Gratefulness

I found a terrific website the other day that I would like to share with anyone who happens to read this:

www.gratefulness.org

From the website:

A Network for Grateful Living (ANG*L)

is dedicated to providing education and support for the practice of grateful living as a global ethic, based on the teachings of Br. David Steindl-Rast and colleagues.  Gratefulness is a universal principle that serves as the core inspiration for personal growth, cross-cultural understanding, interfaith dialogue, intergenerational respect, nonviolent conflict resolution, and ecological sustainability.

For those who may not know, Br. Steindl-Rast is a Camaldolese Benedictine, one of the more contemplative groups in the Benedictine community, who has written a number of books on spiritual practice and been a leader in interfaith monastic efforts.  The site has a wealth of resources for connecting to the Divine, in whatever way you view it, and I highly recommend it to anyone who needs a spiritual lift. 

I would especially suggest taking a look at the "Angels of the Hours" section, a beautiful way to intersperse contemplation through your day, based on the prayer times outlined in the Rule of Benedict.  The illustrations are beautiful and the guidance in the hours that I have looked at is simple but profound.

Everything and Nothing

Paradox is one of the things about Taoism, and, more broadly, mystical experience that makes people crazy.  Ask a Taoist master a question and, chances are, you will get anything but a logical, linear answer. 

During our weekly session with our teacher Monday, Stacey asked about Taoist afterlife beliefs.  Specifically, she mentioned the theory that our 'souls' (whatever those are) are dipped from an 'ocean' of admixed being and that, when we die, those souls, with all their experience, return to that ocean only to have pieces and parts dipped up and incarnated again.  Our teacher said that this was true but that it was also not true. 

We spent the better part of an hour dissecting that one idea, even getting into a discussion of channeling at one point, only to come to the conclusion, at the end of the session, that this belief is only one of various potentials to do with the afterlife.  The short answer is that there are any number of things that might  happen to us when we die but that we really do not know so we need to spend our time worrying about living now instead of what happens when we pass over. 

People who study the Way, in whatever form this takes for them, want answers.  That is part of the reason that they take up the study; they can no longer settle for the pat answers handed them by society or, perhaps, some organized religion.  This is a good attribute, this burning curiosity about what is, but it is also a stumbling block since, to paraphrase, the Way that can be named is not the enduring and unchanging Way.  One of the frustrating characteristics of a true mystical experience is that it is almost impossible to talk about. 

Those experiences are transcendent but there is nothing to transcend.  They are holy, in the sense of making wholeness, but can happen on a city bus or an urban slum.  They take us out of ourselves while making us more totally and completely who we are.  They are everything . . . and they are nothing.

The Monastery

After my weekly teacher discussion, my assignment this week is to take 7 minutes in the morning, then again at lunch and, finally, at the end of the day and simply be aware of what is going on around me at work.  I have found this to be a very interesting exercise.  Most of the time, when we meditate, we are focused on some aspect within ourselves - our breath, a mantra, a visualization, etc - but this exercise actually requires me to focus out.

The result of this work is that a sort of silence seems to fall around me once I settle and it seems to me that my awareness spreads out around me like a pool.  I am acutely aware of the tiny sounds that we usually discard as minutiae - the soft scuff of shoes on carpet, the co-worker muttering to themselves several cubes down, pencils scratching on paper, the whirring of the copy machine as it sits in standby.  In addition, there is a feeling of pressure as people move through this "awareness field", almost like a boat making a bow wave in water.  I am betting that, with a little practice, I will actually be able to identify people by their "bow wave". 

While the results of the exercise are fascinating in themselves, I find that this exercise, with its enforced time regimen, reminds me of the days of my monastic interest where the Liturgy of the Hours wove a constant thread through each day, providing a structure for the waking hours but also requiring strict attention since the Hours changed from day to day and week to week.  I once knew a Benedictine sister whose favorite metaphor for a life governed by the Rule of Benedict and its commitment to the praying of the Hours was that of a garden lattice which provided the structure for a plant to grow up toward the sun. 

Perhaps I am in the process of constructing my own lattice . . .

Patterns

I often wonder what lesson the Universe is driving home to me when things around me happen in multiples.  I guess that, like some of the ancients, if something seems to be happening around me a lot, I see that as an omen - a sign from the Powers That Be that I need to pay attention to something. 

 

In my current situation, I have had three people at my work become very ill in the last couple of weeks.  One person has been diagnosed with Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma, one has suffered a TIA and the last went home today looking more like a ghost than human being.  Rumors are buzzing about his health status all over the floor. 

 

Of course, this could all be a giant coincidence but I am not a big believer in coicidences.  Given my own health issues, which seem to be going through a cycle of exacerbation, I am considering what lesson I am to learn from all this, what it is that I am supposed to pay attention to? 

 

The logical first thought is that I need to pay attention to my health.  While I seem to be having a "flare" these days, in general, I am doing most of what I can to work with my physical body.  I have improved my diet, lost almost 40 pounds, developed a regular exercise routine and worked out an ongoing course of acupuncture. 

 

If not my health, then what? Certainly, since at least two of the diseases around me are life threatening to a greater or lesser extent, the situation could be a message to look at my life in view of my own mortality.  I would "buy into" this idea more if I were not coming from a period of deep introspection where I made some choices about what I want to do and where I want to go in the next few years. 

 

In the end, I think that I have to consider that this is a lesson in how to react to the bumps in life's road.  I was considering how each of the people above reacted to their illness.  The reactions ranged from positive attitude and determination to depression, confusion and resignation.  I have been working a lot with developing a more positive, relaxed attitude toward life and it seems to me that the people around me are mirroring that, showing me the difference that attitude can make in the most critical situation. 

 

I wish all my co-workers well and send positive thoughts for their speedy recovery.