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| The latest addition Kurumi meaning Walnut |
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| King's Park Perth November 2021 |
The year 2021 . Another year of control, restraint ,closed borders and uncertainty and lots of worry . For West Australians we have been fortunate . The border closure and restrictions have to some degree set a different tangent of outcomes. I was certain of my position and views .I have now tempered my views .They have not changed but my compassion and understanding of others has. Without rehashing the whole year of training and discovery which are set out in the blog , I have set out below some valuable lessons .
I have tried to distill the main points I think I have learnt about myself in this journey we call life this year .Not to look back or forward but to understand . Aside from finally doing a miler ,the main lesson or revelation has been Meditation.After Wild Goose Chase 100km in June I started to meditate more and even up to an hour a day spread out over the day.Some sessions troubled with thoughts others sheer moments of emptiness of thought and bliss in that I had no thought , no feeling , no worry , no concern.The revelation has been as I meditated more the more I felt at ease with everything.The stress of the day , of life seems to have melted away ,at least for the moment and I seemed to have an inner peace to deal with greater clarity anything in front of me.
I learnt a new word...Equanimity .I learnt to not take everything to heart , to react to let every action, thought comment consumed me. In a way , to disassociate from everything but still be connected seems to be the way . To recognize we are all the same energy . I began to subscribed to Tricycle and started listening to the Secular Buddhist ( thank you Chailee) . Rob then suggested listening to Ajahn Brahm and I found the WA Buddhist Society and lots of dharma talks and guided meditations. I read Shinzen Youngs Book the Science of Enlightenment ( well had in on an audio file) It is a work in progress as having had the book read , it needs more then one reading for the understanding to sink in. But it has helped.
I did the Coursera Yale course the Science of Happiness at the beginning of the year and it more or less reinforced all the concepts I was picking up .Meditation , and many other helpful hints to deal with life in the course there was a suggestion to keep a gratitude journal which I did for a short while and will return to that in the new year.
Being Conscious of the moment
The main lesson is to live ,conscious of the moment ,the here and now.The past is a memory it is tampered by our unreliable mind and the future is not here. By living in the moment we are enjoying what we have in the now. As one of the many talks I have heard , we can never dip our feet in the same river . To be in the moment is what we should strive for and meditation helps with that.
I have reoriented my goals . Running has not been about winning . I have always been a back of the pack athlete but it was about striving for goals.I realized that I it just made the exercise tiresome and one dimensional. All along I could have been enjoying the total experience of the exercise rather then focused on a time , a result.Its like striving to identify a new insect whilst missing the beauty of the insect or nature.Both reasonable quest but one certainly more inspiring and revealing then the other.
I have learnt to be less judgmental ...On myself and others.In the past I would determine what is good and what is bad. The world has both and more so mixtures of both in all . Whether it is in professional or social life there is no one dimension of the cartoon good vs evil. I have had to hold my tongue and be kind and to not be so quick to judge . A lesson I wish I had learnt 30 years ago and a lesson I am still learning as it is easy to divide the world in black and white .
Impermanence
A very Buddhist concept but everything is an illusion because we see the world in and through the prism of our mind. A faulty and unreliable machine. As such life is impermanent , we humans strive for stability , happiness and a good life. All concepts that have no meaning .
The true goal in Buddhism isn’t to achieve happiness. It’s to achieve liberation or freedom. Once you’ve come to understand that life is impermanent, you can transcend this pursuit of happiness and the constant running away from fear that is so common in our lives and learn to live by letting go. Letting go is the path to real freedom. Letting go of the idea that we are permanent and understanding that we are impermanent and death is a fantastic way to do this. To practice death is to practice freedom. Yet, the only requirement to be happy is to be free. Happiness is the result, but happiness isn’t the goal, and there are two things we can confidently say about death. It is an absolute certainty that we will die, and it is uncertain when or how we will die. The past is past and the future is not yet here, and even the present as we experience it, it becomes that past. Really, the only thing we really have is now. It is only when we believe things to be permanent that we shut off the possibility of learning from change. Sogyal Rinpoche says, “Life is nothing but a continuing dance of birth and death. It’s a dance of change.”
From Noah Rasheta Secular Buddhism
By understanding Impermanence and having that freedom we will be happier or really liberated.
There is the concept of the three poisons in Buddhism, which is thinking that there are things that if we can have, we’ll be happier. If there are things that we can avoid, we’ll be happy, and the third one is ignorance. It’s the ignorance of thinking that way.
The truth is that the present moment contains everything that is perfect Milarepa, a famous Tibetan poet says, “My religion is to live and die without regret.”
In one of Noah Raheta's podcast . He sets out 11 tools :
The first one is meditation The second tool is to be present. Meditation is the practice for being present. You know that feeling when someone has been talking to you then suddenly you realize, you actually haven’t been paying attention so you kind of have to pause and say, “Wait, say that again.” Yeah, this is the opposite of that. Being present is something that you do throughout the day all the time and you have to remember, and remembering is the trick The third tool is to watch for distractions. We constantly have the urge to check e-mail, check social media. Then fourth, we’re going to let go of all expectations and here’s the thing. We all have expectations all the time.Life is like a Tetris game and we need to quit playing it like it’s chess game That leads us to the fifth tool, accepting people as they, accepting life as it is. This kind of leads to the sixth tool, to learn to be okay with discomfort. The seventh tool, watch your resistance. When you try to do something uncomfortable or you try to give up something, you’re going to find resistance, but you can just watch the resistance and be curious about it. The eighth tool for mindful living is to be curious. See, too often, we’re just stuck in our ways and we think that we know how things should be. We know how people are, how people should be and instead of being curious in finding out, we need to allow ourselves to experiment and let go of what you think you know he ninth step, is to learn to be grateful. The tenth one is to let go of control. the eleventh step. This to me is the most important one. It’s to learn to be compassionate.
Death ,Karma and Mindful Living... the Secular Buddhist by Noah Rasheta
Then from a different perspective there is an interesting interview by Rich Roll with Tommy Rivs about his dealing with cancer and his perspective of life . Not so much from a religious perspective but embracing some of the rules Noah set out for really accepting and living life fully .
Rich Roll podcast interview with Tommy Rivs , A poet of endurance and philosopher of the human spirit, Tommy is a highly credentialed elite marathoner and ultrarunner with many victories and accolades to his name.
Finally a Deepak Chopra interview in You Tube:
If I could sum up the year it was:
Firstly calming the mind by meditation
Learning to really embrace the moment
Living with Gratitude and Kindness
Being present not reactive
Not trying to be , letting go of desire.Whether it is to finish a race in a specific time or a material possession .
Not having ego.
Finally in the journey of meditation I come across a fair bit of Thich Nhat Hand's thoughts and articles and meditation practices On his 95th birthday Tryclce did a short piece titled
Ten Teachings by Thich Nhat Hanh for His 95th Birthday
A selection of wisdom and practices from the Vietnamese Zen master and peace activist .
We can learn much from his teachings.
Here's to a 2022 where we learn to embrace and develop these worthy skills.Robert Wright said
Meditation isn’t the only path to peace, but it might be the simplest and best one.
Why Buddhism is true Robert Wright on the wisdom of mindfulness meditation.
