Rituals of Faith

I’ve become more and more appreciative for how different people cultivate their faith. Last weekend I spent time with a group of progressive mainline Christians. Next weekend I’ll be with Brian McLaren in Charlotte learning from fellow Emergent Christians who have begun to explore more ancient and creative forms of spiritual experiences. My wife, Veronica, just returned from a photography and spirituality weekend in a Trappist Monastery. She loved it. I can barely remember a “normal” church experience and I can’t say that I miss it. The truth is that I’ve never been one for rituals, but I’m beginning to come around to the idea that they have their place.

Lately, I’ve really begun to establish a more regular practice of contemplative prayer. We created a prayer room in our house. It helps to have a designated place for prayer. The cushions, candles, and incense are always right there waiting. I didn’t like the smell of incense at first, but now it moves me. My mood changes as soon as I smell it. The first time I heard a Buddhist describe their faith as “practice”, I was amazed. The notion that faith can be a tool for transformation rather than a destination is so much more satisfying than shallow anthems of idolatry and proclamations of certainty. The possibility that my own transformation process could be one small part in a larger universal transformation is even more inspiring. It took a while to catch on, but now I’m beginning to feel comfortable. I’m not as consistent as I’d like. I try to sit twice a day. In the morning I may only have a couple of minutes to take off my shoes, sit, bow a few times, and think about having a more humble attitude during my day. Every little bit helps. I usually feel different afterwards, even though the rigors of the office slowly eat away at the progress I made. At night, I usually practice 20-30 minutes. Those experiences are liberating.

One of the best resources I’ve found is an online site with free instructions for the two main types of meditation that I use called “The Mindfulness of Breathing” and “Loving Kindness (Metta Bhavana)". Give it a try. Download them to your MP3 player, pile up a few cushions, and your all set.

Reality, Illusion, and Death of Self

I was a big fan of the movie “The Matrix” when it first came out. The two sequels were horrible because they focused on the fighting scenes and ridiculous special effects, but I was drawn into the symbolism of reality vs. illusion in the original movie.

I have been reading “Mystics and Zen Masters”, by Thomas Merton on and off for about a month now. The book is much more than a description of contemplative prayer (Zen). It is a collection of writings that explain various ways in which men of different traditions have conceived the meaning and method of the “way” to the highest levels of religious/metaphysical awareness. The book discusses diverse religious concepts of early monasticism, Russian Orthodox spirituality, the Shakers, and Zen Buddhism with a directness that is not usually found when reading about such topics.

It becomes clear in Merton's discoveries that you cannot separate religion and psychology. Religious experience is deeply entangled with our human definition of "self" and that includes our self-consciousness, self-awareness, and notion of individual identity. Most importantly, I’ve realized that our self-identity as well as our religious belief is an illusion. Most of what we mean when we say “religious belief” is our descriptive symbolic language that we use to interpret and discuss our experiences. This description (the collection of our symbols and myths) is useful and helps us maintain our sanity as we live in constant tension between reality and illusion, but we can get lost as we replace one illusion with another illusion. Zen (the practice of meditation) is one way to wake up from our illusions. Our religious beliefs can at times feel more like the psychological caulking used to help fill the cracks in our incomplete understanding of the world. Zen gets right to the core of this problem, which is our flawed identity as something separate from God (and/or everything and everyone). I see this as the overarching theme of the Bible. The Bible is a story of how humanity combats our fixation on the preservation of our self-identity and separateness (sin) and then restores oneness with God (at-one-ment) through Christ (our message bearer and symbolic example of death to self and rebirth into the collective identity of God). Often the stories and symbolic language becomes dominate and we lose the realistic meaning. We need to return to the simple doctrine-less message about changing from a self-centered nature to an other-centered nature.

I'm not positive, but I think the movie's image of the Matrix is meant to be a negative portrayal of the illusions of religious naivety or maybe it is the hypnotic indoctrination of pop-culture. As with all symbolism, you can read into it what you want. If the movie's intention is to promote extreme individualism and a stronger development of self-identity then I feel it represents a less ideal western slant on reality. Western thinking views the process of "waking up" or enlightenment as a liberation away from a collective identity toward a more individualistic self sufficient state of being (unplugging from the illusion/matrix). I question that logic and suggest that maybe our worship of individualism is actually a destructive illusion and our solution may be to plug into the reality that we are all interconnected. This is not a pro-conformity mentality that devalues creativity and individual choice. It is a realization that as we celebrate our differences, we should wake up to the fact that we are all made of the same "stuff" and have the same problems, hopes, and dreams. You might even say we are made in the same image.

