The One, the Son and The Holy Breath

My relatedness with contemporary Christianity is complex. My passion for the ancient languages in which original teachings were shared makes modern translations less than inspiring and some more than others. Today I consider the Trinity of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

The One
The Aramaic word that became "Father" in the famed Our Father is Abwoon. This word is a far more expansive word than Father and, in fact, may be characterized as ultimate expansiveness. The One Without a Second is my favorite interpretation. There is not much more that you can say...to even contemplate the One is to be in a state of duality. The individual "thinking" about the whole. That said, contemplation of Abwoon or the Father in the ancient sense (and in my opinion the way Jesus would have meant it) is a spiritual experience in itself. Try it. As a math teacher for a period of time I used to encourage students to contemplate infinity. Think of the biggest number, value or concept you can and then make it bigger and bigger and bigger...see what happens.

The Son
The second aspect of the trinity, the Son is typically personified as Jesus. How could it be interpreted from the standpoint of the Father being the One Without a Second? The Son may be more broadly looked upon as that which has been created from the One? In the ancient teaching of Advaita philosophy or the philosphy of Oneness from ancient Sanskrit, duality is a function of the mind. The same way the moon reflects the light of the sun, the Son is a reflection of the One. Unity is experienced through the filter and conditioning of the mind. When we achieve perfect concentration or single-pointed awareness, the glory of the One becomes known. I interpret Jesus to be a Master who was a perfect reflection of the Oneness of the Father God. He and the Father were One because he was able to transcend duality through spiritual practice and awareness.

The Holy Breath
The final aspect of the Trinity called the Holy Spirit is something I always interpret as the Holy Breath. The ancient word for "spirit" also meant light, breath and vibration. The Father is ultimate reality or Oneness and the Son is the manifestation or reflection of that unity it seems the third aspect would speak to the process through which that manifestation occurs and therefore, the process whereby we may experience the unmanifest Source nature. Contemplate the breath. If you are seeking to understand the nature of reality and of life then pay attention to your breath. Do you really think that with the elegance of the manifested Universe the Truth would be so hidden from view? So hidden that our only hope would be to put our faith into the words of men who have the arrogance to call them the Words of God? No offence to anyone but to hold up the modern-day bible and call it the Word of God is perhaps the most blatent form of blasphemy I can imagine. About the only thing we know unequivocally is that Jesus did not utter one word contained in the bible (actually, there may be two Aramaic words remaining in the entire bible so those are debatable).

The God I know, the indescribable elegance that birthed the Universe would not leave our salvation to the minds of men but rather would make it accessible to all and the path would be ultimately simple. Practice your faith...the ancient Aramaic word for faith meant, "a connection to life". Practice being aware of your breath and you will discover your connection to life, your faith and the grand simplicity of salvation will present itself to you. The Christ is here for you in the space between your thoughts extending perfect Peace and unconditional Love. What are you waiting for?

Steve

Mindfulness and the Brain

I am very excited to have discovered a new mentor in the field of neuroscience and mindfulness. Dan Siegel is an accomplished psychiatrist and neurobiologist who is helping us understand the connection between Mindfulness Based Practices, including meditation, yoga, tai chi, chi gong, etc. and the brain. I continue to be thrilled to learn how effective our modern science is getting at quantifying the benefits of mindfulness practice.

By engaging in mindfulness practice our brain is encouraged to improve its functions in many different ways. There is a particular area of the brain benefitted by the practice; the middle pre-frontal cortex has nine related functions (The Mindful Brain, Daniel J. Siegel MD). Dan Siegel suggests a simple definition of the mind to be "the process of regulating information and energy flow." He goes on to suggest that these nine functions constitute a comprehensive description of mental health. Over the next few weeks, we will look at several of these functions and how they relate to mindfulness and mental health.

These nine functions include the capacity to regulate fear, express empathy, insight and intuition. They are the building blocks of conscious awareness and mental health. By practicing mindful meditation we enhance these functions and improve our quality of life. Modeling these practices for our children will help the next generation as well.

Take a few deep breaths even now, check in with the body and notice the mind. As you sit and breath with awareness, "pay attention to your intention" in the words of Dan Siegel. Allow all the processes in the mind and body to happen while you sit with an attitude of gratitude.

Be Mindful,

Steve

Everyday Mindfulness

What is the biggest challenge to remaining mindfully present throughout our day? By now, we all know that awareness is the first (and maybe last) step in the process. Living mindfulness is like living from the inside-out. When we are not aware, we are living from the outside-in, a condition that is reinforced daily by the media and our materialistic culture. The simple truth is that we forget. I forget, you forget.....we all forget at times to be present. Before you know it we are indulging in a desire (or thought) at the expense of someone else and/or the expense of our sense of connectedness and peace.

