FEBRUARY DAILY PRACTICE: Right Communication

For this month’s Daily Practice, I thought I’d share a practice with you that I have been doing for close to 20 years: Telephone Meditation. Then I thought that rather than limit it to just the telephone, I’d expand it to include e-mail and texting (which, though done on a phone, is still a different medium for communication).

First, let’s review Telephone Meditation. For many of us, the phone is at times a distraction, at times a task-master and oppressor. When the phone rings, many of us have been conditioned to jump and answer on the first ring. Yet, we often find ourselves distracted during the phone conversation when we do so, because we haven’t stopped or turned away from what we had been doing when the phone rang, and we aren’t really fully present to the person on the other end of the line. We are caught in a kind of in-between place, and whenever we have called someone who is in a similar situation, we can find ourselves irritated with the half-hearted attention we are getting from the person we called.

So, next time the phone rings, stop what you are doing, and take a breath or two or three, depending on how slowly you breathe. Just stop, breathe in, breathe out, mindfully pick up the phone and answer. You will be offering your full presence to whomever has called. You will have stopped being a slave to the phone.

The practice is similar whenever we hear our phone signal that we’ve received a text message, or when our computer ‘pings’ the arrival of an e-mail. Stop what you’re doing, take three breaths and then read the message or e-mail. Again, you will be more fully present, undistracted, and free.

If you wish, before answering any of these “invitations” to communication, you can recite the following gatha, a variation on the “Listening to the Mindfulness Bell Gatha:”

Listen, listen.

This sound brings me back to my true home.

In the here; in the now.

This is the ultimate in which I dwell.

AND, when it comes time to make a phone call, send a message or e-mail, take a few breaths, and recite to yourself the following gatha before making the call or hitting “Send:”

Words can travel across thousands of miles.

May my words create mutual understanding and love.

May they be as beautiful as gems,

As lovely as flowers.

And please, share how – if at all – your communication is effected by this simple practice this month.


metta,
poep sa

December Daily Practice (Health Practice): Hydration

Really, it’s not only because I live in a desert that I’ve thought to share this practice! In winter, we tend to spend more time indoors, with windows closed and the heat on (unless we live in the tropics or in the southern hemisphere, where it’s getting on summer now but then you need to hydrate there just as well). If you are finding yourself in such a situation, you know that your sinuses can dry out, and this in turn can lead to sinus infections. Dehydration can also lead to headaches, fatigue, constipation and many other imbalances.

As well, December can be a pretty stressful time, with the holidays and family gatherings, so I thought I’d offer a simple practice, that won’t take much time, but may help you weather the season in better health and spirits.

The Practice: After waking in the morning, before your morning shower, or brushing your teeth, or coffee, or asana or mediation practice --  before just about anything else other than peeing – drink a glass of water (about 6 – 10 ounces). THEN, after showering, or whatever else your morning ‘get-me-up’ routine is, drink another glass of water.

That’s it. Simple.

If you’d like, you can write this gatha in your own handwriting and past it above your sink, or memorize it so that you can say it to yourself as you take that first glass of water:

Water flows from high in the mountains.

Water runs deep in the Earth.

Amazingly, water comes to us,

And sustains all life.

Some folk believe the big wars to come are not going to be over oil as much as water. Already thousands of people throughout the world lack access to fresh water. And yet, our bodies are about two-thirds water. This water is not separate from the water that falls as rain and snow, that runs in our rivers and streams. As our waterways become more and more polluted and overdrawn, what will this mean for our bodies? Are not the waterways of the Earth our external arteries?

To be mindful of our water, our need for water, and to celebrate the gift of water is to cultivate awareness and help preserve and conserve this precious source of life for all beings.

OCTOBER DAILY PRACTICE: Mindful Consumption

Hello Dear Ones,

I was delighted with the comments so many of you shared around the September Daily Practice of the Morning and Evening gathas. I hope you will consider continuing to practice with them, as over time they grow deeper in their import and transformative power.

For this month, I'd like to pick up as a practice something that many (most?) of us tend to do fairly absent-mindedly: drinking our morning coffee/tea/juice/water or whatever it is we drink in the morning.

There is a gatha for this as well, though you needn't memorize or use it in order to practice it's purpose and intent of helping us be awake and mindful of the act of drinking. I hasten to add that if your mornings are too time-constrained to take the time to drink mindfully, then please adapt the practice to another time. Whether it's at lunch, during your 'coffee break,' or in the evening, let at least one cup of your favorite beverage be a 'ceremony of daily life.'

Here's the gatha (substitute your beverage of choice for coffee, which happens to be mine!):

This cup of coffee in my two hands --
Mindfulness is held uprightly!
Mind and body dwell
In the very here and now.


Again, whether at home or at the cafe, taking some time to appreciate your drink (and your drinking) will  over time cultivate greater appreciation for other small moments of your day. I especially enjoy taking my morning cup of coffee in my two hands and feeling the warmth of the cup, the roundness of the mug.