Either way, (by plugging into reality or unplugging from illusion) the main point is that the boundaries and differences between people, communities, and nations are merely the illusions created by our perspectives and self-conscious paranoia. If you view the planet Earth from space there are no visible dotted lines, political boundaries, or red and blue states. On the other hand, I may just be a person who has opted for the serenity of the Matrix.

Loving Kindness

You have probably heard about the Buddhist monks protesting in Myanmar. Today, I read this article which revealed that many of these protesters are chanting the Metta Sutra as they walk. Metta is loving kindness and for the last year I've tried to incorporate a practice called Metta Bhavana into my meditation. Metta Bhavana is a technique that helps you cultivate a better mental aptitude for compassion. It can be a powerful experience and I've seen its effects on my life. Actually, it would be more accurate to say I've seen its effects on the lives around me. When I've been disciplined enough to practice, it has allowed me to experience and react to many of the day to day issues in life in way that might otherwise have resulted in pain or anger. I've only begun using this tool but I've seen it work enough in small ways to image how a lifetime of practice could result in radical transformations of entire nations. I find it encouraging to know that practitioners of this ancient technique are able to follow their convictions to the point of passionate non-violent protest against oppression.

The Metta Sutra - The Buddha's Teaching on Loving-kindness

This is what should be done
By one who is skilled in goodness,
And who knows the path of peace:
Let them be able and upright,
Straightforward and gentle in speech.
Humble and not conceited,
Contented and easily satisfied.
Unburdened with duties and frugal in their ways.

Peaceful and calm, and wise and skillful,
Not proud and demanding in nature.
Let them not do the slightest thing
That the wise would later reprove.
Wishing: In gladness and in safety,
May all beings be at ease.
Whatever living beings there may be;
Whether they are weak or strong, omitting none,
The great or the mighty, medium, short or small,
The seen and the unseen,
Those living near and far away,
Those born and to-be-born,
May all beings be at ease!

Let none deceive another,
Or despise any being in any state.
Let none through anger or ill-will
Wish harm upon another.
Even as a mother protects with her life
Her child, her only child,
So with a boundless heart
Should one cherish all living beings:
Radiating kindness over the entire world
Spreading upwards to the skies,
And downwards to the depths;
Outwards and unbounded,
Freed from hatred and ill-will.

Whether standing or walking, seated or lying down
Free from drowsiness,
One should sustain this recollection.
This is said to be the sublime abiding.
By not holding to fixed views,
The pure-hearted one, having clarity of vision,
Being freed from all sense desires,
Is not born again into this world.

The Devil Made Me Do It!

Is the source of evil a demonic angel, the seed of an original sin, a psychological abnormality, or simply the product of our untrained minds?

Richard Beck has concluded his blog series on “Everyday Evil”. His conclusion suggests, what I’ve always stressed, that religion must contain practices to transform us at a psychological level. This is very much in tune with the Buddhist practice of meditation and its focus on transformation and development of compassion through mindfulness. This idea goes against the traditional Christian theological view that an external devil is the agent of evil and an external God is the agent of change. I posted this article by Pema Chodron last year, but I thought I would reference it again.

Sitting practice teaches us how to open and relax to whatever arises, without picking and choosing. It teaches us to experience the uneasiness and the urge fully, and to interrupt the momentum that usually follows. We do this by not following after the thoughts and learning to come back to the present moment. We learn to stay with the uneasiness, the tightening, the itch of shenpa. We train in sitting still with our desire to scratch. This is how we learn to stop the chain reaction of habitual patterns that otherwise will rule our lives. This is how we weaken the patterns that keep us hooked into discomfort that we mistake as comfort. We label the spinoff "thinking" and return to the present moment.
Read the full article...

