Wise Heart Way

seeing the light

Early this week I took my laptop to a café with wi-fi, because my Internet connection had been down all day, and I needed to check e-mail. I enjoyed an hour there with a tuna sandwich and coffee, classical music in the background, and the genial bustle of the suprisingly large late afternoon crowd --  a welcome contrast to the quiet aloneness of my standard work day. Even though I hadn't felt down when I arrived, being there had lifted me up.

So I was feeling good and light-hearted as I stood on the curb waiting to cross the street. And then I heard a voice greeting me by name. When I turned, there he was, the ex. Our relationship has been the most challenging and painful of my adult life. He is the Ultimate Difficult Person.

Smiling More

Hi everyone -- I know I'm a little slow in getting writing, but I've enjoyed reading everyone else's posts over the past few weeks, and I'm looking forward to joining the discussion!

Anyway, I read through the first chapter today, and I enjoyed it. But really, my engagement with Wise Heart began on my walk to the Leicester Square Tube station this afternoon. I was thinking about what Julie had written -- specifically the part about greeting someone warmly.

For some reason, it took me back to an experience I had in a night club a few months ago. I was dancing in a group with some of my friends when one of them said, "Try smiling more -- it makes you more approachable." 

The friend meant more approachable in the sense of meeting girls, but today, I thought of it more broadly. It's hard to be unhappy or think unpleasant thoughts about someone when you're smiling. I tried to smile and think something negative. It was too hard, and I gave up. And when I saw other people smiling, it was easier to think of them as happy and beautiful.

So as I go forward trying to see the inner nobility in everyone, I'm going to do my best to keep a smile on my face. It's not that I walk around frowning all the time. Far from it; I never could make myself frown when I tried to. 

I don't see a need to smile if it's not an accurate reflection of my mood. I just think I am generally happy, and so I should let myself and everyone else know.

A Wise Heart Quote for the Day

The frigid temps have turned our garden into a haven for the birds--our beloved painted bunting appeared this morning.  A fitting companion to this passage I came across during my morning meditation.  I must share with you all...it speaks so eloquently to our readings:

Bright but hidden, the Self dwells in the heart.

Everything that moves, breathes, opens, and closes.

Lives in the Self.  He is the source of love

And may be known through love but not through thought.

He is the goal of life.  Attain this goal!

The Upanishads, translated by Eknath Easwaran

Practice: Seeing the Goodness in Other People

On this high-spirited day of hope for the Obama-Nation, I feel compelled to share a few musings.  Karen, I’m thrilled that you found inspiration in my photo of the little Cuban tree frog – he was a joy to shoot, actually posing for me.  Unfortunately, his species is an considered an invasive, exotic (non-native) tree frog, who eat Florida native tree frogs.  Scientists are studying the impact they may have on our natural environment.  This one was hibernating under our wheelbarrow when Skip disturbed his sleep and called me out for the photo session.

Also, if you don’t object to a little bathroom humor, imagine my surprise one wet August afternoon when I lifted the lid on our toilet to find one swimming in the bowl!  With the help of a soup ladle, I scooped him out and relocated him to the garden.  It’s common for them to jump from roofs into plumbing vents and drop into the john!

Principle #1: see the inner nobility and beauty of all human beings.

I am loving reading the posts and encourage everyone to continue to post free form with whatever and however it occurs. I love what's developing here.

The organizing idea behind this blog is to read the The Wise Heart: A Guide to the Universal Teachings of Buddhist Psychology by Jack Kornfield over the course of this year,  do the practices in each chapter. and write about it. I've already read the book once, and my thought was, that if I read this book slowly, very consciously do the practices, write about my experience, and surround myself with people who will hold my feet to the fire, that would support my wish to improve my "way of being with the world" (Kornfield 7).

Anyway, I don't want to get all project-y about it, but imposing some structure as a way to keep me honest seemed to me to be a good idea. So I did develop a schedule (don't let that word freak you out) and will be posting the milestones (principle, chapter, practice) here every two weeks throughout the year. My fellow bloggers may or may not follow this same schedule.

economic crisis and inner life

An interview with Parker Palmer I listened to on Speaking of Faith about the spiritual aspects of the economic crisis feels relevant. My brain is too fried at the moment to write this cohesively so here are some thought fragments:

Parker Palmer : we're at one of those interesting points in history where self-interest and idealism converge

M.A.: I do feel like evolution is trying to happen in our world now. Question is: which way is the evolution going to go?

Parker Palmer : It seems to me that one of the commonest features of human life is what I sometimes call secrets hidden in plain sight, things we know but don't want to know and thus find systematic ways of evading or ignoring or denying. And I suppose the fundamental answer as to why we do that is that if we knew these things we would have to change our lives, and we don't want to change our lives.

all creatures great and small

Lovely post, Cascata. Our fellow Wise Heart Julie, is a nature photographer extraordinaire. Here, she expands the notion of "seeking the inner nobility and beauty of all human beings" to include all of God's little creatures. Look at those wonderful eyes!  Back to Cascata's musings: I love to think of therapy, or self-examination, as confronting the stranger within. In the Jewish tradition, you are commanded to be kind to strangers. The greatest work, I believe, is meeting our inner strangers and forgiving and loving them.

Sly Stone

 I read  a "Blueprint for Social Justice" article by Bill Quigley, a social justice lawyer at Loyola in New Orleans. He wrote about walking  and developing spirituality.  In the article he quoted a Buddhist social activist,Thich Nhat Hanh, about walking meditation, "We walk slowly, walking not in order to arrive, just for walking." Quigley goes on to tell another walking story from the gospel of Luke, about the followers of Jesus walking to Jerusalem with a stranger after the death of Jesus.  Only later do realize they have been walking with god.  Quigley writes,"Many times  we may think the spirit is absent from our lives but it is possible , that when we  walk humbly trying to find god, god may already be there."   So in that stranger they literally found god. (Funny how many times I heard that story in the past, and it meant somethng to me for the first time  while reading the article.) 

My daughter asked me to read an excerpt that was included in her Ethics and Morality class binder. She said it spoke to her.  It was about love, from Scott Peck's "The Road Less Travelled".  Remember that one from the 70's?  He defines love as "the will to extend one's self for the purpose of nurturing one's own or another's personal growth."