| Meditation for Poetry and Poets by John Peterson Alan Watts in one of his early writing, How Buddhism Came to Life, 1939, says of Mahayana Buddhism: "Thus, whereas ordinary men think there is a difference between themselves and the Buddhas, the Buddhas see no difference and hence have no spiritual pride. But the understanding of their identity with the ultimate reality of the universe gives them the use of a creative freedom and power of spirit which ordinary man has but does not appreciate." Here then is a very succinct statement of what it is that meditation is about. Simply put, it is the vehicle for recognizing our identity with the ultimate reality of the universe and that this unity is already the case for all beings, ordinary or Buddhas Centering Continuously going to center without expectation, delighting in the expression that comes. Buddha shows us that center is silence and the rose, and the perfect poem nothing at all. If so the next poem would use only enough words or sounds to hint at silence and convey it. Meaning would be but a chimera. Each time center is lost and noise consumes, return to center, to nothing, sit quietly and accept everything. In the city noise is everywhere and wants us to make poems of noise. Where is center but in wilderness that in the city must so often be found within. In seeking it is good not to forget that it may be found out there, amidst cars and sirens, street lights and traffic signals, but it is hard. Returning to center, accepting all, finding a quiet place that is easier found in the far off desert or the high exotic mountains where sounds are breath. Uttering a few chosen words that give body to silence extending them into the world, to be looked at, touched, felt, passed along and not captured at all. Where We Start We have, because of the need to distinguish ourselves--primarily in the social world--become identified with a part of ourselves that is a necessary and exquisitely valuable aspect of our being. Ego strength or ego consciousness arises in many complex ways. On the one hand it can be seen as a very positive part of the complex that is our personality, and becomes self-enhancing as a means of moving through the social world. A strong well constructed ego, that operates on sound principles for the good of the individual and the community has great value. It is most significant when it is recognized as merely a construct, an aspect of the boundariless whole and ultimately without permanence. All spiritual forms teach that we dissolve from this condition and die into god, rejoining the undifferentiated mass out of which we came. On the other hand because life is filled with trauma, because the good rides hand-in-hand with the bad, because power sits at one time with those who use it wisely and well and at other times it sits with those who are either foolish or sinister, ego often develops a destructive, dysfunctional element. It goes so far as to become the primary negative descriptor of a culture; in its often marginal and dangerous form as the nature of a group. Nazi Germany's racial superiority is the classic example. When the negatively developed ego becomes dominate in a person or a culture, we feel cut off, isolated, constricted, and fearful and even dangerously destructive. An over-arching sense of personal self arises but it sits on a powder keg of emotion because it has become walled in by the ever narrowing sense that only "I" exists and all else is threatening. When this manifests in a person, real danger to oneself and to others can occur. When it arises in a nation or culture, internal strife becomes the norm because all or most members take on that form, war between nations becomes very likely. When this negative ego is less severe the individual or the group, though they may not manifest outwardly destructive behavior, lives in the interior with pain, dysfunction, and a personal or cultural sense of disintegration and chaos. The period of the Vietnam War and its aftermath manifested both of these conditions remarkably on a cultural level. Where then does meditation come in? Usually at the moment when a person or culture reaches the point of greatest isolation and pain, if they are fortunate and have maintained at least some awareness of their greater connection, they begin a journey seeking a way out of the pain, beginning a move towards that greater connection. They may seek through meditation a way to do this. From a cultural stand point this movement must come as a result of the desire of its members. Meditation, or the recognition that we come to a sense of our greater connection by doing nothing, finding again the silence that is our center, becomes an on going discipline, frustrating at first because the personal and social ego structure impinges on us relentlessly. It is a discipline that we come to again and again. Self-observation is the first tool of meditation that brings us into unity with universal reality. Self-observation turns eventually into mindfulness as meditation deepen. But self-observation or the willingness to watch the processes of our mind/body is the beginning point in the unfolding of the meditative life. After initial frustration in our attempts at self-observation we gain one of the first over-arching lessons about life and that is acceptance. As we sit in meditation and watch, feel, experience the chaos of our mind, body, emotions, life experience, the dysfunction of our cultural forms, the absurdity of our prejudices, we finally accept that this is in fact the case and it will, to a lesser or greater degree, continue to be so. At each moment the whole manifests and through acceptance we are connected to the reality of the universe, we recognize our place in it and the continuing drama that is our life. Now, through relaxation, breathing, self-observation, and acceptance we can begin, through meditation, to enhance that greater connection. The next step in meditation, once the acceptance has become real and we see the almost relentless chaos of our life - our mind - is the process of letting-go. This letting-go can sound like so much jargon but it truly is a letting-go. In Meditation we are taught to observe the content of our thoughts without judgement, to see them pass as a stream through our mind and to let them go recognizing that they are us and not us. If we find that we follow them like chasing rabbits down myriad rabbit holes we let them go and return to self-observation. Letting-go applies in our emotional life as well. Letting-go of our past, our karmic ties, our negativity, our dependence, and often even our physical possessions. Letting-go is not the sum of this particular phase but it is a vehicle for lessening what