It makes sense to address the psychological issues that are underneath our own problems rather than using the excuse “the devil made me do it” and focusing blame in a demonic cartoon character. Buddhist philosophy has helped me understand this practical aspect of faith which is applicable to all religions. In the Christian tradition, we have historically credited the holy spirit for this change and that has created a more hands-off approach on our part. But for me, the "holy spirit" is the anthropomorphic symbol of the life changing effect of living in a community of faith. We allow the fellowship and practices of that community to produce the fruits of compassion as modeled by Jesus and the early Christian community. In the end, I think both traditions have the same ideas about transformation, but I appreciate the fact that Buddhists seem less trapped by the literalization of their symbols. A symbol can easily become an object rather than a method for change. I agree with Richard Beck that we need practical methods to create change.

Thich Nhat Hanh Interview on NPR

Thich Nhat Hanh is a Vietnamese Zen monk, poet, and peacemaker. He cofounded the An Quang Buddhist Institute, the Van Hanh Buddhist University in Vietnam, and Plum Village, a Buddhist training monastery in France. He is the author of many books, including Being Peace, The Miracle of Mindfulness: A Manual on Meditation, and Fragrant Palm Leaves: Journals 1962–1966. I've mentioned a couple of his books here on this blog.

Greg Deloach at FBC Augusta recently pointed me to this podcast of a wonderful interview with Thich Nhat Hanh by Kristia Tippett in the archives at Speaking of Faith.

When I read or hear this man, all I can think about is how poorly I listen to the people I love. He challenges us to develop compassion by truely listening to the suffering of others. The podcast is a little long, but well worth the time.

Eternal life

Last night, I had the pleasure of hearing about a friend’s trip to Uganda. Jessie’s stories about her trip were amazing. She is about to begin her first year at the University of Georgia (my Alma mater) and I couldn’t help but think about how immature I was at that point in my life in comparison to her. She is an incredible person. You can find out more about these displaced children in Uganda at InvisibleChildren.com.

One of her most interesting observations was the joy and peace that she saw in these people who lived daily without security and without any of the comforts that we have in America. It was so strange for us to be looking at pictures of people in dire circumstances and realizing they have something that we are so often missing. I was not prepared to have such a humbling experience. Our little group had some discussions later about our feelings, but I felt like we couldn’t really get to the root of the issue. One topic that came up was the concept of eternal life and its meaning in relation to our relative circumstances. Here are a few things that I’m thinking about now in the aftermath of that conversation which was not the conversation I was expecting to unfold.

The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. John 12:25

Whoever tries to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it. Luke 17:33

Impermanence expresses the Buddhist notion that everything, without exception, is constantly in flux, even planets, stars and gods. Human life embodies this flux in the aging process, the cycle of birth and rebirth (Samara), and in any experience of loss. Because things are impermanent, attachment to them is futile, and leads to suffering. The only true end of impermanence is nirvana, the one reality (a state of being or understanding) that knows no change, decay or death.

Here are a few of my thoughts today about what the concept of “eternity” and "eternal life" might mean beyond the traditional view of life after death.

• Eternity is not a time or a “long time” or a “future time”


• Eternity is now without the burden of impermanence


• Eternal life is no longer living in fear of our own mortality


• Eternal life is the realization that life does not end when changes occur


• Eternal life means living without the fear of loss


• Eternal life is not the extension of our identity after the end of our physical life, but it is a state of being without the obsession with (attachment to) our individual identity.


• Eternal life is the freedom that can be experienced if we no longer live under the burden of maintaining our sense of self-worth through our possessions, security, longevity, physical existence, and individual identity.

Three Poisons

Tikkun is a wonderful cross cultural progressive faith magazine. One of its contributors is the well know progressive Rabbi Michael Lerner. This month it has an article about the Three poisons - greed, ill will, and delusion as they have been institutionalized in our society.

If the article seems a little weird at first for a non-buddhist, then please get through the intro and get to the guts. It is worth the effort and is something that you don't need to be a Buddhist in order to understand. The principle is universal and relevant for all of us. One of the most interesting points is how delusion is institutionalized in our society through the media organizations.

