"We create our friends and enemies as well, but we forget that it is so. Because of our lack of mindfulness, our creations are transformed into something solid and real, and we become ever more entangled. When you fully realize, not just intellectually, that everything is your just your creation, you will be free." - Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse (What Makes You Not a Buddhist)
Namaste and welcome. It's so hard to decide what topic to broach next. I was looking over this amazing book that is going to be on a recommendation list that I'm creating:
And found a lot of things I had underlined about thinking patterns, personality, and the way we interact with the world. I think this is so important for so many people to realize, and so it seemed to emerge as the next topic.
This is simple enough, and not even necessarily a "big deal", until we combine it with other thinking patterns that we have. For example, habitual thinking, and fixed opinions, convictions and attitudes.
We end up taking our perceptions of the world, and convincing ourselves that they are 100% true, and the only truth. People, things, actions, behaviors, take on the labels 'bad', 'good' and 'neutral' and we end up believing that these things really, inherently have these characteristics. Once we form these opinions we never think to question them, and we hold onto them tightly, even if they cause us trouble, which they often do.
An old Indian story illustrates this point. It is the story of 6 blind men, who all discover an elephant. They return to their village and the first one describes the elephant having felt only it's ear, "It was large, and flat and smooth, about twice the size of my head." Another speaks up, having felt only it's tusk, "What?! You are an idiot. It was hard and long and sharp at the end." And so it goes. We are always interpreting the world from our own senses, perceptions, definitions, memories and opinions. A minuscule part of the truth, at best, is instead transformed into the whole truth, and nothing but.
What yoga and meditation offer is an ability to develop the 'witness position' - the ability to stand back and get a new view of events, situations and even our own thought patterns. We can then question the real truth of all our valued opinions and decide whether we should keep them or not. We can slowly realize that often it is not events that hurt us but our attitudes towards them.
Yoga philosophy recommends, as a counter to such destructive thinking patterns, the trio of acceptance, non-expectation of outcomes and equanimity.
Dr. Vivekananda elaborates:
Acceptance
- See things as they really are; don't resent them because they are not as your want, or waste time fantasizing that they are better. See events and people realistically- one thing in your power is your attitude towards them- either accept them (and get on with life) or reject them.
Non-expectation of Outcomes
-"Contentment and fulfillment begin with a clear understanding of one principle- some things are within our control and some are not." (Epictitus, Stoic philosopher of Ancient Greece)
-" Lord, grant me the serenity to accept things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference." (The Serenity Prayer by Reinhold Neibuhr, a 19th century American clergyman)
Equanimity
- Develop the ability to accept the ups and downs of life as they are. Swami Satyananda said, "Life is full of ups and downs, but for the yogi every 'up' is a joy and every 'down' is an adventure."
-"There is no such thing as a problem without a gift in its hand for you. You seek problems because you need their gifts." (Richard Bach)
By meditating, thinking about, and reflecting on how we perceive and create our world we can find freedom in realizing how much control we really have over our own reactions and happiness. We can realize thing like "annoying" people are not inherently annoying (to someone else they might be the most charming person in the world), and that WE are creating that annoyance in our own minds. With this realization of the control we possess, we can paint the world however we want, and take control of our own emotions, and lives. How incredibly liberating.
Reflecting and meditating on these concepts is great, but it's also doesn't just transform us over night. We can understand intellectually that we create situations, but that doesn't help at all the second someone hits our car, or annoys us, etc. We suddenly find ourselves reverting to pure emotion that doesn't feel created at all. My suggestion for daily life, on top of meditation and discovery, is to start to be aware of at least one situation per day (or even per week if this is too much for you) where you find a strong emotion coming up and really pinpoint it, and focus on it, and think to yourself something like, "Is there a different way I could react to this situation?" or "What part of this situation do I have control of?" or "Is there any part of this situation that is being created, being made bad by me?" etc. If we can start, even on a small scale, to be more aware of our reactions and interactions with people and the world I think our lives will start to improve drastically.
Below is an Equanimity meditation from a 10 day Introduction to Buddhism class that I took in May. It is quite long, especially for a beginner, but I think it's really nice to have someone guiding you through a meditation, and Jonas, my meditation teacher, covers the topic beautifully. Hope you enjoy! As always feel free to start up a discussion with me or ask any questions (mekenziesutton@gmail.com).
