Connecting to Suffering while Experiencing Peace

Robin Eastman's blog, Naked in Eden, is beautiful. In her most recent post, Every Single Day she writes this, and much more:

"Each evening when I sit alone in this field I’m engulfed by the same powerful emotions, the most predominate being Love. It pours into me like liquid gold. Every time I look out at the horizon, tears just roll down my face because I feel the people of the world, their suffering, and I’m moved to profound compassion. The love coming into me is more than I can contain. My heart compels me to send it waaaaay out into the world, evening after evening. Although I feel the world’s suffering as if it were my own I’m overcome by astounding peace."

This reminds me of what I experienced for the first time from learning and doing some Buddhist practices. Seemingly contradictory in thought, but the experience isn't. Beautifully said. Beautifully felt.

Amitofo!

I lived in Taiwan for one year around 1979. "Amitofo" the name for the Amitabha Buddha is everywhere in Chinese characters. "Ah" "Mi" "To" "Fo". To this day that name resonates deeply.

阿弥陀佛 (阿彌陀佛)

These "characters" the elements of the Chinese written language (also used by the Japanese in combination with their strictly phonetic elements) show, in bold, the "simplified" characters developed in the People's Republic of China to make learning easier for the whole population, and in parenthesis, on the right, the "complex" characters that are still used in Taiwan, and used to be used in Hong Kong before China took over administration after England's administration rights ended.

There are four characters here, which sound out the name, "Ah" "Mi" "To" "Fo". That is intentionally part of the domain name for this blog. As written in the Nciku site, they are said in exclamation or mantra or prayer meaning "Buddha preserve us; Buddha be praised."

See this post in the Sing, Beijing blog, by a young student from Yale named Ricky studying and traveling in China, where he mentions the meaning of "Ahmitofo" in relation to the powerful "Om Mane Padme Hong" mantra in Tibetan Buddhism.

Note:
The Chinese characters shown in this post are from an amazing site nciku.

Want to know how to meditate?

If you were to ask me how to meditate, here is what I would say.

There are many ways to meditate. Many traditions from different religions and cultures. 

Some do quiet sitting, a settling of the mind. This can be seen in the Quaker tradition.

Some do a quiet sitting, with naming the kinds of thoughts or feelings that arise, and then letting them go. Thought. Feeling. Thought.

Some like to focus on the outbreath. With every outbreath, notice the breath leaving your body and going out into the world.

Some like to count to pace the breath. In to the count of four, out to the count of eight. Or some other rhythm.

Some like to scan the sensations and awareness within the body, starting from the head, going down through the whole body, to the finger tips and toes.

Some like to focus on the spine, lengthening the spine, feeling a connection into the earth with gravity, feeling a connection into the heavens.

Yet others chant a mantra, a secret phrase or word, over and over and over, silently.

Yet others chant aloud, whether it is a syllable, a word, a phrase, or short or long prayers.

Yet others chant while conjuring up a profound visualization in the vastness of emptiness, with every aspect of the visualization symbolizing the profound realization.

There is walking meditation, too. 

There are the zen practioners who sit very still for long periods of time, in a very defined, definite practice.

There are others who practice loosely, as they are able, on a sofa, or in the car... depending on if you zone out in your meditation, or if you are practicing expanding your awareness and alertness.

Still others dissolve themselves in their meditation.

Others meditate with visualizations that may be narrated on TV, or CD, or DVD.

So there are many many choices and ideas about meditating. You get to chose what helps you the most.

Eyes Open or Closed in Meditation

When we research meditation, we probably can find strong reasons for practicing meditation with eyes opened, or with eyes closed, or with eyes in a soft focus, or not.

Perhaps what is most important is to know there are many ways to meditate, and to learn about the variety that is our choice by reading what different writers/practitioners think and do.

Sometimes I meditate with a soft focus and eyes open. Sometimes I meditate with my eyes closed, feeling it helps me center within my physical being, relaxing within in, settling into the moment. Other times I like to meditate with a clear almost sharp focus on a candle flame, or a beautiful object or image.

Spirituality vs. Religion

It is my understanding that religion is an organization that maintains an order and ritual for a particular set of beliefs and practices. 

Spirituality is the practice of connecting with the spirit, that part of us and of life which is possibly the least physical, the least material.

Yet, as humans, the way we know, is through the senses of our physical body - we can't know anything but that it is experienced through our body, so perhaps spiritual cannot be separate from the physical.

When I think of practicing a spiritual way of life, I think of spending more of my attention on the awareness of the fragility and fleetingness of life so that I pay special attention to that which is most precious - the nurturing of life. I think of cultivating the ability to maintain a sense of peace and serenity in my being; practicing recognizing when I am agitated or disturbed, and practicing shifting back into a balanced and calm clear state. Rather than focusing on changing the things around me to make me feel better, I feel spiritual work is done inside - in the mind, in the imagination, in the heart - but within. It can be done with eyes closed, in the stillness, and often is easier done that way.