Each of us lives inside an individual bubble of delusions, which distorts our perceptions and expectations. Buddhist practitioners are familiar with this problem, yet we also dwell together within a much bigger bubble that largely determines how we collectively understand the world and ourselves. The institution most responsible for molding our collective sense of self is the media, which have become our “group nervous system.” Genuine democracy requires an independent and activist press, to expose abuse and discuss political issues. In the process of becoming mega-corporations, however, the major media have abandoned all but the pretence of objectivity.

True Love by Thich Nhat Hanh

This is a great book for anyone curious about Zen practice, Buddhism, or anyone that wants to develop a more loving attitude. I do (just ask my wife!). It is really short but not lacking substance. Thich Nhat Hanh offers us a Buddhist view of love along with techniques for manifesting it in our daily lives. He explores the four key aspects of love as described in the Buddhist tradition: loving kindness, compassion, joy, and freedom. Thich Nhat Hanh explains that in order to love in a real way, we need to learn how to be fully present in our lives. He offers very practical techniques of meditation and conscious thought as a way of synchronizing the mind and the body and conditioning our selves for love.

Even reading the few pages of this book is guaranteed to change your perspective on love and cultivate a deeper motivation to employ it's transforming power in your life. If your life needs a little injection of love or you need to recapture the ability to love freely then read this book as soon as possible. The people around you will be blessed.

"Training is needed in order to love properly; and to be able to give happiness and joy, you must practice DEEP LOOKING directed toward the other person you love. Because if you do not understand this person, you cannot love properly. Understanding is the essence of love. If you cannot understand, you cannot love. That is the message of the Buddha." - Thich Nhat Hahn

Zen for Christians - Practice tip

I seem to suffer from a common problem which is feeling like I can't keep the clutter of thoughts in my mind from distracting my practice. Deadlines at work, schedules, anxieties, memories, responsibilities and random thoughts about anything and everything always bombard my mind when I begin to sit. At some point I learned to stop fighting..

In "Zen for Christians" Kim Boykin offers an analogy that has helped in my practice sessions.

"Here's a helpful image I learned from a meditation instructor. You're at a train station. Your train is leaving in two minutes. You're weaving through all the people and you run into a friend you haven't seen in a long time. You stop and smile and say a few words and maybe give your friend a hug. Maybe you encourage your friend to give you a call soon. And then you run off to get your train. You don't ignore your friend. But neither do you get into a long conversation and miss your train."

I finally realized that it isn't a battle or test of concentration powers and it isn't a game of trying to clear your mind. Noticing our thoughts is the whole point. We learn to notice thoughts and then let them pass without consuming our minds.

The Two Levels of Truth

Buddhism observes reality from two perspectives: the absolute and the relative. From the absolute, or ultimate perspective, the "self" is seen as illusory, as a construction that is empty of inherent, independent existence. But from the relative perspective (the ordinary, everyday, conventional perspective) we see a conventional "self" independent of other people and things. The absolute and the relative are called the two truths, or the two levels of truth.

Kim Boykin in "Zen for Christians" offers this analogy...

If we examine a strip of film, we see lots of small, separate, still pictures in a row. This is the "absolute" view of a movie. When we run that film through a projector at the right speed and aim the projector at a screen, we see one large moving picture. This is the "relative" view of the movie. From the relative perspective, calling it a "movie" or a "motion picture" makes sense, even though the motion is ultimately illusory. The movie is both many small still pictures and also one large moving picture...

When we get a glimpse of the world from the absolute perspective, we begin to realize the illusory quality of "self," and we begin to carry our "selfhood" more lightly. The more fully we realize no-self, the more we are freed from our subjugation to ego-centered attachments and aversions. The "self" may keep on making its possessive and aggressive little demands, but instead of groveling in submission, we can smile in amusement and decide how to act. We are freed to live more joyfully and compassionately."

Slvia Boorstein (who is also a practicing Jew) puts it like this: "Pain is inevitable, but suffering is optional." Suffering is the complication that our egoism constructs around simple pain.

This example is a profound explanation of how our view of the world becomes relative to our "self". We have baggage that exists in the frames of our past memories and anxiety we imagine into the frames in our future. When played full speed in our minds all these frames create an illusion of reality that shapes our present experience. A great deal of Zen practice is slowing down or stopping the projector and dealing with life one frame at a time without the emotional baggage of past memories and future expectations.