To quote from the Karate Kid which I saw with my family lastnight, "Doing nothing and stillness are very different". Stillness flows and is continually inspired by a deep sense of presence. "Doing nothing" is inspired by fear and fatigue. The first step in practicing Everyday Mindfulness is awareness. In my experience cultivating an attentiveness to the breath is the most potent and direct path to awareness. Practice bringing your attention again and again to the breath. Relax and be present. In a moment of intensity and reaction, breathe deeply and relax. In a moment of great joy and celebration, relax and breathe. Notice how your breath changes throughout the day, when you retain the breath and when you sigh heavily. Your body speaks to your consciousness through the breath and you communicate through presence...awareness. This takes practice but can most certainly improve your mental, emotional and physical health.

Direct your attention inwards again and again and you may realize a greatness and a gratitude within that will fuel your life expression. Practice being aware of the breath and your shoulders as two points of concentration throughout the day. Sit in silence for five minutes per day, keep it simple and enjoy your Self.

Namaste,

Steve

Stigma from the Inside Out

I have been working on a project that gives young people the opportunity to learn about photography including composition and digital camera technology. The idea is that we want to give them the chance to express their thoughts and feelings about mental health. They may choose to photograph examples of stresses and tensions in their life and/or they may show the contrast to that and photograph the opposite tract. For most of us, our mental health seems to float between those two extremes. Mindfulness is the practice of witnessing this "oscillation" with 'compassionate presence'.

It is amazing to consider the stigma associated with mental health as compared to our physical health. Consider the simple example of a broken arm versus an experience of stress, anxiety or depression. I will let you explore the contrast for yourself by simply imagining someone (perhaps yourself) walking into school or work with a physical health challenge and then a mental health challenge. The stigma gets even more intense when we talk of chronic mental health issues or mental illness. Stigma involves rejection of an individual or group of individuals based on a social norm. Mindfulness practices can help us become aware of these stigmata (plural of stigma) at play within our own patterns of thinking.

You may have noticed over the course of your time on this earth that it is difficult to "change" anyone. This is why I have always been attracted to Ghandi's famed quote, "Be the change you want to see in the world". The social norms surrounding mental health and what is or is not "acceptable" or conversely is "rejectable" are rooted in the habitual thought patterns of each of us. Look closely at how you reject yourself in small moments throughout the day and week. For example, when you experience feelings of overwhelm, you may find traces of shame associated with feeling that way. Of course, I pick an example that is common in my own life. What examples do you have? When do you "reject" the way you feel or judge yourself to be weak, stupid, or simply bad based on how you are feeling or what you are thinking?

Taking these "snapshots" of your mind will allow you to begin to detach yourself from those judgmental thoughts. You may start to notice a bit more space with which you can observe these thoughts and feelings. That space represents compassion and with practice that space grows and with it your capacity to be compassionate with yourself and consequently with others. Do not expect the thoughts and feelings to go away, in fact, when we speak of mindfulness....EXPECT NOTHING!

Namaste,

Steve

Take a God's Eye View

So many of us use the term "unconditional" when referring to the Divine, the Source, the God of your understanding. We have "faith" there is a Being out there who loves us unconditionally. Ironically, many faiths talk of an unconditionally loving God and then immediately impose limits on whom that God will unfold its unconditionally loving attitude. The practice of mindfulness is like "trying on" an unconditionally loving attitude.

Sit comfortably straight, pay attention to the breath and observe thought, emotion and sensation without judgement.

This could be the entire manual on mindfulness meditation. Volumes and volumes continue to be written on this ultimately simply subject and I am no exception. Our minds go to great lengths to avoid simplicity in favor of complexity.

Give yourself the gift of simplicity and practice being non-judgemental with yourself. There is a ripple-effect that will touch your spouse, children, co-workers, friends and family; even random strangers will recognize that simple presence when it is present. Try taking a God's eye view and attune your mind and heart to unconditional love. Just try it for a few breaths every day.

Namaste,

Steve

Buddha's Gift of Mindfulness

Yesterday was celebrated by many as Buddha's birthday and in honor of the Awakened One I thought we could reflect on a verse of the Dhammapada.

"The mind is very hard to perceive, extremely subtle and wanders at will.

Let the wise person guard it; a guarded mind is conducive to happiness."

The mind is hard to perceive because it is the instrument of perception, it is extremely subtle in the face of the denseness of our attention and focus and it wanders faster than we are able to witness. How then, can we guard it? A guard is attentive, watchful, single-pointed. The guard holds the needs of another as supreme to their own. Be the guard of the mind today. Watch it closely. Notice the thoughts arising in reaction to the events you are perceiving throughout the day. Notice the effect of thoughts on your emotional nature. Sometimes you will not be present to the thought that triggers the emotional response, these are opportunities to root out the source which lie in our own pain and attachment.

