unlockthedoortolearning

The problem with me is that in this moment I am often not mindful about what is going on in me, around me, and through me. My monkey mind is busy reflecting on the past, thinking about the future, and wandering hither and yon. Thus, I am not actually living in this “moment.” Unbeknownst to me I have lost a significant portion of my day, my life, and my joy. Whoever that “me” is has been deprived of experiencing the moment, of living a life of focus. Instead I am living a life lost and filled with grasping at the straws of the unknown.

Today my desire is to live in the moment mindfully aware of the food that I eat and its taste, texture, smell, and temperature. To be fully present as I attend a jukai ceremony for one of the men at our prison ministry. To bask in his joy and freedom as he accepts the Buddhist precepts as his way of living. To be fully present to enjoy the cookies and drinks that I will have after the ceremony and to celebrate fully and wholly with him and his friends in the Zen group where he sits each Tuesday.

McCown and Micozzi in their book New World Mindfulness wrote, “…the Buddha’s first teaching is revealed as essentially relational and experiential. It is possible to image him actually saying, “Don’t take my word for it; check it out for yourself (p. 71)!” As Walt Whitman in his “Song of Myself” wrote, “Looking with side-curved head curious what will come next, both in and out of the game and watching and wondering at it (p. 78).”[1] To be present in the moment, to be there for others, for self, and beyond is what Whitman is enticing us to do.

Check it out for yourself! Be mindful of your thoughts, feelings, emotions, and actions. Don’t be so quick to take other people’s viewpoint of your life. Don’t be so quick to take other people’s word for it either. Simply be honest with yourself about your life and what you like–keep and what you don’t like–change. To do that you must be mindful in the present moment!

Take time each day to sit in the quiet of your breath. Open yourself to feeling “worthy” of taking time each day to simply sit and “contemplate your navel” if that is what you want to do! Finally, simply “be,” whatever that means to you.

I learned many years ago that I am not a human “being.” I am a human “becoming.” Which are you? Be mindful of that and your life could be transformed.

Keep me posted!

In gassho

Shokai

[1] McCown, D. and Micozzi, M.S. (2012) New World Mindfulness from the Founding Fathers, Emerson, and Thoreau to Your Personal Practice. Healing Arts Press: Rochester, Vermont