This is not to be confused with a self indulgent focus on immediate pleasure. That was my initial impression of the term "present moment" and it is wrong. Instead, it is about generating an attitude of compassion and service that comes from redefining our view of ourselves in relation to other people, our past memories, and our future expectations. The introspective nature of Zen is about removing our attachment to the things that clutter our frames and cloud our view of the world.

Faith, Doubt, and Determination

"We need all three. Great faith, great doubt, and great determination are the legs of the tripod on which our Zen practice stands. Our practice will topple if we're missing one of those legs. The dynamic tension between faith and doubt - between the "already" and the 'not yet' - gives us a reason to practice. Then we just need the determination to practice." Kim Boykin - "Zen for Christians"

I guess most of our problems with religion come from this embalance. Fundamentalists have great faith and great determination but they lack a healthy sense of doubt to foster humility and openness to other possibilities. If you have faith and doubt but lack determination then your faith can become empty intellectualism. If you have doubt and determination but lack faith then you easily fall into Nihilism. I've probably fallen into all three categories at one time or another as I swing from one extreme to another. Balance is something that I'm looking to develop from my journey of faith.

Zen for Christians - Clearing the Snow

A snow globe like this is a great analogy for understaing the effects of meditation on our minds. The world keeps shaking up our globes and our minds are constantly cluttered with thoughts. Meditation is the pratice of putting down the globe and letting it settle. Imagine how much more effective our lives (not to mention our prayer and worship experiences) would be if we could settle the snow a little more often.

Zen and Orthopraxy

Orthopraxy is becoming more of a buzz word in emergent Christianity. We can learn much about shifting our focus away from right beliefs (Orthodoxy) to right practice (Orthopraxy) by looking at Zen philosophy. It is interesting to realize that Buddhists figured this out long ago and cut right through supernatural beliefs to a practical way to practice their faith. I feel like 99% of my time in Christianity has been focused on establishing the correct beliefs about unbelievable things and absorbing misguided interpretations of scripture.

"Zen is not a way to liberation but a way of liberation that manifests our inherent liberation...

...The essence of the Zen way of liberation is not learning or understanding or believing but practice and experience." Kim Boykin - Zen for Christians

The more I incorporate Zen practice into my Christian life, the more I feel liberated to experience the true nature of Christ outside the walls of a church and the confines of systematic doctrines.

(Picture courtesy of my Wife's recent trip to Japan. Thanks Veronica!)

Dalai Lama in Atlanta?

http://www.dalailama.emory.edu/news.html

Great resource online...

I've found a great online resource with free downloadable audio on a variety of spiritual topics. The introduction to karma was great. Also I'm using the guided meditations everyday now. They really help to guide your practice session without getting in the way.

http://freebuddhistaudio.com/

A Safe Heart Is A Hard Heart

“We shield our heart with an armor woven out of very old habits of pushing away pain and grasping at pleasure. When we begin to breathe in the pain instead of pushing it away, we begin to open our hearts to what’s unwanted. When we relate directly in this way to the unwanted areas of our lives, the airless room of ego begins to be ventilated. In the same way, we open up or clenched hearts and let the good things go – radiate them out and share them with others – that’s also completely reversing the logic of ego, which is to say, reversing the logic of suffering.” – Pema Chodron

I was taught my whole life to build a wall or fortress of righteousness around me so that I could be protected from the pain, suffering and sinfulness of the world. This works if what you want to achieve is a heart hardened by a heavy protective layer that keeps sin out and compassion in. I've found that this practice feeds ego, individualism, competition and rejection of the world around you.

In the Tibetan Buddhist practice of Tonglen you are taught exactly the opposite approach. You practice breathing in the pain, suffering, and the darkness of those around you and breathing out compassion, kindness, and light. This practice over time is meant to destroy the ego that is the source of our pride. This teaching encourages us to use our practice time to embrace the anger we feel toward a particular annoying co-worker or the pain we realize in a moment of sadness or fear. We should relish those moments as great opportunities to practice and learn. That is something I could definitely use in my life. My typical reaction is to fight off those emotions and miss the chance to learn and show compassion.

