Monday, August 22, 2016

An experiment in space

This morning I read an interesting little article on how to curb spending.  Look at the space between stimulus and response. Be aware of this space and from awareness move towards expanding it.

There are of course so many different ways one could use this insight: food, anger, information and cognitive over consumption.

I've been using it to some extent over the last week in focusing on recovery and rest in my running practice.  I used to just run without much thought to transitioning in and out of running with joint exercises, stretching, using my days off to cultivate a more limber nervous system. I've tried to create some space by having an offline time at around 7 p.m.

My life has become much busier of late.  It's good because I have some more money, but it's challenging for that same reason.  I have to make sure that this money goes towards debt and savings, not just transient stuff.  And I need to make sure that I have the energy to accomplish the work that I've committed myself to.  And that I take some space in that work for creative pursuits so that I'm renewed and not resentful.


Sunday, August 7, 2016

The logic of loving kindness

In Tibetan Buddhism loving kindness is one of the four immeasurables.  It is a quality associated with happiness and in cultivating it one prays for happiness and the source of happiness. But it is a quality that is in us, whether we realize it or not, so what we're really praying for is the constant awareness of the lovingkindness that lives in each of our hearts. From that seed of awareness it can be cultivated beyond any measurement.

The traditional loving kindness prayer is something of a sleight of mind, because happiness is there, always. Even our awareness of this desire for happiness is always there.  What we often lack is the awareness of this awareness.  To be happy in a sustainable way, first you need to know that you want to be happy. A surprising number of people don't know they have this unconscious longing, or won't admit to having it. Their lives, they say to themselves and others, are about more important things than happiness. Or they know they want happiness, but they confuse happiness with the object of happiness. They fall into the delusion that their happiness is dependent on the having a loved one, or the making that  loved one happy. This is why we say that attachment is the "near enemy" of loving kindness. Why family relationships are such a tangle, because we can't separate the healthy longing to understand ourselves better, and the unhealthy longing to have and control others.

It's the ability to remain curious and  rest in the longing for happiness that is the one most significant cause of happiness. Rest in that and happiness quite simply is.

And soon, within moments really your prayers are answered because happiness is familiarity with the healthy desire for happiness.  We have what we're asking for all along.