mindfulness meditation
Since this the only way I personally know how to broadly share my thoughts I am going to give this an attempt.
First I want to begin with stating a very broad concept within Buddhism. This concept is called Samsara. Samsara is Buddhisms manner of explaining the interconnected nature of reality. The best I can think of this from a western perspective would be the theological discipline of pantheism. Back to Buddhism, the concept of karma is also fairly well known (what goes around, comes around). All phenomena have attached a web-like construct of energy known as karma. This 'karma' serves as a list of actions done by whatever said phenomena it is attached to. This karma construct is eerily similar to the brains web of interconnected neurons that form ones memory. Perhaps memory is just a modern human European scientific example of this abstract list of historical references to actions preformed by an animal. That will just be a little analogy, for the concept of karma also applies to movement of all phenomena, not just exclusively the animal kingdom. A quick and simple example describing how the motion of karma may be visualized. Imagine dropping a rock into a calm and still body of water. The next events that will follow are of a splash and ripple from the point in which the rock was dropped in. The concept of essentially all actions preformed by a person I then ask you to consider them to be moving underwater. All movements then create a force and generate a flow or current around the parts of the person moving underwater. This movement generating the current is analogous to an action by some phenomena that then transfers its energy to whatever phenomena it then encounters. The current or tide of the flow of Samsara (time&space) keeps track of the cause and effect chain that produced its motion (karma).
I recently have been trying to take Buddhism more seriously, and I have been reading about it a great deal. I must say that this next story is extremely odd and sightly embarrassing to me to share. I feel as if I must try to share this in some manner to make the best use of the experience. I awoke one morning at roughly 3am and felt very compelled to get a plane ticket and fly to Beijing, China. I got up and left my family a note and packed my backpack with clothes and was off to an airport with the intention of going to China. I previously mentioned the entire concept of Samsara for explaining my absolutely random and very bizarre fixed spontaneous mental mindset that was directing me to China. I went to the airport and started to see all the exhibits of extinct animals within the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky airport. This was very powerful for some reason to my awareness. I was oddly viewing these fossil remains from the perspective as a creature that most likely was associated with a cause that may have initiated their extinction. So after viewing those remains from that context, I thought of the karmic effect of the potential spontaneous journey I was about to set off into. I was powerfully effected by seeing the animals that had gone extinct, and I was thinking that as human beings, important steps must be taken to ensure that mother Earth is not ruthlessly neglected by its inhabitants. Still, the very firm fact remained poised at the forefront of my mind: what difference can I do by merely spontaneously traveling such a long way? This thought stayed with me all along my journey from my home, but I had begun to put much faith and effort into my previous attempts to reconstruct and reorganize my conceptual perspective in a Buddhist context. The first major absurdity that at some later point that had come crashing into my mind is how terribly negative needlessly flying such a long distance is for the atmosphere. Yet there are times when a person makes a choice and often it is for a perfectly valid reason, and yet the outcome is disastrous. In human life spontaneity is absolutely essential for very meaningful things to occur. Such a fact is a powerful paradox contrary to analytical rational. For instance, think of the beauty that is generated from musical instruments that are played in a improvised manner. Improvisation is a great example of the beauty of spontaneity. Consider the idea of the perfect romantic first kiss? Such an event is not orchestrated and systematically coordinated like an orchestra.
I did get to meet a few wonderful people on my journey. Every single moment has some sort of significance intertwined within it. Maybe some of my interactions meant absolutely nothing in regards to the language of reason and logic, but sometimes just extremely simple things have immense meaning built within. The best example I can think of is the idea of hydroplaning at a high velocity in an automobile. Such a thing takes only a fragment of time, yet, it can sometimes result in a mortality. The very acknowledgment of awaking at a very odd time with the strong urge to travel to Beijing in a manner that felt very similar to the story of Buddha secretly leaving his home early in secret (which was probably where this idea came from) felt like it had to have related significance of some sort.
I have also been practicing and learning meditation from Eknath Eastwaren. In trying to focus on using my mantram everyday and follow the noble 8-fold path, I felt as if I was noticing fairly powerful psychological and spiritual benefits. Prior to this endeavor I was essentially an agnostic, and I was very philosophically driven to arrive at reasonable conclusions via logic primarily. I had taken a course on eastern philosophy prior which I found very interesting and influenced me greatly. I was learning a little about Hinduism, Taoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism. I had always been very philosophically interested, but these religions quickly lept out and spoke very strong to me. Buddhism taught me extraordinary tactics to apply to my mind during my time recovering from my traumatic brain injury. I had gained a new and powerful approach to expanding the space and climate in-between my thoughts from practicing meditation. I boarded the flight which first went from Cincinnati to Fort Worth Texas, then from Texas to Beijing, China.
Another very important difference between the interconnectedness of Samsara and the singularity of unification in Christianity, is that the cycle of things within the domain of Samsara is continuous reincarnation and rebirth. In Christianity, ones soul is declared to have a unique and firmly fixed period of spiritual existence attached to a body until its body dies, then a permanent spiritual destination. A very important distinction to mention between the two religious ideologies. A permanent spiritual destination at the end of a bodies ability to live then places a massive amount of spiritual concern and psychological anxiety to the finite period of life experienced. Yet within the context of Samsara from Buddhism, one is continually reborn or reincarnated into another period of existence. The ultimate goal or destination of Buddhism is the state of becoming 'awakened' or of reaching nirvana. This is a very important that I also comment upon, considering that talking about this is with the intention of helping others. Such a distinction can sometimes be very critical in determining the manner that a person chooses to live their life. I personally believe that meditation can help a person psychologically and spiritually tremendously. Meditation is not as simple as it may first appear. The word meditation has many different interpretations and subjective definitions. First, I want to explicitly recommend Eknath Eastwarens book 'Passage Meditation.' The manner in which I then after reading that book learned meditation was from a Buddhist context: sati or mindfulness. The entirety of the practice of meditation is then more precisely as 'mindfulness meditation'. The idea behind sati is non-forgetfulness. The idea of mentally reciting a memorized passage or mantram continually and focusing on the quality of the mental space of each present moment which consists of both the moment you successfully remember and consciously recall a memory and the time and empty space between each thought within this continuous cycle of memory recollection. This is a very delicate and powerful mental practice to engage in. Extreme and strenuous pursuits can be mentally very delicate and fragile roads to set out upon. I feel as if it is important that I share this thought in this manner. I did enter into the journey of learning and developing a practice of meditation mostly with Eknath Eastwaren as my guide initially. I just wanted to share this thought because I feel as if I have found a very valuable and useful knowledge from his books. I also recommend his translation of the Dhammapada. Although it is not explicitly about the practice of meditation, I do think it is a nice thing to accompany Passage Meditation.
Also, another incredibly useful guide that I later found one day was: The Noble Eightfold Path.
Cheers!
周培森