We had our second Introduction to Meditation class at Yoga Bliss today. Practice takes on a greater depth when we can see and hear human experience on the face and through the voice of a friend. I believe the intention we share in coming together to cultivate awareness and sensitivity forms a friendship – at the very least a supportive psychic space. Rodney Smith, guiding teacher for the Seattle Insight Meditation Society, says his intention in teaching meditation is not to make us all better meditators. Rather, it is to help us become more aware human beings.
Monthly Archives: May 2013
Heartfulness
We had our first Introduction to Meditation class at Yoga Bliss today. We came together to learn and practice a skill that we can take off the mat to support our lives – lives that include our families, friends and communities.
It was an inspiration and a joy to see so many of us in the room. I could feel our collective energy and the power of something special, something sustainable, building among us. It felt like a quality of aliveness – I think we were truly awake!
As molecular scientist turned Buddhist monk, Matthieu Ricard, writes:
“We have the potential to be more kind, to practice mindfulness, and to experience well-being, but we only use a small fraction of the potential we have. So that’s what meditation is about: to cultivate the qualities that we have the potential for but that remain dormant, latent, unused, and to develop them to the best of our own potential.
In modern Western societies, happiness is often equated with the maximization of pleasure, and some people imagine that real happiness would consist of an interrupted succession of pleasurable experiences. This is far from what the Buddhist notion of sukha means. Sukha refers to an optimal way of being, an exceptionally healthy state of mind that underlies and suffuses all emotional states, that embraces all the joys and sorrows that come our way. It is also a state of wisdom purged of mental poisons, an insight free from blindness to the true nature of reality. Authentic happiness can only come from the long-term cultivation of wisdom, altruism, and compassion, and from the complete eradication of mental toxins such as hatred, grasping, and ignorance.”