Live Session Summary, Sunday, June 26, 2022:
Good to be with you on Sunday from Galway in the west of Ireland. The theme of the session was meeting our experience with curiosity and kindness. I spoke about how approaching our experience—in meditation and in daily life—with curiosity and kindness can be a path to greater happiness, well-being, and freedom.
When we meet what is present with curiosity—not clinging, resisting, judging, escaping, or avoiding our experience—we come into alignment with the truth: this moment is like this. When we are judging, resisting, etc., we are in conflict with how things are, with reality—and will experience suffering. When we accept the truth—not necessarily thinking it is ‘good’ or the best thing—we are allowing life to be life.
This doesn’t mean we never try to change things that need changing—as Eckhart Tolle said, ‘When the basis of your action is inner alignment with the present moment, your actions become empowered by the intelligence of life itself…’
When we bring the quality of curiosity together with compassion, we are cultivating what in Buddhism are often referred to as the ‘two wings of the bird’: the wing of wisdom (including mindfulness, insight, awareness, clarity) and the wing of compassion (kindness and other qualities of the heart). Compassion helps us meet ourselves, others, and painful situations and experiences with care, kindness, and understanding.
In the talk, I also responded to two questions from participants regarding 1) how to bring these qualities of kindness and curiosity to bear on our current difficult realities in the United States—particularly with the recent court rulings—and the world; and 2) what we need to do to let go of difficult mind states and emotions that arise. Here I focused on the importance of ‘letting be’—particularly, not to fuel mental narratives about how things are or will be—and letting them ‘self-liberate,’ in the term used in Tibetan Buddhism.
Quotes and poems I shared included:
• T.S. Eliot, ‘At the still point of the turning world… there the dance is… Except for the point, the still point, there would be no dance, and there is only the dance.’ (‘The Four Quartets’)
• Viktor Frankl: ‘Between the stimulus and the response is a space. In that space lies our ability to choose. In our ability to choose lies our growth and our freedom.’
• Ajahn Chah: ‘One day Ajahn Chah held up a beautiful Chinese tea cup, “To me this cup is already broken. Because I know its fate, I can enjoy it fully here and now. And when it's gone, it's gone.’”
• James Baldwin: ‘I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain.’
• Dorothy Hunt: ‘Peace is this moment without judgment // This moment in the heartspace // where everything that is is welcome.’
• T.S. Eliot, ‘Quick, now, here, now, always // A condition of complete simplicity // (Costing not less than everything).’ (‘The Four Quartets’)
• ‘Birdwings’ by Rumi
• ‘Warmth’ by Thich Nhat Hanh (I wanted to share but couldn’t locate in the moment.)
Have a good week and see you again next Sunday, July 3 at 9am eastern—from the west of Ireland. Warmly, Hugh 🙏🏼 🌻
