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This Monday, Aug 9, Mary will facilitate. She shares the dharma topic:
Building on last week’s theme of Right/Wise Effort on the Buddha’s Eight-fold path, I invite you to explore more deeply what you are doing to enjoy your time here on the planet. I ask myself if the activities I engage in and the effort I give them are aiding or hindering me. Am I gaining greater awareness to reach a longer term objective: to transform my mind, my heart and my life/situation? As the current pandemic tosses and turns us and our world, I feel the calling to reflect on the way forward. Sometimes it feels so overwhelming. Yet when I’m able to come back to the present moment, it’s much easier to let the sounds of the birds, the morning light, and the blue sky help me to anchor my day. And then I can move forward, one day at a time.
As so often, I find inspiration in some words from Thich Nhat Hahn:
‘Enjoying our time here’ from Love Letter to the Earth:
Many people shorten their time on this beautiful planet by consuming such things as alcohol, cigarettes, toxic media, or too much food in order to cover up what they’re feeling. This kind of behavior damages our health. We can instead lengthen and enrich our lives by encouraging ourselves to be aware of every moment.
We’re living on this planet together. The Earth is like a giant bird and we’re going on a wonderful trip. The Earth is supporting us and transporting us, traveling around the sun at a speed od 100,000 kilometers an hour. We should put on our seat belts. We should enjoy every moment. In each of these moments, we can be in touch with the wonders of life. We don’t need to run away or cover up our painful feelings or try to forget unpleasant memories. We don’t need something to help us forget. We only need to know how to remember; we need to know how to create moments of joy and happiness, how to water what is nourishing within us, and how to become aware of the wonders of life around us.
When I’m mindful, I enjoy everything more, from my first sip of tea to my first step outside. I’m fully present in the here and now, not carried away by my sorrows, my fears, my projects, the past or the future. I’m here, available to life. Then life is available to me. Every moment can be a happy moment. You can set an example for others by being mindful and generating awareness and happiness. This will help others be able to do the same for themselves.
In order to enjoy our time together on this flight toward the future, we have to put on our seat belts of mindfulness that will keep us right here in the present moment so that we can experience life deeply each moment. Mindfulness can anchor us in the present moment so we don’t lose ourselves in the future or in the past. Every one of us comes equipped with this seat belt, but we don’t always use it. Now is the time to fasten it.
Every second of our life is filled with precious jewels. Those jewels are our awareness of the sky, the Earth, the trees, the hills, the river, the ocean, and all the miracles around us. We don’t want to kill time. We want to profit as much as we can from the time that is given us to live. Each morning when we wake up to life we see that we have a gift of twenty-four brand new hours. If we have mindfulness, concentration, and insight, we can live those twenty-four hours fully and joyfully. In twenty-four hours, we can generate the energy of understanding and compassion that will benefit us, our planet and each person we come into contact with…
Some possible questions to consider before we meet and share our experience:
How does your mindfulness practice help you anchor your day and support you to find more joy in your life?
What activities help or hinder you to ‘put on your mindfulness seatbelt”?
What supports you to “remember how to create moments of joy and happiness and to become aware of the wonders of life around you”?
I look forward to sharing and learning with you on Monday evening!
Love to you all,
Mary