is not essential so that room is made for something of infinitely greater value. Letting-go is the vehicle for making room for that which we did not know was available to us because of the accumulation of our past and the attachments through emotion or belief that we maintain. A resting point in the meditative process comes when we begin to see the world as it is. It is not a place of great elation, nor a place of significant change in one's life. It is part of the awakening and as the awakening continues it can be a burden, a sadness, a pessimism where we say, "this is all, just this?" Peggy Lee, the beautiful Jazz singer, in her haunting song, "Is This All There Is?" presents a classic rendition of this blues bound stage of recognition of the reality of the world we live in. But, as we release our judgements, seeing the world as it is changes. It becomes a place of clarity, a place where the world, one's life, and one's place in the reality of the universe can be looked at with a loving eye. In acceptance one is focused on one's own life, here one turns outward as well to see the world as it is for one's friends, for the culture's reoccurring dramas, for those caught in difficult circumstance, for those enmeshed in the often destructive drama of their lives; here feelings of compassion, one of the most sublime emotion, arises. Now as the fruits of meditation occur in our everyday life we have a point of reference that is the world at its natural luminescence. Through meditation we return again and again to this place of renewal that is the center of existence. The next phase in the meditative process usually needs to be accepted from one who has some capacity as a meditator. The significance is that one needs to meditate inside a discipline that has the ability to begin reforming one's mind towards a more integrated condition. The meditation may need to be inside of something like mantra, visual exercises, poetry, or meditation on higher emotional function. If this is carried out on a significant enough level and towards a worthy end then the next phase can be extraordinary. This next level opens up the mind to manifest higher powers and greater emotional virtue and again requires the taking on of a fine discipline. Running parallel to this and to a large extent both the precursor to the subtler energies of spirit and the result of reaching these subtler energies is the condition called mindfulness. This self-observation and action without judgement, now on the level of seeing - experiencing the world as it is - without the overlaying distortions of our own traumatic past or mental attempts to explain, justify, or protect ourselves, becomes the basis for an unencumbered movement through life. This is the basis for a freedom to truly act. Here the mind, the body, the emotions, the spirit are able to entertain an experience of the world as it is where we can act in concert with the reality of the universe that is us. Our experience and our meditation are the same and we find this new state to be one of extraordinary beauty and of the nature of poetry. Finding the poem, one step from silence, can at this point be revealing. Michael McClure at the Beat Conference in New York in 1994 spoke of meditation and poetry. I paraphrase him here and surely mix my recollection with my own understanding. He spoke of the goals of meditation being our connection with universal reality and not the creating of poetry. But he spoke of the host of impressions that impinge on us daily; visual, auditory, dream images, emotional meetings with people familiar and unfamiliar, ideas that come to us through reading or conversation and how out of these millions of impressions only a small number leave their mark on us. As we sit in meditation at the close of the day some few of these many impressions stay with us, they form the content of our thought, they are the residue of our feeling and are the basis of our emotional life. In meditation we seek to release them and return our inner life to a calm reflection of universal reality. And yet, he said, these particular impressions, out of the many that invade us, have remained and we might seek in them the messages that they have for us. By gently nurturing them in poetry we might learn the lesson that they impart to us and through the refining process of turning them into art we might add to the glowing beauty of the world and pass along to others the fruit of our knowing. The Meditation Preparation Preparation is important. Find a quiet place where you will be undisturbed for this First Hour of meditation. Create an alter that you can sit in front of. The alter is a place set aside in our busy life where silence and connection is the norm; it is a sacred place. On the alter place a candle, the flame a symbol of ourselves in the vastness of the universe; sandalwood incense, long used in scared ceremony to bring us deeply into a remembrance of our essential self; and a small vase with flowers, a representative of the beings of the natural world. Ware loose fitting clothing so that you are not constricted, especially around your waist. Reduce the lighting in the room and, sitting on a meditation pillow with crossed legs, find a comfortable position. Spend a few minutes just sitting. Adjust your posture sitting with your torso straight, chin slightly tucked in. Feel as if a string were attached to the top of your head tugging gently as your spine aligns and your muscles loosen and relax. Light the candle and incense. Meditation is a sacred undertaking where we seek a harmony between our interior life and the universal reality of which we are. To facilitate this undertaking we start and end each session with an act of self-recognition in the form of a posture with palms together over the heart, fingers at chin height, with torso lightly bent forward intoning OM the Sanskrit syllable that includes all the sound of the universe. Start with a Relaxation Exercise moving through your entire body until you feel a relaxing of muscles throughout, particularly around the neck and shoulders. Spend about ten minutes on this. Now begin focusing on your breathing, letting your breath come from your belly; filling your lungs from bottom to top and breathing out from top to bottom using your diaphragm. Do this until you have a regular, rhythmic breathing pattern established. You are now ready to begin the first phase of Meditation. Self-Observation Self-Observation is the seemingly simple act of watching, as an observer, the content of one's thoughts; the effect of one's emotions; the nature of one's feelings; one's responses to stimuli; and the constant chatter that goes on in most people all the time. From self-criticism to feelings