonate with me. So, for the next entries over the course of however long it takes, I’ll tell you about the book. I think it’s very important to mention that the book is not promoting Buddhism, but one cannot help but see the Buddhist influence on these ideas. Don’t be afraid of this. No matter what your faith or lack of, you might find it interesting. My method will be to first give direct quotes and paraphrases from the book then reflect personally on that section. I want to do it this way because you might find the excerpts valuable but my reflections distracting or unhelpful. Perhaps you want to read the excerpts. Do some of your own reflecting without my input, then come back and see if we had similar or different reactions. In any case, it will be here for you. Maybe you’ll need to read the book for yourself. If one thing within these pages helps one of you today, then I’ve done something good and that will make me happy. 🙂
For the most part, I’ll progress in a linear fashion, start to finish, but today I wanted to begin with a meditation offered by the Dalia Lama to a large gathering (Chapter 7, page 129). I’m starting here because I often feel that when I’m reading “self-help” books, it takes a while to get to something specific that I can do right now. And this is what happened in this book as well. I had to wait until page 129 for a mind exercise. Tomorrow, I’ll start from the beginning, but for now, give this a try.
“So…let us meditate on compassion today. Begin by visualizing a person who is acutely suffering, someone who is in pain or is in a very unfortunate situation. For the first three minutes of the meditation, reflect on that individual’s suffering in a more analytic way – think about their intense suffering and the unfortunate state of that person’s existence. After thinking about that person’s suffering for a few minutes, next try to relate that to yourself, thinking, ‘that individual has the same capacity for experiencing pain, joy, happiness, and suffering that I do.’ Then, try to allow your natural response to arise – a natural feeling of compassion towards that person. Try to arrive at a conclusion: thinking how strongly you wish for that person to be free from that suffering. And resolve that you will help that person to be relieved from their suffering. Finally, place your mind single-pointedly on that kind of conclusion or resolution, and for the last few minutes of the meditation try to simply generate your mind in a compassionate or loving state.”
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Reflections
In the beginning of the blog, I said, I don’t meditate, I study. Well, of course I’ve TRIED to meditate. I set my phone timer for some minutes, thinking I’ll do a few more minutes with more practice. I sit on the floor cross legged, hands on knees, sitting tall, eyes closed. Clear my mind. Hmmmmmmmm. Clear my mind. Wait did I eat breakfast yet? Hmmmmmmm. I wonder how long I’ve gone. Hmmmmmmmm. My butt hurts a little in this position, maybe tomorrow I’ll sit on a pillow. You get the picture. I’m not good at meditation. I give up pretty quickly. What I liked about the meditation above was that it was actually something I am SUPPOSED to think about. Very clear direction and something we can all do. Because we all know someone other than ourselves who is suffering right now.
The word suffering might be off-putting to some of you. Perhaps too intense or dramatic. Maybe you want to just think about someone who is having a rough time. Someone who has an illness. Someone who has recently lost a loved one.
More tomorrow.
Love, Trish