Wisdom and Wonder

Below is a message I sent to a friend in response to a message she sent me in which she commented that she wished she had great days like the previous one more frequently nowadays, and that she had often had such days when she was back in college. I share it with you in case my message to her might also resonate with you.
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Dear xxxxxxx,

I'm glad you are in the zone this weekend. It seems like a general good vibe has descended upon the area, along with perfect weather. I think part of it is an individual phenomena and part is a collective one. The moods of so many people are drastically lifted by a shift in external conditions, such as weather, that it raises the collective vibe.

Then people who are more tuned-in to the energy of others around them, and less to conditional thinking, pick up on that and they are lifted too. It seems like everything glows, problems transform into insight and past, present and future all merge into one whole of clarity and peace of mind.

Finally, even people who aren't normally able to appreciate even good external conditions or good vibes are at least able to avoid unpleasant interactions in their goings about because so many other people are in a good mood that less conflicts arise (due to others diffusing potential conflict situations before they fully form). And they are more likely to also encounter smiles and kind words, even if just from a cashier when they shop. So then everyone pretty much winds up in a miniature Buddha realm for awhile.

Then external conditions shift, as they always do, and the people who depend on that have their moods plummet. Or even if the conditions hold steady for awhile, people get used to things being that way and begin to take it for granted. So the good conditions no longer lift their moods even if they aren't actually deflated by bad conditions. And the people who are yanked around by the feelings of others have a more negative collective mood around them and must selectively connect with available energies or be sucked into that. And those people who are always in an unappreciative/disconnected stance towards life find that no one is diffusing situations for them any longer because everyone is just thinking of themselves and their own needs again. So it's all pretty much back to the normal, everyday human realm.

Such is samsara.

On a more individual level, I'm glad you used the opening and lifting of energy around you to help you recenter within the joy and peace within you. I hope you will be able to stay connected with that no matter what happens in the vibe around you. It is natural to passively connect with the notes in the collective symphony that most match our dominant inner ones. I suspect that in college, as is the case for most people when they are younger, your naturally dominant inner "note" was the purity and innocence of youth, so it was easier for you to tune-in with that more frequently even if a lot of the energy around you was actually heading in a different direction.

As we get older, we identify more and more with the less spacious self-concept of the dominant culture, even if unconsciously. Our inner attunement becomes more jaded, even if our conscious thoughts don't reveal that. So it is easier for us to tune-in and amplify the negativity around us and less likely for us to find that hair thin strand of sweetness in the bee traveling from flower to flower as we walk down the street on the way to work, or that golden light of love between ugly parents and their ugly child as we were pulling out of the parking lot at the supermarket. We see the danger of the bee and the physical unattractiveness of the people, but we don't see the beauty.

Passive attunement to the wonder of life is something we could all take for granted in our youth. As we age we must replace that with wisdom. Don't deny the danger or the ugliness of life, but try not to miss the beauty.

Blessings,
Indigo

Be the Blessing

I've begun sharing ocassional tea visits with my lama, now that I am living so near him. This week the subject was primarily about bodhicitta.

Bodhicitta is called the heart of enlightenment, and what it refers to is the compassionate wish to benefit all beings. This wish is not an idea, but a way of being in the world, and when fully developed it leads the person to their own Buddhahood because it is only then that they can be of maximum benefit to others. It is the most powerful urge towards enlightenment, empowering a person to fully commit themselves to practice of the teachings in daily life as well as creating discipline with respect to seated practice.

We talked about those people (Buddhist teachers especially) who talked a lot about compassion, but showed none towards the people they had daily dealings with. "They love humanity but don't give a wit about people" is how I put it. He said that I had a deeper insight than most people and that I must trust my own feelings about such people no matter what recognition or status such teachers had among others.

We also discussed my own fledgling bodhicitta. I told him of my efforts to send blessings to people I would see as I went about my day, people I saw on the street as I drove home from work who looked sad or co-workers, clerks and cashiers I interacted with during the day. He said that I must allow myself to be the blessing, not give it.

I realized when he said that that earlier that day I had seen an overweight teen standing by herself looking down at the ground for an inordinate amount of time while I waited at a stop light. I had tried to send her a blessing in my usual way, but I just couldn't get the visualization to form clearly in my mind. I kept trying but it wouldn't work and eventually the traffic light changed and I had to drive on, but then I had the thought that my intent for her happiness was the blessing. I looked in my rear view mirror and saw that she was no longer looking down but up and around her, as if she had newly found the courage to be present there on the street as she waited for her bus to come. And I thought, "maybe the wish to give blessing is the blessing and no need for mental formulations of any kind beyond that simple goodwill."

So when my lama said that later the same day it carried a lot of weight with me. I already have a habit of sending blessings to people throughout the day, but now when I catch myself doing it I stop and observe my own heart and how it is opening to them. And I try to be aware of how my open heart may be affecting theirs. Similarly, I try to be aware when my heart is closed, as I mechanically interact with people, and I take responsibility in those moments for the affect I may be having then also.

If there was one blessing I would most choose to give, it would be to let my heart be so open all the time that it was like a sun always glowing, constantly giving off the blessings of joy and warmth and alighting the hearts of all it touched.

My lama says that the prayer for bodhicitta is the highest aspiration of Buddhism. Well I don't suppose I need to have the highest aspiration to be satisfied. But it is the truest for me. I have tired of all the concepts about what is. I have played with all sorts of ideas about truth, and found them quite engaging, but now I would trade all of that for a steady glow of blessing.