The Columbia City Yoga on-line Moving into Meditation class met this morning. We considered how we shape the world and are, in turn, shaped by the world. We cultivated attention. Attention is one of our most precious inner resources. Attention makes love and connection possible. Like flowers opening we can open our hearts to what we pay attention to. Attention can help us feel all of life and move us to care for the world.
Attention can help us consider what our hearts are made for.
We drew inspiration and guidance from Oren Jay Sofer’s new book: Your Heart Was Made for This: Contemplative Practices for Meeting a World in Crisis with Courage, Integrity, and Love. The book is a wonderful collection of twenty six precious human qualities we can cultivate over the weeks to come. We began with attention because we make the world with our attention. You can find more about the book, including a number of short guided meditations, at Oren’s web-site.
We heard Miriam Teichner’s beautiful prayer-poem, Awareness. Miriam was a journalist and poet. In 1915, she served as a a correspondent on the peace ship Oscar II that took Henry Ford to Europe on his ill-fated peace mission before World War I. I deeply appreciate the poem’s fierceness and humility.
Guided Reflection
Thank you for being here today. Last week we explored relational presence and how we belong to each other. In relational presence we can stay aware of our inner state while engaging with another person. Relational awareness also includes a willingness to open our hearts to the world. The very troubled world. I’ve been navigating my sorrow over our troubled world with the help of my friends, family and teachers. I’ve been studying Oren Jay Sofer’ book Your Heart Was Made of This. The title made me pause to consider: What is my heart made for? That’s been my living question this week. My heart was made for love and connection. Oren believes:
. . we all long to love and be loved and . . . when we are connected to our values, this whole beautiful array of human qualities from patience to courage to devotion to resolve, flower inside . . . A flower opens slowly, when conditions are right, and may close again at night. We don’t try to force its petals open. So too, our hearts open in their own time, closing periodically for safety or rest. As a flower opens, it doesn’t just open to warm sunshine and gentle breezes. It opens to all of the elements—to the wind and the rain, the heat and the cold. As we practice mindfulness, we don’t just feel the pleasant, loving moments. We learn to feel all of life—the hurt and pain, fear and anger, contraction and numbness.
I want to feel all of life. I also recognize that discerning when to open and when to close my heart is a skill. Oren’s book is a collection of qualities that we can learn to cultivate to help us expand our capacity to feel and respond to life’s challenges. Like relational awareness, love is made possible by one of our most valuable qualities which is attention. Oren makes attention the first of twenty- six beautiful human qualities we can explore. He encourages us to reclaim our attention:
Our thoughts, feelings and intentions grow into habits over time, settle into our character. . . . If we do not shape the heart, the world will do it for us, and the world does not have our highest welfare in mind. . . . The seeds in our hearts and minds govern our perceptions, intentions and actions . . . . We sow seeds of generosity, contentment, love and joy as well as seeds of fear, greed hatred and ignorance. Whatever we cast in the fertile soil of the heart-mind will grow when watered with . . . attention.
I found Miriam Teichner’s beautiful prayer-poem, Awareness. The poem was first published in a 1921 collection, It Can Be Done: Poems of Inspiration. Miriam Teichner was a journalist and poet. In 1915, she served as a a correspondent on the peace ship Oscar II that took Henry Ford to Europe on his ill-fated peace mission before World War I. I deeply appreciate the poem’s fierceness and humility.
God – let me be aware.
Let me not stumble blindly down the ways,
Just getting somehow safely through the days,
Not even groping for another hand,
Not even wondering why it was all planned,
Eyes to the ground unseeing for the light,
Soul never aching for a wild-winged flight,
Please, keep me eager just to do my share.
God – let me be aware.
God – let me be aware.
Stab my soul fiercely with others’ pain.
Let me walk seeing horror and stain.
Let my hands, groping, find other hands.
Give me the heart that divines, understands.
Give me the courage, wounded, to fight.
Flood me with knowledge, drench me in light.
Please – keep me eager just to do my share.
God – let me be aware.
Let us be aware. Let our hands, find other hands. Let us cultivate hearts that understand.
Let us train our hearts together in wise attention today. I invite you to adjust your posture as you need to be aware and at ease. You can start with a few deep breaths to settle your nervous system. Set an intention to be fully present. Give yourself a few moments to get here. Welcome those parts of you that may be a bit scattered. One by one draw them home to your awareness.
I invite you to feel and sense what your body is expressing: perhaps as relaxation or tension, hardness or softness, subtle currents of energy, warm pulsations or buzzy vibrations. Notice whatever you can. Be with whatever you can. See if you can let the breath come to you. If being mindful of breathing is uncomfortable you might notice how sound or sensation come to you.
Every now and then relax whatever you can. You might savor the feeling of ease as you become aware of it in an area of your body. Notice how you can choose where to place your attention. Sense your legs and feet, around and within your pelvis, your low back and belly, your upper back, shoulders, arms and hands, the area around your heart, your neck and head. Feel free to adjust your posture to ease any tension.
You might sense the wonder of your body. You are more than any part. You are even more than the sum of all your parts. I invite you to explore a sense of wholeness now. As you move more fully into feeling your body, you may begin to trust your body’s many expressions. Notice the experience of allowing and where it might lead. What is like to welcome the ever changing experiences of sensation? Can you stay curious about the experience of feeling?
As you become aware of mind drifting off appreciate this recollecting of attention. Gently return your attention to your embodied experience in this field of sensation. Notice the thoughts that capture your attention, see if there are any patterns. Is there worry, fantasy, planning, remembering? In the moment you wake up from being lost in thought notice your capacity to choose where you place your attention. Reclaim your power.
In the last few moments of the meditation I invite you to consider a seed question: What is my heart made for? Let your natural curiosity hold the space for whatever arises: compassion, kindness, love . . . concentration, courage, patience . . . whatever it might be. Silence is also an expression of the heart. Let your inner resources make themselves known.
Let us be aware. Let our hands, find other hands. Let us cultivate hearts that understand. Let us stay eager to do our share.