I try to hesitate before blaming another for these reactions. This can be harder at some times than others and harder with some people than others. Usually we do not want to see the pain that lies at the heart of our reactions and the ego will do almost anything to scramble out of the way of that awareness. We practice being present on the yoga mat and on the meditation cushion so that we may cultivate the strength of presence that will allow us to remain steadfast in that trigger moment when our buttons get pushed. We practice being the guard so that we are protected from ourselves as are those around us protected from our reactive tendencies.

Be mindful this day, do one thing at a time and take it to completion. It is Friday and the end of the week so let us work with awareness and intention. I think of my desk which carries the residue of a busy week and will be mindful as I resolve things that have been left unresolved. Resolution is an effect of mindfulness and mindfulness may have never been articulated as beautifully and passionately by anyone as it was by the Awakened One, the Buddha. Thank You!

Namaste,

Steve

Yogi Jayanta

The Mad Rush in the Morning

I can't help but wonder where Mindfulness plays into the "Mad Rush" in the morning that is the norm across our culture and so many places in the world. It is interesting to note that we associate the word 'mad' with the word rush. How many people start their day rushing to work, to the daycare, to school, to a meeting, to the gym, to a yoga class to wherever? RUSH, RUSH, RUSH. My son is the first to call it like he sees it, "I don't like to rush, Daddy. I don't like to rush through lunch to get to the playground and I don't like to rush to school in the morning."

It occurs to me that noone likes to rush and yet we all do it so somehow we do like the rush. That rush of adrenaline when you are late is not unlike the rush we get from a thrilling adventure. We, as a culture, are addicted to the rush. Whether rushing for a meeting or the emotional rush from a recreational activity or the rush of a fight or argument. Something about the RUSH makes us feel alive. So much so, in fact, that when we are not rushing we are typically talking about our last rush or planning for our next rush. Weekends are a rush, vacations are a rush, entertainment is a rush and everything else is....blah.

Our lives are characterized by the peaks and valleys, by the rush and the blah. Mindfulness is the practice of awareness of life itself. As we practice being aware of life happening things tend to slow down a bit. The gap between the rush and the blah gets smaller. The rush still happens but we notice it from the inside out and the blah still happens but we get to experience that as it happens. CBC has a great title with "As it Happens" how about we try atleast amidst the rush and the blah to be aware AS IT HAPPENS.

Life will always have its ups and downs, its rushes and its blahs. Perhaps in the simple act of noticing the peaks and the valleys of life we will come closer to understanding the great essence that is continuously rising and falling.

Namaste,

Steve

Yogi Jayanta

Just Do Your Job, Then Let it Go

I opened the Tao Te Ching this morning for inspiration for our blog. It is a marvelous book of wisdom that can always cut a path back to the present moment. Here is the quote...

"He who stands on tiptoe doesn't stand firm.

He who rushes ahead doesn't go far.

He who tries to shine dims his own light.

He who defines himself can't know who he really is.

He who clings to his work will create nothing that endures.

If you want to accord with the Tao,

Just do your job, then let go."

A central principle of yoga is vairgya or detachment which is the process of non-identification with roles that we play and thoughts that we have. Two major examples are the attachment we have to our jobs and another would be the attachment that develops to our role as parent.

Kids can be the best teachers of detachment although the older they get the less proficient they become. As parents we are more likely to hold on to an incident where there was a behavioral problem when the child has long since moved beyond it. Children are naturally in the present engaged with their senses and in awe of their surroundings. We can emulate that child-like tendency to be simply here wherever that may be. While engaged in your work give it your full attention, when you arrive at home give that your full attention. Sounds simple....and it is!

Namaste,

Steve

Yogi Jayanta

Mindfulness: Grounding Inequity

Yesterday's blog, The Tao of Youth Engagement eluded to the inequity of the doctor/patient relationship and how that can create unworthiness or perhaps it is a manifestation of the unworthiness deeply ingrained in our culture. We take such pride in book-learning to the point where simple reality goes unacknowledged. We all need to be mindful...

Teachers be mindful of the genius of every student.

Doctors be mindful of the perfect health at the heart of every patient.

Parents be mindful of the spark of brilliance in every child.

When a professional practices mindfulness, for example, in the medical setting both facilitator and patient are brought to equal ground. You may even describe the process of mindfulness as one of grounding. It is a grounding in consciousness, in awareness. It is the silent celebration of the present moment where thoughts are like clouds passing through a summer sky. These ripples in consciousness are not the object of the moment but a subtle hue in the glorious work of art that is NOW.

To give up, even for a moment, our attachment to higher and lower is relieving. To do it in a setting that has been laden with inequity is transforming. Let you day be one of celebrating simplicity. Imagine everyone you meet is perfect just the way they are and soon you will believe the same about yourself...and that is just a thought.

Namaste,

Steve

Yogi Jayanta

Resiliency and Mindfulness

Wikipedia has done it again....

