To Catch Your Breath

(FIELD NOTES 1400-1414)

May all beings be happy. May all beings be free from pain and suffering. May all beings be healthy and at ease. May all beings know the causes of joy and share in the joy of others. May all beings remain in equanimity, free from attachment, ignorance, and hostility. May all beings become enlightened in this very lifetime, and if not in this very moment, in the next, and every lifetime to come.

“Happiness is available… Help yourself!” (Thich Nhat Hanh)

Are you here? We may only have this moment together.

I’m afraid it won’t be long now.

A simple science: basic, radical empathy, a wholehearted awareness, bridging the gap between us and them. You and I.

“Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving.” (Terry Pratchet)

The “magic formula” (from Deleuze and Guattari): monism = multiplicity. Many of us are rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. Some of us are playing in the band. Others hold hands, others steer the boat.

The most precious gift we can offer anyone is our complete presence. How rare a jewel is that? Being-with all that is here and now. That simple presence is essence love.

Hell, this life can be so awful and terrible sometimes that we forget all about love. Nothing is more terrifying to me than a life without love. It becomes a path of learning, of taking the curriculum set out for us.

This (every) human existence affords a certain degree of passion. The trick is to nurture the fires of passion without losing the calm vigilance of clear, direct awareness of the means and results.

Desire, ananga, means literally ‘without a body.’ In the end, all our possessions are lost. Property is theft. Desire is an empty dream. There is nothing to solve, nothing to gain in the end. Nothing to lose, too.

“You never hate someone more than before you know them.” (Zohran Mamdani, Mayor of New York City)

Hope is a kind of dream. So is fear. A dream is like this. Do you feel it? Us at work.

It’s the business of the future to be dangerous. How are we going to do this?

Meaning and purpose are the imaginary friends of the intellect-ego. Can we learn to let go of unnecessary clutter—our biases, opinions, and theories—and allow the bare necessities to manifest? Behind this veil of conceit lies our noble, radiant, unblemished nature.

Breathing in, I receive the fear and sorrows of this world ~

Breathing out, I offer joy and ease to this world ~

Try this out. Just notice the mind as it is in this moment. What is it like?

There was an old Zen meditation master. Once a young student asked, “O Learned One, I am in great a hurry, please teach me the essence of the practice to attain liberation?” The master looked at the student very simply and said, “Attention is the essence of the path.” The student was not very satisfied with such a brief reply and asked again, “Please, Great Soul, tell me what is the whole teaching? What is the path of liberation, all the commentary and how to practice?” The teacher replied: “Attention, attention.” Frustrated and unsure, the student said, “Isn’t there anything else?” And the teacher said, “Attention, attention, attention.”

To be present, to see clearly. Just this. And this. No one can do it for you. What is required moment by moment is letting go of who you imagine yourself to be. You are not this thought.

“Know that when you learn to lose yourself, you will reach the Beloved. There is no other secret to be learnt, and more than this is not known to me.” (Ansari of Herat)

“We have committed the Golden Rule to memory; now let us commit it to life.” (Edwin Markham)

“In the space between chaos and shape there was another chance.” (Jeanette Winterson)

The boat that will carry us across this ocean of existence is none other than bodhicitta, our innately free awakened heart-mind. The highest form of religion in this world is devotion to one another and the noble, perilous, courageous work of cultivating loving-kindness for all.

I heard the Dalai Lama was once asked whether doing good deeds in this lifetime assured oneself a happy after-life. He replied, “The goal of this life is to make this lifetime a happy one.”

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If you are reading this and find it in some way interesting, remarkable, or important, please share it with another human being. If you are reading this and find it in some way harmful, may you be in good and pleasant company; you may share your view via comment or email. If you are reading this and find it otherwise meaningless and/or foolish, may you be born in an interesting time.

When in doubt, work on yourself.

ॐ नमः शिवाय Ram Ram. May all your pain and dissatisfaction become relief. May your frustration and anger become appreciation. May your sadness and grief become joy in friendship and service. May all obstacles become opportunities for liberation. Om Shanti Shanti Shanti