Spiritual Practice

[Daniel]

Spiritual practice has been talked about on other threads at various times and by various parties, but I don't believe we've devoted a single thread to te topic. With that in mind, I would like to share two practices that have been helpful to me. Both are 'heart' practices.

Please add your own.

by Pema Chodron from When Things Fall Apart:Heart Advice for Difficult Times

The Practice of Tonglen

Each of us has a "soft spot": the place in our experience where we feel vulnerable and tender. This soft spot is inherent in appreciation and love, and it is equally inherent in pain.

Often, when we feel that soft spot, it's quickly followed by a feeling of fear and an involuntary, habitual tendency to close down. This is the tendency of all living things: to avoid pain and cling to pleasure. In practice, however, covering up the soft spot means shutting down against out life experience. Then we tend to narrow down into a solid feeling of self against other.

One very powerful and effective way to work with tendency to push away pain and hold onto pleasure is the practice of tonglen. Tonglen is a Tibetan word that literally means "sending and taking." The practice originated in India and came to Tibet in the eleventh century. In tonglen practice, when we see or feel suffering, we breathe in with the notion of completely feeling it, accepting it, and owning it. Then we breathe out, radiating compassion, lovingkindness, freshness; anything that encourages relaxation and openness.

In this practice, it's not uncommon to find yourself blocked, because you come face to face with your own fear, resistance, or whatever your personal stuckness happens to be at that moment. At that point, you can change the focus and do tonglen for yourself , and for millions of others just like you, at that very moment, who are feeling exactly the same misery.

I particularly like to encourage tonglen, on the spot. For example, you're walking down the street and you see the pain of another human being. On-the-spot tonglen means that you just don't rush by; you actually breathe in with the wish that this person can be free of suffering, and send them out some kind of good heart or well-being. If seeing that other person's pain brings up fear or anger or confusion, which often happens, just start doing tonglen for yourself and all the other people who are stuck in the very same way.

When you do tonglen on the spot, you simply breathe in and breathe out, taking in pain and sending out spaciousness and relief. When you tonglen as a formal practice, it has four stages:

1) First,rest your mind briefly in a state of openness or stillness.

2) Second, work with texture. Breathe in a feeling of hot, dark, and heavy, and breathe out a feeling of cool, bright, and light. Breathe in and radiate completely, through all the pores of your body, until it feels synchronized with your in-and out-breathe.

3) Third, work with any painful personal situation that is real to you. Traditionally, you begin by doing tonglen for someone you care about. However, if your stuck, do the practice for your pain and simultaneously for all those just like you who feel that kind of suffering.

4) Finally, make the taking in and the sending out larger. Whether your doing tonglen for someone you love or for someone you see on television, do it for all the others in the same boat. You could even do tonglen for people you consider your enemies--those who have hurt you or others. Do tonglen for them, thinking of them as having the same confusion and stuckness as your find or yourself.

This is to say that tonglen can extend indefinitely. As you do the practice, gradually, over time, your compassion naturally expands-- and so does your realization that things are not as solid as you thought. As you do this practice, at your own pace, you'll be surprised to find yourself more and more able to be there for others, even in what seemed like impossible situations.

Centering Prayer

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...42031221962408

This video gives straightforward instructions on how to practice for 20 minutes. You can practice along with the video, which gives new meaning to spirituality in the digital age!


Here is more on Centering Prayer

http://www.meditationspot.com/christian.html

CHRISTIAN MEDITATION AND CONTEMPLATIVE PRAYER

Thomas Merton was a Catholic monk who lived from 1915 to 1968. Having studied Eastern meditation techniques, he is credited with reviving an interest in Christian meditation and contemplative prayer. He wrote: "Some people may have a spontaneous gift for meditative prayer, but this is unusual. Most people have to learn how to meditate. And meditation is sometimes quite difficult. But if we bear with it and wait patiently for the time of grace, we may well discover that meditation is a joyful experience."

Speaking to fellow monks, Merton recommended silent contemplation, writing: "Contemplative prayer has to be always very simple, confined to the simplest of acts and using no words or thoughts. This prayer of the heart introduces us into deep interior silence so that we learn to experience its power. We seek the deepenst ground of our identity with God - a direct experiential grasp just like St. Augustine sought when he prayed, 'May I know you, may I know myself.'"

