Our meditation practice is personal and private. It is also something that can open us up to connect with every other human being on the planet. There are many opportunities to learn about the ways and teachings of the Buddha. For me, the writings of Jon Kabat-Zinn were a beginning point in my mindfulness-based journey along my pathway for finding meaning and understanding in my life.
Closely following Jon Kabat-Zinn were my other mentors: Thich Nhat Hanh, Eckhart Tolle, Tara Brach, Adyashanti, Bob Stahl, Rick Hanson, Jack Kornfield, Anam Thubten, Shawna Shapiro and others. Each of these precious individuals has opened up areas of self-discovery that have been transformative for me.
There are many aspects to the practice of being mindful, being at one with ourselves and living from our core essence. There are many notions that are helpful to understand along the way. What do we mean by the ‘now,’ ‘awareness,’ ‘essence’ and suffering? On a more basic level, the question becomes, who am I, really?
Awareness
Who we are has been explained by Adyashanti as (emphasis added):
“Awareness, that part of us that perceives, observes and witnesses our thoughts, feelings, behaviours and body sensations. It can be quite transformative to realize that you are not what you thought you were, that you are not your feelings, that you are not your beliefs, that you are not your personality, that you are not your ego. You are something other than that, something that resides on the inside, at the innermost core of your being. For the moment we are calling that something ‘awareness, itself.'”
For me, I have come to experience and appreciate that who I am is the awareness that is able to observe and witness my thoughts, feelings and bodily sensations.
Then there is the notion that the only true moment we experience is in the now of life. The ‘now’ means being at one with each heartbeat, with each breath. Jon Kabat-Zinn has shared that “the past and the future are only concepts. In truth, we only have the now.”
When we think of the past, we are referring to what the memory of our past experiences was, in the present moment. When we think about the future, we are fantasizing about what might happen in the future, in the present moment. We are always in the now of life. There is no other place we can be but in the present moment.
I have found that when I am in the now of life, I feel connected with my essence and feel truly connected with myself. Again, Kabat-Zinn has written, “When we are truly present, in the now, our natural state of being is to be compassionate, to feel empathy with another person or living being.”
Storylines
By contrast, often our reactive thoughts have created storylines about life’s past events, which are based on painful experiences. It has been said that we do the best we can with what we have to work with. As children, we often come to conclusions about ourselves that cause us suffering. Why? Because again, as Adyashanti has written, “Suffering occurs when we believe in a thought that is at odds with what is true, what was true and what will be true."
How many children suffer, believing that they are somehow responsible for Mommy and Daddy not being married anymore?
An eight-year-old boy hears his parents arguing and concludes that his parents’ shouting is because he has done something wrong and that he is bad. What this eight-year-old person has created is a storyline, and he will suffer as a result of that storyline. Why? Because he is concluding that he has done something wrong and that he is bad, when neither of these interpretations of what is going on are true.
Our storylines are often lies we tell ourselves to try to make sense of our experiences with others. In fact, this eight-year-old’s mother and father were arguing about where to go on a vacation break. How many children suffer, believing that they are somehow responsible for Mommy and Daddy not being married anymore?
These creations of our storylines are given birth by our inner critic. Our inner critic becomes the voice that we hear in our inner self-talk that says and concludes negative things about who we are, and what we have done. One of our life’s tasks is to see the inner critic for what it is, to stop listening to its voice and becoming hooked into replaying what has gone on to make us feel badly about ourselves. Instead, we need to see the inner critic as a visual event, where we watch what is said in the way we would watch a movie, or water flowing over the rocks on a waterfall.
Self-acceptance
I always felt that something was wrong with me for reasons, I found out later, had nothing to do with who I am. Parents bring il loro unresolved issues from their lives into parenthood. I have spent great amounts of my life working through the fact that I am, in truth, a decent, caring, thoughtful, reflective human being, with even some bursts of creativity, and moments of expressing compassion and kindness towards other people and living beings.
This brief sharing has been about a journey of self-discovery, self-acknowledgment and self-acceptance that each of us must undertake in our lives to connect with who we are, vivendo no agora, com consciência and freedom from unnecessary suffering.
May I remember that, in my moments of pain, conflict and suffering, I am able to be acknowledged and embraced by the loving essence who resides within me.
May Love, Peace, and Joy forever flow through our lives.
"LEGGI RELATIVI" THE JOKE’S ON YOU: Seeing the funny side of your inner critic»
immagine 1 Immagine di Gerd Altmann da Pixabay 2 Immagine da Gerd Altmann da Pixabay 3 Immagine da John Hain da Pixabay
