Buddhist Babble

One of my readers sent me this very lovely quote from Buddhist nun Pema Chodron: "if your mind is expansive and unfettered, you will find yourself in a more accommodating world, a place that's endlessly interesting and alive.  The quality isn't inherent in the place but in your state of mind.  The warrior longs to communicate that all of us have access to our basic goodness and that genuine freedom comes from going beyond labels and projections, beyond bias and prejudice, and taking care of each other."

I think this is a great explanation of the concept of mindfulness, an idea that I embraced many years before it became au courant.  I recall around ten years ago when one of my many supervisors was explaining to us mindfulness.  I replied that this is something I've been doing for years only I call it prayer.  But it's a particularly intense, concentrated form of prayer.  One day while walking-I think I was just twenty-four then-I was contemplating that matter is really just a form of highly organized energy.  Then came the idea that God is at the heart of every molecule and every atom of not only our human existence but of all matter in the universe, that it is God who holds together and maintains the dynamic motion of every cosmic particle.  As I was walking (I was around Sixteenth and Heather here in Vancouver) I was suddenly caught up in a very exultant state of heightened spiritual awareness of God occupying every detail of every detail of the universe and of my own tiny and finite human  existence. 

I did not call it mindfulness.  I didn't know what to call it, but my appreciation of everything was suddenly and inalterably heightened and elevated.  I don't know if this is the same thing as the Buddhist, or Sufi, or (pick any one) experience.  Even though I respect and appreciate other faiths, my experience and framework are uniquely Christian.  The words of this Buddhist nun certainly resonate and I think we will always have things to learn from and to teach one another.  Or at least we can confirm one another's experience and perhaps help elucidate.

I think that if we approach life in a spirit of joyous humility we will never stop learning because we have made ourselves open and vulnerable to every teacher that comes our way and with this attitude we will always be discovering teachers.