Once you've taken your cup or glass in your two hands, either recite the gatha to yourself, while really looking at your drink, OR just take three mindful breaths. Use your senses, look, feel, smell. Then, feel the weight and texture of the cup as you bring it to your lips, the liquid flowing out of the cup, onto your tongue, and really experience its taste(s). Let yourself feel the impulse to swallow and experience the swallowing. Can you trace the warmth down your throat into your belly?

You don't have to drag this practice out. Even five or ten minutes drinking in this way will be of great benefit. AND, I hope I needn't have to add that it's best to "just drink," meaning avoid reading while drinking, chatting or listening to the news. Just drink. Or, as I like to say: "Wake up and smell the coffee!"

Please feel free to share any and all comments about your experience of this simple practice.

AND, finally, if you have any suggestions for these monthly Daily Practices, please feel free to forward them to me. Perhaps some month we'll be practicing one that YOU have suggested!

metta
poep sa frank jude

September Daily Practice: Wisdom Practice (FINAL WEEK)

Dear Ones,

Today begins the last week of September, and so the last week of this particular Daily Practice of reciting and contemplating the Morning/Awakening Gatha and the Gatha on Impermanence. Of course, I hope many of you choose to continue this practice even after the month ends, but with October 1st, I'll be sending out a new Daily Practice I hope you'll join me in practicing next month.

SO, if you've been working with the gathas this month, this final week is a great time to share with our 'virtual sangha' any insights you may have had around this practice. Any questions, resistances, or a-ha moments?

I will share here that since the birth of our baby daughter on Saturday, the 18th, this practice has indeed taken on another nuance. I have another daughter who will be turning 36 next month, and with the arrival of her sister, the truth of impermanence, anicca, the 'constant' of change is more in my face than ever! AND, through this intimate engagement with impermanence, I find re-newed commitment to be as fully present to each moment as possible. Each little spit-up (including the projectile one right to my face as I was enrapt in gazing at Giovanna Maitri's round little face), each diaper change, each moment of contented cuddling. I refuse to fall asleep to this life and take any of it for granted. And this, thanks to Dharma practice.

maitri,
Frank Jude

September Daily Practice: Wisdom Practice

The Buddha’s model for Yoga practice, the “Noble Eightfold Path,” begins with the two limbs associated with wisdom (prajñā): samyag-dṛṣṭi which can be translated as ‘right’ or ‘appropriate’ view or understanding and samyak-saṃkalpa, which is variously translated as ‘right’ or ‘appropriate’ intention, aspiration, motivation, or thought. This month, our daily practice will be to connect with a basic intention through the practice of two gathas to ‘bookend’ our day: one for waking up in the morning, and one for retiring at the end of the day.

Thich Nhat Hanh describes gathas as “short verses which we can recite during our daily activities to help us dwell in mindfulness.” Without these ‘reminders,’ we often fall into forgetfulness. We forget to look at the people we love and to appreciate them, so lost in our own mental chatter! Even during ‘leisure,’ we seem to not know how to get in touch with what’s happening in our life. To practice mindfulness is to grow in our understanding of what is going on – in our bodies, our feelings, our minds, and in the world. Stopping and coming back to the truth of our life ultimately brings the wonder and mystery of life into full focus.

When using gathas, we return to ourselves, and become conscious of our actions and, importantly, the motivations behind our actions. When we stop and recite a gatha, it’s like a short break in the tumultuous momentum of our life. When we resume our activity, we do so with a heightened sense of awareness. This helps not only us, as we find greater peace, calm, and joy, it helps those we interact with as we then share our peace, calm and joy with them!

In the beginning, we may need to have the gatha written so that we can read it to ourselves. Ideally, we memorize the gatha so that it comes to us naturally, spurred by the conditions of the particular situation the gatha is designed to wake us to.

This month, our practice will be to write out in our own hand the following two gathas: one to read/recite upon awakening in the morning, and the other to read/recite upon going to bed at night.

I suggest you write out the gathas on attractive colored paper, and place them near your bed (on your bed-stand if you have one). When you wake in the morning, sitting up at the side of your bed, read the “Waking Up Gatha” to yourself. If you live alone – or with a supportive partner – it can be helpful to say it out loud at least occasionally. Don’t rush through it automatically just to get it done. Take a few breaths, then read it slowly, fully aware of your breath as you do so. After reading it, take three breaths, then get up and on with your day.

In the evening, sitting up in bed, read the “Gatha On Impermanence” and reflect on your day’s efforts to live mindfully. This is NOT an opportunity for self-recrimination and judgment. Simply review honestly, with the understanding that we are learning day by day. Renew your commitment to stay awake the following day, and enjoy a deserved good night’s rest.

Throughout this month, I invite and encourage those of you who choose to engage in this Daily Practice to share your experience here through the Comment Tool. Feel free as well to ask any questions that may arise. May you enjoy your practice!

metta,

Poep Sa Frank Jude

Waking Up Gatha

Waking up this morning, I smile.

A brand new day is before me.

I vow (intend, aspire) to live fully in each moment,

And to look upon all beings with eyes of compassion.

Gatha On Impermanence

The day is now ended.

Let me reflect carefully on how I have acted,

And with all my heart, may I diligently engage in the practice.

May I live deeply, freely,

Always aware of impermanence

So that life does not drift away meaninglessly.