James Finley was a student of Merton's and is a contemporary teacher of Christian meditation. He gives detailed meditation instruction and also advises finding a contemplative community for support. He writes: "A single log in a fireplace does not burn as easily or as intensely as several logs burning together. And today, the same impetus toward contemplative community is expressing itself in a movement in which Christians are gathering in small groups to practice meditation and contemplative prayer together."

Finley also writes: "To practice meditation as an act of religious faith is to open ourselves to the endlessly reassuring realization that our very being IS the generosity of God. For God is creating us in the present moment, loving us into being, such that our very presence in the present moment is the manifested presence of God. We meditate that we might awaken to this unitive mystery in every moment of our lives." In his book, Christian Meditation, Finley offers instructions and guidance about developing a personal meditation practice. He writes: "As you settle into your own meditation practice, you will, with God's grace, settle into the method that is most natural and effective for you. In learning to grow into your own evolving meditation practice, you will continue to embody your own unforseeable journey into God."

Father Thomas Keating puts Christian meditation into spiritual and historical context in his book, Open Mind Open Heart. He writes: "The idea of laypeople pursuing the spiritual path is not something new. It just hasn't been popular in the past thousand years." But the rising popularity of Eastern religions, with their meditative traditions, has spurred interest in Christian meditation in recent years. He writes: "Contemplative prayer raises the question: Is there something we can do to prepare ourselves, instead of waiting for God to do everything? In my experience, there is. We can use Centering Prayer to calm the mind, and to cultivate interior silence." Keating provides very detailed instructions for Centering Prayer, including how to set up your own prayer group.

Books Available from Amazon

New Seeds of Contemplation, by Thomas Merton ($11) guides the reader through a very personal soul searching toward the goal of contemplative spirituality and enlightment. No book in modern times so defines the modern meditative tradition.

Contemplative Prayer, by Thomas Merton ($10) written for monks and other clerics, this book is more theory and history than a guide to meditation, and yet is has been a best-seller for decades.


Open Mind, Open Heart: The Contemplative Tradition of the Gospel, by Thomas Keating ($11), remains one of the best introductions to a specifically Christian form of meditation.

The Contemplative Heart, by James Finley ($11) Finley puts contemplative traditions, practices, and teaching into a modern perspective for those who with to develop a contemporary contemplative lifestyle.

Christian Meditation: Experiencing the Presence of God, by James Finley ($14), A former monk and student of Thomas Merton, Finley teaches readers to expand (or begin) their meditation practices in concert with their faith and guides them to discover that divine moments of awakened consciousness can lead to a deeper connection with Christ.

[scott snedeker]

The breathing exercise of tonglen is commmon to many meditation techniques I have encountered in recent years. One of the first distractions I have encoutered is the invasion of "darkly gratifying reactions to negative emotional vibrations." This is my "sticky glue" holding me in a thought pattern of poor hygiene that is toxically damaging to my spiritual develpment.

I like the formal practice that trains the mind into a better state of spiritual being. It takes a genius to discover such. It takes a compassionate intuitive genius who is connected to other human beings to develop a technique so that others can reproduce the state of peaceful mindfulness.

I was a poor musician. I played the violin beginning at age ten. I was never good because my lack of dedication prevented me from developing the ability to feel the music. Even as a child I gave into distractions.

Learning meditation I find requires the same dedication and is even more demanding than learning violin, but unlike my musical experience, cognitive awareness of how certain thought patterns adversely affect me frees me from them if I appreciate such awarenes rather than using these revelations to criticize myself. I reinforce retention of these "minipanies" by writing them here on this forum and others.

One big distraction occurs when someone posts an old testament quotation with the intent of triggering fear, self loathiing and judgement. I recognize that this is their "darkly gratifying reactions to negative emotional vibration" that collateralizes to me with my own "darkly gratifying reactions to negative emotional vibration" manifested in my criticism. This precisely the opposite of overcoming our lettiing go of fear and pain as the purpose of the poster is to create such fear that we act out of that fear letting it rule me and tempts me to put up my block to painful emotions.

Another revlation I recently learned is that meditation is a practice. The real thing is living and experiencing without distracting myself with meditative technique. I have heard many teachers drone this, but until recently haven't listened to this mesage. I have discovered the existence of a new form of balance between the practice of meditation and just "being"

Thanks for the thread Daniel!

