How can we move out of what might be our usual way of doing things & into new territory? Not to escape what may seem or feel like a catastrophe looming around us… looming around the world… but to more fully & clearly meet what is occurring.
In order to be helpful & effective, we need to develop flexibility of mind & heart, an easy relationship with the unexpected & unknown, and an energetic, robust willingness to engage with life as we find it. I think most importantly, we need a really BIG VIEW.
In our day-to-day life & even in monastic life, our practice isn’t about getting ‘free from the world’… but rather it’s about BEING FREE IN THE WORLD.
So what does this mean… being free in the world? In order to be wholeheartedly part of this world… I mean HERE WE ARE… can we willingly fall into, step into, move & sit with this beautiful, tender, mysterious, challenging, frightened, explosive world just as it is…? Every moment, every circumstance, every experience, every relationship is another chance to experience things as they are, rather than as we wish or fear them to be. Can we put down our despair & also our hope… can we begin, so to say, from no fixed position… simply be fully present for what becomes possible when we do this?
METTA, GRATITUDE AND MUDITA PRACTICES are important, necessary & potent treasures… just what is needed now by each of us to help propel us towards living a more fully present, connected, free, useful & happy life.
With Metta practice, we begin with the attitude of loving, honoring & respecting ourselves. This allows our heart-mind to more clearly see/sense/know if we are motivated by feelings of caring for & cherishing ourselves, or by a sense of struggle & strain. A basic aspect of our Metta practice is not to seek for love, but to seek & find all the barriers within ourselves that we have built against it… to ‘see through’ these barriers & to let them dissolve.
With Gratitude practice our ‘task’, so to say, is to spend a bit of time at the beginning and/or at the end of each day bringing to our heart/mind ANYTHING… tiny or large… that we are grateful for. We allow the energy of gratitude to flow & expand through our whole body & heart/mind… not fixating on anything but rather creating a reservoir of gladness that brings a wholesome, healthy balance to the difficult challenges that we are sensing, experiencing & navigating.
With Mudita practice/Joy For/Joy With we begin to more clearly see & know how our habitual judgement & comparison sets us apart/separate from others. So, we begin Mudita practice by rejoicing in ourselves as a means of generating the respect, love, confidence, joy & sense of well-being that is essential & natural to the awakening heart/mind. And then we slowly & gently, with a heart/mind steeped in metta, begin to connect with a ‘true’ sense of joy for/joy with the success, joy, happiness & beauty of others. Mudita practice eventually moves the heart/mind towards being light, pliable, open, generous & relaxed.
METTA, GRATITUDE AND MUDITA PRACTICES are truly treasures that can propel us towards living with a BIG VIEW… more fully present, connected, effective, free and happy in the midst of the challenges of our times.