October 6, 2005 - How Big Is Your Mind?
Some days you are the bug; some days you are the windshield.
Living With the Big Mind of Non-Judgment
By: Ian Lawton
Our family has a nice dinner ritual. Our six year old keeps us on task. We go around the table and each person says what their best thing of the day was. Then each person says what their worst thing was. Depending on enthusiasm levels, we might even include our saddest or most surprising moments of the day. The kids sometimes bring it all back to earth with some wise- crack about the smelliest thing of the day.
Our three year old has participated in her own way since before she could talk. Now she can talk, but she still has no concept of “worst”. So she often gives the same answer to all the categories. That’s quite profound when you think about it. Zen master, Sosan Zenji said, "If the mind makes no discriminations, things are as they are....this is to be released from entanglements."
The last few nights were strange for me. I felt entangled and down. No “best things” were coming to mind. I wondered if I was teaching my kids some negative habits. The attitude of our three year old struck me in its lack of judgment. Then it seemed that this could be suppressing some valid feelings. It’s alright to say, "I had a hard day today and hard days suck."
We all have hard days, and whether you are a Progressive Christian, an enlightened guru, a Buddhist Roshi, or none of the above, hard days still suck. Pure and simple.
Sometimes Westerners think that Eastern spiritual principles of non judgment sound like suppression or being passive. Suppression is rarely healthy. Suppression eats away at us until it explodes in destructive outbursts, or self loathing or physical symptoms such as high blood pressure and depression. In the movie, "Anger Management", Jack Nicholson said, "There are two kinds of angry people - explosive and implosive.
Explosive is the type of individual you see screaming at the cashier for not taking his coupon. Implosive is the cashier who remains quiet day after day and then finally shoots everyone in the store.”
To think that Eastern traditions are teaching people to ignore the "anger sharks" swimming in their heads is a misunderstanding of the East. Maybe it’s helpful to distinguish between the day and the experience of the day.
Consider the dinner table scene. We all lived through the same day. The day itself was perfect. It offered enough beauty and wonder to more than satisfy every one of us. It was our experience of the day that was less than perfect. Tomorrow will hold all the same beauty and opportunity, and just maybe our experience of tomorrow will be better.
Much of our experience of the day is colored by assumptions and projections. We make situations mean things about ourselves, whether positive or negative. We assume that others intend us harm. We project previous experience into current experience and interpret it accordingly.
We lapse so easily into trying to control the day, or suppressing the feelings of the day. We do this for all sorts of reasons. The entanglement comes when we attach to the positive or negative experience so closely that we think that it is the whole truth and that the experience defines who we are.
One Eastern idea that is now finding exciting application in Western lives speaks about being a "witness". The witness is aware of any experience as it arises. The witness notices the joy or pain of any situation. The witness notices the desire to control outcomes. The witness notices projections and attachments. It’s not that assumptions and projections are unimportant. They teach us all sorts of valuable lessons. The witness helps us to realize that they are not the whole story. The witness helps us to keep a fine line between our experience and a far deeper reality that might be called our God-essence.
This is part of why I am so excited to introduce the Big Mind language and process to our progressive community and its networks. Big Mind has helped to crystallize the role of witness in my life. In my experience, Big Mind is so large that it can hold all the projections, all the assumptions, all the pain and all the joy and know that these things will never stick. It’s big enough that it can hold these things together one day, and then empty itself ready for the next day’s experiences.
I’m so excited about the potential for Big Mind to make a difference in people's lives as it has in mine. Our relationships so often self destruct because we hear words spoken and see the actions of others and make them mean something about us. Big Mind allows us the time and grace to separate the words and actions from our assumptions and projections. We notice where our assumptions are coming from and watch them arise just like words arrive invisible in the air only to depart again into the universe. As they disappear we take on a different perspective and Big Mind is large enough and patient enough to allow all of this to transpire without judgment.
The East and West are certainly converging, but it need not threaten those of us in the West. Mathew Fox is a Catholic social activist, who appreciates the East but chooses to remain rooted in Western Catholicism.
He says, “I am a Westerner. We're not going to change the West by going East. The East has a lot to teach us, but essentially it's like a mirror, saying, hey, can't you see what's here in your own religion?”
The liberating aspects of Eastern thought are there in the great Christian traditions. Jesus offered a first century synthesis of East and West when he said, “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. Yet they neither toil nor spin. Yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed like one of these.” The beauty and simplicity of the human essence are perennial truths.
Thomas Aquinas, Meister Eckhart, Francis of Assisi, Julian of Norwich, Nicholas of Cusa, Hildegard of Bingen, and so many others suffered for being prophets who dared to affirm the God-essence of humanity in all of its diversity.