Namaste and welcome. It's so hard to decide what topic to broach next. I was looking over this amazing book that is going to be on a recommendation list that I'm creating:
And found a lot of things I had underlined about thinking patterns, personality, and the way we interact with the world. I think this is so important for so many people to realize, and so it seemed to emerge as the next topic.
What we first have to ponder when thinking about how we react to the world is how we perceive the world. As Dr Rishi Vivekananda says, "Each of us perceives the world differently. It is impossible for people to be aware of everything that is in their field of the senses such as sight, sound, touch, or even smells or taste; there is just too much. So perception chooses those objects and events that have meaning for us as an individual, concentrates on those, and ignores the rest." When we actually think about what this means we have to realize that Dr Vivekananda is also right when he says, "When we are with another person, we assume that they are experiencing the world as we are, but this is just not true."
This is simple enough, and not even necessarily a "big deal", until we combine it with other thinking patterns that we have. For example, habitual thinking, and fixed opinions, convictions and attitudes.
We end up taking our perceptions of the world, and convincing ourselves that they are 100% true, and the only truth. People, things, actions, behaviors, take on the labels 'bad', 'good' and 'neutral' and we end up believing that these things really, inherently have these characteristics. Once we form these opinions we never think to question them, and we hold onto them tightly, even if they cause us trouble, which they often do.
An old Indian story illustrates this point. It is the story of 6 blind men, who all discover an elephant. They return to their village and the first one describes the elephant having felt only it's ear, "It was large, and flat and smooth, about twice the size of my head." Another speaks up, having felt only it's tusk, "What?! You are an idiot. It was hard and long and sharp at the end." And so it goes. We are always interpreting the world from our own senses, perceptions, definitions, memories and opinions. A minuscule part of the truth, at best, is instead transformed into the whole truth, and nothing but.
What yoga and meditation offer is an ability to develop the 'witness position' - the ability to stand back and get a new view of events, situations and even our own thought patterns. We can then question the real truth of all our valued opinions and decide whether we should keep them or not. We can slowly realize that often it is not events that hurt us but our attitudes towards them.
Yoga philosophy recommends, as a counter to such destructive thinking patterns, the trio of acceptance, non-expectation of outcomes and equanimity.
Dr. Vivekananda elaborates:
Acceptance
- See things as they really are; don't resent them because they are not as your want, or waste time fantasizing that they are better. See events and people realistically- one thing in your power is your attitude towards them- either accept them (and get on with life) or reject them.
Non-expectation of Outcomes
-"Contentment and fulfillment begin with a clear understanding of one principle- some things are within our control and some are not." (Epictitus, Stoic philosopher of Ancient Greece)
-" Lord, grant me the serenity to accept things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference." (The Serenity Prayer by Reinhold Neibuhr, a 19th century American clergyman)
Equanimity
- Develop the ability to accept the ups and downs of life as they are. Swami Satyananda said, "Life is full of ups and downs, but for the yogi every 'up' is a joy and every 'down' is an adventure."
-"There is no such thing as a problem without a gift in its hand for you. You seek problems because you need their gifts." (Richard Bach)
By meditating, thinking about, and reflecting on how we perceive and create our world we can find freedom in realizing how much control we really have over our own reactions and happiness. We can realize thing like "annoying" people are not inherently annoying (to someone else they might be the most charming person in the world), and that WE are creating that annoyance in our own minds. With this realization of the control we possess, we can paint the world however we want, and take control of our own emotions, and lives. How incredibly liberating.
Reflecting and meditating on these concepts is great, but it's also doesn't just transform us over night. We can understand intellectually that we create situations, but that doesn't help at all the second someone hits our car, or annoys us, etc. We suddenly find ourselves reverting to pure emotion that doesn't feel created at all. My suggestion for daily life, on top of meditation and discovery, is to start to be aware of at least one situation per day (or even per week if this is too much for you) where you find a strong emotion coming up and really pinpoint it, and focus on it, and think to yourself something like, "Is there a different way I could react to this situation?" or "What part of this situation do I have control of?" or "Is there any part of this situation that is being created, being made bad by me?" etc. If we can start, even on a small scale, to be more aware of our reactions and interactions with people and the world I think our lives will start to improve drastically.
Below is an Equanimity meditation from a 10 day Introduction to Buddhism class that I took in May. It is quite long, especially for a beginner, but I think it's really nice to have someone guiding you through a meditation, and Jonas, my meditation teacher, covers the topic beautifully. Hope you enjoy! As always feel free to start up a discussion with me or ask any questions (mekenziesutton@gmail.com).
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