Summary of Live session, February 13, 2022: For our 75th Live session we had participants from at least 21 countries, spanning 21 time zones (from NZ to CA). The theme of this week’s Live session was ‘The Heart of Mindfulness Practice.’
I spoke of mindfulness as a radical practice in that it shifts us into a different way of being in the world and relating to ourselves and others. Rather than being swept up in our unconscious habits, reactions, impulses, and mental narratives, and caught up or identified with our worries, fears, cravings and dislikes, we bring awareness to them.
We’re moving from unconsciousness to being conscious and aware—the shift from being caught up in a behavior, emotion, or mind state to being aware of it is at the heart of our practice. It’s here where freedom comes—it’s what Viktor Frankl spoke about as the space between stimulus and response, which provides us the ability to choose our response, which in turn leads—when we choose wisely—to growth and freedom.
When we step out of unconscious behaviors into awareness, we’re taking refuge in the truth—in the Dharma. We’re taking our stand on what is, rather than on our wishes or beliefs about how things should be or could be. Rather than defaulting to our escape mechanisms, to what is comfortable and familiar, we open honestly to our experience as it is, meeting it with acceptance and without judgment.
Mindfulness is also radical and transformative in its goal and outcome: bringing mindfulness to our experience in a skillful way—whatever we are paying attention to—leads to the end of suffering.
It leads directly to freedom by way of the insights (or seeing clearly—Vipassana, in Pali) we gain into reality: By bringing mindfulness to our own experience, we can see what our subjective experience has in common with all experience—specifically, the impermanence of all phenomena (anicca, in Pali); that nothing can be held onto (dukkha), and that there is no separate or permanent self (anatta), who owns these experiences or to whom they are happening.
These are known in Buddhism as the three fundamental characteristics of existence. Gaining insight into the impersonal, impermanent, and ungraspable—and hence unsatisfactory—nature of all phenomena helps us see reality clearly and leads to letting go, dispassion, disenchantment (no longer being caught up illusion) and freedom from suffering.
This letting go allows us to enjoy the deepest peace, joy, and freedom that is not dependent on changing conditions. William Blake’s poem ‘Eternity’ captures this freedom and joy in the midst of impermanence: ‘He who binds to himself a joy // Does the winged life destroy; // But he who kisses the joy as it flies // Lives in eternity’s sunrise.’
The poems I shared included ‘Walker’ by Antonio Machado and ‘Mind Wanting More’ by Holly Hughes.
Wishing everyone a safe, happy, and peaceful week—please pray and meditate for a peaceful outcome to the conflict threatening the people of Ukraine. See you next Sunday at 9am eastern time. Warmly, Hugh 🙏🏻 🌎 ☮️ 💜