Now we have a unique opportunity. We can access the best of the East. We can explore Eastern truths that are dressed in Western imagery. We can bring them together in a life affirming and world changing synthesis.
This synthesis holds out the possibility of less suffering. Even when we find ourselves entangled, we simply notice that. We know that this too will pass. We live with passion and a full expression of emotions, but we do so with self awareness. We succeed sometimes and at other times we fail. We are aware that neither our achievements nor our failures define us absolutely. Our God-essence, the Self that is undivided and without fear, liberates us from the suffering that grows out of assumptions, projections, attachments and comparisons.
I wonder what I will say tonight at the dinner table. Today really hasn’t sucked. But it felt good writing down that yesterday was hard. It distanced the experience from the day itself. So that’s what I will say.
My best thing today was writing down that yesterday was hard.
This Sunday Center for Religion and Life Event: Diane Hamilton!
Sunday October 9th, 2005
One Service Only at 9:30 am
Large group Dialogue with Diane at 11:00
The Center for Religion and Life welcome senior Zen Practitioner Diane Musho Hamilton. Diane has a Masters Degree in Contemplative Psychology from Naropa Institute in Boulder Colorado. She is a senior student of Genpo Merzel Roshi, and is a facilitator of "Big Mind," a meditation technique designed to help westerners discover the truth of Zen. Diane has been a practitioner of Buddhadharma for over 20 years.
Training as a mediator, group facilitator, and trainer in conflict resolution, adds to Diane's perspective. She was the initial Director of the Office of Alternative Dispute Resolution for the Utah Judiciary from
1994 -1999, where she established the first mediation programs in the courts.
Diane is also one of the most popular facilitators featured at the Integral Institute's workshops in Boulder Colorado. You will not want to miss this incredible opportunity to be in Diane's presence.
Do you want to learn more about Diane and the process of Big Mind? Click on the link below to read this great dialogue with Diane. This article is full of wonderful insights into Diane personally, along with references to her work, and the way she implements Integral theory, and the practice of Zen into her life.
click here dialogue with Diane
Willow Pearson to Perform this Sunday October 9th at C3!
We have the amazing privilege of having Willow Pearson set to perform on our special CRL Sunday, October 9th. Willow is a distinguished vocal artist, psychotherapist, and music therapist.
Willow's graceful spirit comes through with honest clarity in her beautiful voice facilitating those present to connect with their own unique spirit, and the universal divine essence in us all.
Check out Willow's website to read about her background and philosophy, listen to clips of her songs, and to purchase her most recent CD.
click here for Willow's website
This Sunday Evening at Christ Community Church!
Sunday Evening we will explore the unity of all things and the possibility that we already have all we need to be happy and fulfilled. We celebrate this process of awakening, exploring the God within and between us and not some distant, heavenly or separate entity. Please join us for lively discussion, provacative ideas, good music and meditation.
What is Big Mind?
Diane Hamilton is a student of Genpo Roshi and is a facilitator of his pointing out instructions called Big Mind. It is a very simple process that allows one to experience what Zen is very easily and swiftly. The ego, which normally guards and protects the self from experiencing life directly, without barriers, is dropped. Participants learn to sit with non-seeking, non-thinking mind, rather than grasping after the truth.
Check out the Big Mind website for more information or to purchase their DVD.
click here for the Big Mind website
Try the Witness Meditation today!
“I have a body, but I am not my body. I can see and feel my body, and what can be seen and felt is not the true Seer. My body may be tired or excited, sick or healthy, heavy or light, anxious or calm, but that has nothing to do with my inward I, the Witness. I have a body, but I am not my body.
I have desires, but I am not my desires. I can know my desires, and what can be known is not the true Knower. Desires come and go, floating through my awareness, but they do not affect my inward I, the Witness. I have desires but I am not desires.
I have emotions, but I am not my emotions. I can feel and sense my emotions, and what can be felt and sensed is not the true Feeler.
Emotions pass through me, but they do not affect my inward I, the Witness. I have emotions, but I am not emotions.
I have thoughts, but I am not my thoughts. I can see and know my thoughts, and what can be known is not the true Knower. Thoughts come to me and thoughts leave me, but they do not affect my inward I, the witness. I have thoughts but I am not my thoughts.
Then affirm as concretely as you can: I am what remains, a pure center of awareness, an unmoved Witness of all these thoughts, emotions, feelings, and sensations.”
(Ken Wilber, Grace and Grit, p.126)
Follow the link below to read a review of Grace and Grit, and for a link to purchase this incredible book.
click here for a review of Grace and Grit
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