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Dear mindful friends of "Awakening Heart" --
Please join us for one of these upcoming mindful
events and read part 1 of Br. ChiSing's meditation
tips.
DECEMBER 2008 Theme:
"Facing the Darkness, Being the Light...Together"
Thursday, December 11, 7:00 pm:
1) Diving Deeper mini-sangha (in North Dallas)
(for those who are regular attendees of "Awakening Heart" on
Sundays,
OR those who are unable to attend Sundays but can attend
Thursdays)
Facilitated by Monica Lecrone & Cornell Kinderknecht
@ Monica Blossom's "Casa Ziba" house
(includes 20 min. Walking Meditation, 40 min. Sitting Meditation,
Teaching & Discussion)
2) Metamorphosis: Midweek Mindfulness Meditation in the
Midcities (in Grapevine)
Facilitated by Br. ChiSing
@ Unity Church of Grapevine
Sunday, December 14, 5:30 pm:
AWAKENING HEART (Community of Mindful Living)
@ Unity Church of Dallas
4:00 Mindful Yoga w/ Mimi
5:00 Brief meditation instruction for beginners
5:30 MEDITATION & MORE with Br. ChiSing &
guest musician: Michael Gott
Thursday, December 18, 7:00 pm:
1) Diving Deeper mini-sangha (in North Dallas)
(for those who are regular attendees of "Awakening Heart" on
Sundays,
OR those who are unable to attend Sundays but can attend
Thursdays)
Facilitated by Monica Lecrone & Cornell Kinderknecht
@ Monica Blossom's "Casa Ziba" house
(includes 20 min. Walking Meditation, 40 min. Sitting Meditation,
Teaching & Discussion)
2) Metamorphosis: Midweek Mindfulness Meditation in the
Midcities (in Grapevine)
Facilitated by Br. ChiSing
@ Unity Church of Grapevine
Friday, December 19, 7:00 pm:
Annual Winter SolstiCelebration
(more than 1,000 persons attending)
Presented by MoonLady & Earth Rhythms
@ Cathedral of Hope (Dallas, TX)
Saturday, December 20, 7-11 pm:
First "ChriSolstiKwanzukkaH" Party!
@ Liz, ChiSing & Dan's house (Allen, TX)
Sunday, December 21, 5:30 pm:
AWAKENING HEART (Community of Mindful Living)
@ Unity Church of Dallas
4:00 Mindful Yoga w/ Susan
5:00 Brief meditation instruction for beginners
5:30 MEDITATION & MORE with Br. ChiSing &
guest musician: Gary Floyd
7:30 Winter Solstice Potluck Dinner Celebration
Address of each event and details can be found at the
Awakening Heart calendar
MEDITATION TIPS (part 1)
-- by Br. ChiSing
Meditation is not just about Focus (Concentration).
A common by-product of prolonged intensive Focus is peace, joy,
bliss… also known as "Samadhi" or Oneness Consciousness. But
this is not the goal of Meditation, not an end in and of itself. We
need to be careful, or we may end up as "Samadhi junkies" only
meditating to get the next spiritual high or the next spiritual
fix.
Of course, peace, joy and bliss are nice, and they have their place,
and they are inevitable in the course of meditation practice, but to
cling solely to this by-product is to stunt spiritual progress and
stop short of true enlightenment.
Meditation is not just composed of Focus. It is also comprised of
Awareness (Mindfulness). So, if you are not feeling
particularly focused (on the breath/body or mantra/gatha or here/now
reality), yet you are aware that you are not particularly focused,
that is still Meditation, for you have Awareness. So you can smile
and feel encouraged. It's not all about Focus.
And let's say you aren't feeling very focused or aware, but you
persist patiently in the practice of meditation and commit to the
amount of time you have allotted to yourself. This diligent effort or
Patience is another aspect of Meditation which, as you continue
to cultivate it, will bring great power to your practice and life,
sometimes in very unexpected ways. This is also Meditation, even if
it isn't feeling always focused or aware, blissful or insghtful. Just
doing it anyway, regularly, is very powerful, as you will see
later.
But perhaps you have skipped a day or even a week of Meditation (or
even more!). Simply take a deep breath and start over. Begin anew.
Commit to regular practice once again. Every moment is a fresh start.
So, forgive yourself, love yourself, give kindness to yourself and
simply just start over again. For Lovingkindness is the fourth
and perhaps greatest component of Meditation. Love is the foundation
and the heart of our true life and practice.
To summarize:
MEDITATION =
- Focus (Concentration)
- Awareness (Mindfulness)
- Patience (Diligence/Effort/Discipline)
- Lovingkindness (Forgiveness)
Another way of labeling these four qualities (the 4 C's) =
- Calm Concentration
- Cognitive Clarity
- Commitment
- Compassion
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
COMMENTS from Cornell & Monica --
I have some thoughts about some points or illustrations that might be
useful (perhaps in this section or in later sections):
-
A point that you make frequently and did last Sunday… even if,
in your sitting of 20 minutes, you just experience concentration for a
few seconds, that is something to be joyful for.
-
Simply finding and offering gratitude in any situation, no matter how
stressful the situation, is mindfulness and is meditation.
- Many come to meditation to find peace and joy, as you mention.
But to know peace and joy, you also need to know suffering and
pain.
- Perhaps illustrate how meditation or patience can help you in life
in unexpected ways. For example, practicing meditation and finding
that one moment of quiet may be the same skill that allows you to step
back for a second in a contentious situation and allow you to choose
to act in a skillful manner.
-- Cornell Kinderknecht
Very simple and straightforward.
Something about Cornell's 4th point below triggered additional
thought for me that has something to do with detachment. It's what
Michael Gott also calls "the 3 seconds"… The very act of
cultivating awareness, even if just for those brief moments at a time,
produces a detachment. We become less and less consumed by our
emotional/thought stream and when we are less and less consumed, we
can stand back and say "Ahhhh, look at that" without being hooked in
the contentious situation that Cornell speaks of.
Detachment.
Practice recently has really really shown me (as we all already know)
that detachment doesn't mean we don't *feel* what is going on or
anything like that. The storm may still rage (positive or negative),
but we allow it to simply be what it is without allowing it to direct
our actions.
It's very interesting to me that there really is no way to explain
these types of things so that someone can go "Ahhhh, yes I see exactly
what you mean"… You have to just DO it. Manage, in one moment
of 10 minutes of being angry to notice that you're angry and you begin
to taste freedom. In one moment of 10 minutes of weeping out of a
sense of loss or separation notice what loss feels like and where it
is located and spaciousness is found.
Who
Am
I
?
-- Monica Lecrone
:-)
[to be continued]
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