of abandonment; from a host of desires both good and not so good to the effects of past trauma; from the effects of success and moments of exhilaration to the longing for love and romance, one is engulfed in the story of one's past. Sit for 20 minutes and observe the content of your thoughts. If you find yourself following one scenario or another, once you recognize that you are inside of the drama of it, return to self-observation. Acceptance Acceptance is one of the greatest and most difficult lessons of life. Whether life has been good or difficult; whether one is happy or sad; whether one feels unworthy of the good or unjustly oppressed by the bad the moment of acceptance is liberating. Acceptance is not resignation and it is not justification for intolerable acts committed either by oneself, by one person against another or by society towards its members. It is the first moment of realization that this too is part of the universal reality and we are already in it and have always been part of it. The dramas of our life are and have always been but a part of the greater whole that is life. We have never been outside of it even when the good or the ill have been overwhelming. Acceptance is like a great sighing release of a fear that had no foundation; the revelation of a great trick played on oneself by oneself. Sit for 20 minutes and observe the content of your thoughts and the impact of your emotions. Recognizes that they are your life and that they will always be your life. As the many experiences of your life come to mind and to your memory, flooding your emotions, recognize them as your life and accept them as your life and that they will always be your life. Through this act of acceptance you begin to open yourself to the reality of life. This concludes the first hour of meditation. Do an act of self-recognition and lay on you back for a few minutes and rest. Get up and take a walk. Second Hour The Second Hour should be done no sooner than four hours after the First Hour, it can be done the next day. Go through the same Preparation as before. You are now ready to go through the second phase of Meditation. Light the incense and candle and do an act of self-recognition. Continue as in the First Hour the act of Self-Observation and Acceptance. For 20 minutes watch the content of your thoughts and the impact of your emotions and silently accept them as your life. As you go deeper into this phase you may encounter material that is more difficult to handle or content that is embarrassing or confusing or content that is very pleasant, you are now ready for the next step in meditation. Letting-Go Letting-Go is a most important and revealing process. In the first act of self-observation we found that to begin the process of gaining some facility with our mental and emotional life we had to continuously come back to self-observation whenever we found ourselves chasing the rabbit. In that simple act we began the process of Letting-Go. We let go of the relentless pursuit of our own thoughts. We now apply that act more generally to all of the content we find that makes up our rather extraordinary inner life. As we come across past negative experiences floating in our memory we let them go. As we find places of tension in our body, we let them go. As we find snippets of ideas we let them go. As we find trauma from our past, abuses, betrayals, fears, hopelessness, we let the emotion rise in us and let go, let the tears come, let the sobs come through us, let the angry shout go, let our face distort in sadness, let the constriction of our heart release, letting-go of the past that so confines us and keeps us focused in a time that has past. And too, when moments of fun arise, when times of pleasure well up, let them go as well, they too keep us in the past. Both the pain and the pleasure are ours, they are the content of our life, they will always and forever be the stuff of our soulfulness but we let them go to find their rightful place in our past, releasing the hold they have on our present and future. We do this with gentleness and fondness and sadness for with this Letting-Go we change our interior and something altogether new becomes possible. This is not to say that at some future time, when we have learned more of our interior life, we may not come back to both the good and the ill, but now we let them go. Sit for 20 minutes and recognize the content of your inner life, letting-go of all that you find. Let go by silently saying "I Let go" or physically letting go of tensions or through your breath breathe out the content on an exhale and settle into regular deep breathing again. Let go in any manner you can but begin the process of letting-go of your past. See The World As It Is This next part of meditation may not come easily for some time but it can be started at this stage. Seeing The World As It Is is a natural step in the progression from self-observation to acceptance to letting-go. We now have the means of seeing the world with the filters of our mostly traumatic past off. It can be both exhilarating and quite sad, filled with grief for the life that one has lived and for what seems the inevitability of it. Seeing The World As It Is is both an act of forgiveness and an act of clarity. It is forgiveness of ourselves for the foolishness of so many of our acts. Here we recognize that we have lived our life without consciousness and it has often caused us and others pain and sadness. Clarity arises as we begin to see the nature of the continuing drama of our life; as we begin to see with filters removed. Though we may not now or in fact ever completely alter the drama of our life, we can see the drama our life and of all life around us, and in that recognition we can begin to act more in concert with the reality of the universe. We can begin the process of acting in concert with nature and with our place in it. We do this first by Seeing The World As It Is. For 20 minutes sit quietly inside this place of recognizing The World As It Is. It is a place without judgement, and at this stage a place without action. It requires some time to find so be gentle on yourself. This concludes the beginning stage of Meditation. This approach can be done over and over until one comes to it with a capacity to enter into meditation whenever and wherever it is needed. It becomes a glowing part of one's present life and is the means and the preparation both for allowing the past its rightful place in the past and preparing an opening for the future to enter unencumbered. Mindfulness now become the approach where true action can occur - the Taoists Action of Non-Action - but that is for another time and another stage in the process of meditation. |