[Zerbie]

Originally Posted by scott snedeker

One big distraction occurs when someone posts an old testament quotation with the intent of triggering fear, self loathiing and judgement.

the purpose of the poster is to create such fear that we act out of that fear

Are you sure?

[scott snedeker]

Not always, but at times I am quite convinced that a poster is seeking such gratification because of their own fear or personal sense of inadequacy.

But the more germaine focus is achieved in letting go of this distraction. Whatever the intent benevolent or predatory, fear is being reintroduced to determine behavior.

I see the purpose of meditation as to grow contact with one's heart within the loving embrace of compassion for one's self unconditionally. Though some old testament passages are helpful, others I find poisonous. This makes teachings of Abrahamic origin quite untrustworthy to me and my heart.

On the other hand I find the teachings of Buddha very trustworthy, lacking any "rule by fear" agenda. There are no Buddhist Jihads or crusades or holy wars vying for the throne of England.

The various meditation techniques strive to optimize peace, happiness and well-being without adhereing to ancient metaphysical paradigms that just don't fit with the reality of living and rational thinking. The heart's true release by method of tihinking was developed by trial and observation.

[Daniel]

Originally Posted by scott snedeker

I was a poor musician. I played the violin beginning at age ten. I was never good because my lack of dedication prevented me from developing the ability to feel the music. Even as a child I gave into distractions.

Learning meditation I find requires the same dedication and is even more demanding than learning violin, but unlike my musical experience, cognitive awareness of how certain thought patterns adversely affect me frees me from them if I appreciate such awarenes rather than using these revelations to criticize myself. I reinforce retention of these "minipanies" by writing them here on this forum and others.

You are quite right. I can tell you as a musician and teacher that meditation engenders the same kind of dedication- or rather- mental focus that is required of those involved in high level music making- be it classical or pop. It goes with the territory. Both develop concentration. And from what I have gleaned, concentration practice is the very skill that is necessary before one can successfully practice other - more advanced- meditative practices.

This conversation reminds me of a book I recently read titled Talent is Overrated (the title makes me laugh!). The author shows how talent isn't what we think it is. As such, those who excel in their fields put in a significant amount of time and practice. What do they have that the average student doesn't have? A greater field of awareness! And you only get this by a certain kind of practice, which the author calls deliberate practice. Sounds very much how meditation is done: deliberately!

(My voice teacher always said that "discipline is the highest form of freedom" And now that I am older, I have a better sense of what she meant. Do we like 'discipline? No! We often think freedom is having no limits whatsoever.)

Originally Posted by Scotty

Another revelation I recently learned is that meditation is a practice. The real thing is living and experiencing without distracting myself with meditative technique. I have heard many teachers drone this, but until recently haven't listened to this mesage. I have discovered the existence of a new form of balance between the practice of meditation and just "being"

Now. You really got me to reflect on something here. As a kid, I got into music and singing because it was the thing that took me out of my day to world- which I very much wanted and needed to escape. It was my distraction. Funny then, how music -like meditation - has - in the end - brought me back to myself, the very self I was trying to escape. It's been my therapy- putting me back together again. A lifelong process to be sure. Why? To be good at it I've had to learn how to (musically speaking) practice: what to practice, how to practice....in sum....how to think.

I guess one thing I am saying here is that music, like meditation, can be a drug: it can heal us or zone us out. It's how one practices that's important. And while I wholeheartedly agree that one can get stuck on technique (and judge one's self thereby!), there is no art without it.

I believe this means using technique, not with a hammer stroke, but with a light touch.

[scott snedeker]

Going to a concert and just feeling the magic or making love and just losing myself in ecstasy or shouting with excitement at a volleyball game are examples of the heart's true release, living in the moment of unfettered joy.

I interpret these as examples of the purpose of meditation as taught by the Buddha. The practice of meditation is to relieve suffering caused by poor thought hygiene that our mind learns.

This poor thought hygiene creates suffering in many ways: It mingles with grief every opportunity to experience joy, love, magic and ecstasy.

By consciously practicing mediataion with this in mind I learn better and better how to let go of the attachments of negative emotional vibrations to what simply is in my world, however attachement to Techique also must necessarily be let go for me to live this purpose.