I understand the lure of that pop-culture Christian idea that all I need to do is believe the right things and God will fix me and preserve me in the afterlife, but I realize that something is missing from that equation. Christian metaphors will always be home to me and the Bible will always be the primary mediator of God’s word in my life, but I’m excited to find new practices and I've seen the occasional glimpse of progress that begins to shine through the cracks of my past failures.

I'm hooked...

I have provided a link to a great article by Pema Chodron. It deals with a buddhist concept called "shenpa" which is a Tibetan word that describes that urge within us that hooks us (attaches us) and causes us to react in ways that we don't want to react. It is worth the time to read it.

How We Get Hooked and How We Get Unhooked

My initial reaction to this concept is that it resembles the Christian idea of recognizing sin or "sinful attitude" and confessing it. She even mentions another term called shenlok which means to turn that shenpa upside down. That sounds like the Christian concept of repentance which means to turn around and go the other way. The one thing that excited me about the Buddhist understanding of shenpa is that it focuses our attention on the part of us that gets hooked NOT so much on the actual result of being hooked. In Christianity we often focus on the results (sin or bad behavior) rather than focusing on the internal drive that hooked us in the first place. We often end up trying to solve the symptom rather than the root cause. Somehow it feels like this teaching about shenpa and shenlok is a better long term solution that doesn't leave us hooked in a cycle of sin, guilt, confession, sin, guilt, confession, etc. Also, as a modern person living in a post-enlightenment culture, it makes more sense to address the psychological issues that are underneath my own problems rather than using the excuse “the devil made me do it” and focusing on a supernatural solution or placing our hope in a solution in a supernatural after-life.

Practice makes perfect

For most of my life religion was the end rather than a means to the end. Buddhists turn that idea upside down. If you ask the Dalai Lama what he is doing when he meditates, he will tell you he is practicing. I always thought that meditation was only for relieving stress or listening to God, but that is so far from the truth. Meditation is mainly about preparing and fine-tuning our emotional skills. I often use my meditation time to imagine how it would feel to have patience and compassion for someone in situation that is difficult for me to respond properly. Meditation is not done as some trendy new-age self-help. The Buddha says that we should practice so that we can heal the world and it should not be done for our own benefit. Meditation is the practice of our minds used to heal the world. I think that at the heart of Christian prayer is the idea of practicing compassion.

The concept of pleading with God to respond is somewhat silly if you think about it. I don’t expect God to jump through hoops and change his mind about how to run the world based on my prayers. However, by praying for a person in need I am practicing compassion and the next time I meet that person or another person in a similar condition I will be more compassionate because I’ve had that moment of practice. It is no coincidence that the most compassionate people I’ve ever meet are people that spend much time in prayer. I assumed it was because of their personality or their “gifting”, but I think I had it wrong. Those people don’t pray because they are compassionate. Instead they are compassionate because they spend time in prayer practicing the mindset of compassion.

I may still pray for a some desired future outcome, but by praying for a future outcome that needs to occur, I am practicing aligning my will with God's will and preparing my self for that outcome. What if we as Christians can learn to see prayer not as a means to get what we want but as a way to transform our wants? I think Jesus understood that and it is at the heart of his lesson to us about how to pray. The Lord’s Prayer is a great model for prayer as an act of molding our minds into the will of God.

Living in the Present Moment

This concept always sounded odd to me. Maybe it works for a Monk that had no cares or obligations but could it somehow help me in my quest for transformation?

I read a book a couple of months ago called “Stumbling on Happiness” by Harvard Psychology professor Daniel Gilbert. In that book he explains how our happiness depends in large part on our ability to accurately remember our past and accurately imagine our future. Unhappy people are ones that let memories and/or projected anxiety run their lives. At the heart of that notion is the idea that events, past or present, rarely cause much pain when they happen, but when we let our minds dwell on future things like schedules, obligations, promises, debts, and expected confrontations, then we end up creating weeks or months of stress for something that may only be 1 day of difficulty. The hype is usually much worse than the reality.

