“The whole purpose of Buddhist psychology, its ethics, philosophy, practices, and community life, is the discovery that freedom and joy are possible in the face of the sufferings of human life.”
— Jack Kornfield
Credited to Damian Barr at the end of April:
“We are not all in the same boat. We are all in the same storm.”
Many of us are becoming fatigued with dealing with fear, anger, uncertainty, angst, and a feeling of being unsettled, as a result of dealing with the Coronavirus, and all that is unsettled in our communities, our cities, and our politics. “Zoom fatigue” (as wonderful as Zoom is to help us connect - in work, family and friends) is a new coined phrase.
Meditation may be difficult for many of us while we deal with fatigue and notice an increase in our minds wandering and our inability to focus.
Then, while contemplating ideas for this newsletter and noting my desire to give you something to support you as a reset for your resolve for meditation, and to help re-charge your energy; I found myself in a meditation of Gratitude, Joy and Beauty.
Why is it so difficult to spend even five to ten minutes a day noticing with gratitude the joy and beauty in our lives? We are hard wired to focus and register our attention on negative threats. This “negativity bias” would serve critical evolutionarily adaptive functions. It is also argued that there is a function of negativity bias in early development, evident especially in research on infant social referencing, but also in other developmental domains*.
So, please notice that you are not alone if you find you wonder why we don’t naturally seek time in our practice relishing gratitude, joy and beauty. Is it possible though, when we are intentional in attending to all that is well and good, and possibly even joyful, in this moment- that we wonder why we don’t spend time like this more often?
Yes, we are all in this same storm, each of us - even within families and close friends - in different boats, experiences, and degrees of suffering.
My hope for all of us is that we will practice and pray (if that is supportive for you) and notice what we are grateful for and the beauty in our lives.
Is it possible to discover freedom in our joy?
“I would love to live like a river flows, carried by the surprise of its own unfolding.”
— John O’Donohue
*From Not all emotions are created equal: The negativity bias in social-emotional development (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3652533/). -Amrisha Vaish, Tobias Grossmann, and Amanda Woodward
Meditation Practice: July 24th, 2020
Be well,