I woke up this morning with the word, "resilience" in my head so I played with it for awhile tossing the word against the back drop of my consciousness like a morning game of racquetball. The word had come up for me lately in my health prevention and promotion work as we use it to describe a primary outcome of our work with young people in particular. In our work it relates to the ability of an individual to make positive or healthy decisions in spite of the various risk factors that may be present in their lives. As a parent, to give my son the gift of resilience is a primary goal. That means that no matter what challenges life brings him (and there will be many) he will have a well of self-worth and presence deep enough that he can always come back to his center.

This brings me back to my Wiki-AHAA-pedia moment. It turns out that resilience is an engineering term (it is hazy but coming back to me) that relates to the ability of a material to bend (deform elastically) without breaking. It is interesting to note that it is described in terms of the maximum energy (per unit volume) that can be elastically stored. You can check out the definition for yourself at Wikipedia.

If we map this definition to a human being and retain the energetic connection then our resilience is the maximum amount of energy that we can store (or absorb) without losing our center-point. How then do we increase our resilience or expand our ability to be present with greater and greater stress? Mindfulness.

I am reminded of a powerful moment with my T'ai Chi Master, John Milton...he did several unbelievable demonstrations of the simplicity and power of this ancient martial art. In this moment he had me (and several others) try to push him over as he simply "rooted himself to the earth". At first I sort of "pretended" to push (that is a deep and difficult personal teaching for me) but with his encouragement I really tried to push him off balance with no ability to move him at all. The amazing thing was that when I stopped pushing he remained balanced and still. Normally if you are pushing someone and they are resisting and pushing back when you stop they will continue moving in the direction of their resistance. Not John. He was not resisting me but rather connecting deeply to his center, to the earth.

This is a powerful message as we consider resiliency. I am in a field that is committed to preparing youth to "resist" the inevitable temptation of drugs and alcohol. It seems to me a worthy practice to teach youth to be rooted to their center, a center that is beyond (or beneath) any social or environmental factor. I know of no better practice than mindfulness in all its many forms to help individuals become more established in their center.

Be mindful this day of your center and which moments lead you away from that point of balance. Don't judge yourself, just breathe and gently come back to your center again and again.

Namaste,

Steve

Yogi Jayanta

Mindfulness Based Stress Relief (MBSR)

Working with yoga + meditation for over ten years has demonstrated to me how potent a tool mindfulness is in addressing the epidemic of stress in our lives. Perhaps I will take a moment to sort out how mindfulness relates to yoga for those new to the blog. I have to credit the growing interest in Buddhism with the proliferation of 'mindfulness' through our culture. Mindfulness is the practice of unconditional awareness of one's perception including thoughts, emotions, feelings and sensations. Most of what we call meditation practice could be called mindfulness meditation. I find the continuous segregation of spiritual disciplines and practices a consequence of our brand-happy culture. Call me a simpleton but as far as I can tell the Buddha was a yogi as sure as Jesus was a Jew.

It is always touchy to bring up religion and especially one's view of religion but if you find yourself reacting to my belief at least be mindful of your reactions.

The point I am trying to make is that mindfulness is an integral part of yoga. Mindfulness is what sets yoga apart from other forms of physical exercise. Yoga without mindfulness is just calisthenics. Now that I am working in Prevention & Health Promotion I have been delighted to discover that 'mindfulness' has made it to the mainstream. There has been a great deal of research into the positive effects of Mindfulness-Based Practices (MBP) on mental health. There is also great evidence that shows how MBP are a great complement to traditional talk therapy in combating addiction.

Now that I have made the leap into the healthcare profession I get to use acronyms like MBSR which is Mindfulness Based Stress Relief. MBSR is the application of MBP's to address stress in our lives. I work with four practices that are inter-related but will be discussed separately in our upcoming blogs:

1. The Body Scan

2. Visualizations

3. Yoga Postures

4. Meditation

Here is an MBP for you to practice right now, wherever you happen to be.

The One-Minute Mindful Foot Scan

Here is a micro-mindfulness practice for those that can not find anyone willing to rub their feet. Sit comfortably and take a few abdominal breaths, relax the body...inhale feel the belly fill and exhale let the belly move towards the spine. Now bring your attention down to both ankles, feel what there is to feel without judgement (remember...unconditional awareness). Now move your attention slowly down the tops of your feet concentrating your attention on only the area of focus. Move towards your big toes and then feel everything you can in the big toes. Next move to the space between the big toe and the one adjacent to it, notice especially where the two toes meet. Do the same thing through each toe until you get to the pinky toe and now move across the ball of the foot at the base of the toes down the sole of the foot towards the heel. Experience the arch of the foot and then all sides of the heel finishing at the ankle again.

Stress....what stress?

Namaste,

Steve

Yogi Jayanta