A similar phenomenon occurs when we set unrealistic expectations about positive things which we are looking forward to. How many times have you ruined a decent movie because you set such high expectations for it and when it turned out to be “good” instead of “great”, you ended up letting that failure to meet expectations feel like a complete bust rather than appreciating the good movie. We have to realize that we don’t have the ability to correctly imagine the future. Our skills of imagination are often better at dreaming up the impossible rather than correctly projecting an accurate picture of future events. How many people are lured into making decisions like getting a new job, car or house because they have over estimated and incorrectly projected the value it will create in their life. Eventually they feel regret when what the really got was more debt and none of the old problems disappear. I think this phenomenon is the very heart of many problems in our culture of consumerism. Madison Avenue has become very skilled at preying on this flaw in our mental capacity.

It seems that we also have an unrealistic memory of past events and the farther removed we are from the events the more unrealistic our memory becomes. Ever heard your grandfather describe the “good ole days”? Do you think they were really that good? Have you ever eaten what you thought was the “best meal of your life” only to return 2 weeks later to the same restaurant to realize that your memory of the meal was much better than the actual food?

We need to learn how to imagine more accurately but we also need to dwell in the present and feel more content with the blessings that are right in front of us. Meditation is a real key to solving this flaw in our mind. The most basic Buddhist mantra used for meditation goes something like this:

Breathing in – “I am calm”
Breathing out – “I smile”
Breathing in – “I dwell in the present moment”
Breathing out – “It is a good moment”

That seems very simple, but I’m finding that even a few minutes of mediation like this during my busy day can completely change my outlook on life. Being in touch with the present is important in the life of a follower of Jesus. For too long Christianity has been fixated on what may or may not happen in the next life or in "the end times" and forgotten to participate in the kingdom of God which Jesus tells us is "at hand".

Peacefulness

This morning I woke up before daylight. I’m not sure why that happened but I felt perfectly refreshed so I decided to do the unthinkable. I got out of bed at 6am on a Saturday morning! I made a cup of coffee and sat outside on the deck for a little extra reading and meditation. I really love the view of our little slice of nature. Our deck sits about 20 feet up in the trees and in the summer the leaves hide any hint of the fact that we are located in the suburbs. The sounds of nature filled the air as I took a few hours to read in the cool of the morning. Of course anyone from Augusta, GA realizes that cool is a relative word and it is a short-lived condition in July.

After a couple of hours and deep in a state of bliss as I was about to finish a very entertaining book, my wife joined me. My wife and I are so very different. She too enjoys soaking in nature, but for her being still and quiet for more than 5 minutes is torture. For her, nothing is really enjoyed until it has been spoken. The glorious event of a squirrel scampering through the trees isn’t really an event until she speaks to it. “Good morning Mr. Squirrel. Isn’t it a beautiful day?” The majesty of the sound of nature is not really majestic to her until she can verbally declare it to another person. “Isn’t it peaceful out here?” she announced as she began to rattle off her scheduled plans for the day.

Normally I might have been a little irritated that she had disrupted my state of bliss but something occurred to me this morning that caused me to remain silent and listen to her. As I listened to the sounds of birds in the background I wondered if any of the birds were annoyed by the sounds of other birds. Could the sounds of birds and insects that seemed so calming to me actually drive other creatures away? Maybe my perception of pleasant sounds vs. annoying sounds was a bit off.

My wife went inside for a minute (remember she can’t sit still for more than 5 minutes) and returned with a bowl cereal. This time when she returned I let the sounds she made crunching cornflakes beside me blend with the birds and squirrels. I realized that my wife was another majestic creature that God had placed in my life and her sounds were as pleasant and soothing as any bird. In fact, when she went back inside again 5 minutes later the soundscape of my backyard seemed a bit empty. It wasn’t long before I began to hear the sounds from inside the house as she cleaned the kitchen. I smiled knowing that the sounds of pots, pans, and cabinet doors were not that different than those of a squirrel scratching bark and shaking leaves. These are all sounds that let me know that God is there and he has given me all the things I need to be happy if I will just take the time to listen.

I guess that sounds are relative just like temperature and I guess that the peacefulness of a sound has more to do with the person listening. Today I realized that peacefulness is not something you create with the right combination of temperature, silence, and space, but it is a state of being that you can choose to have anytime and anywhere.