Category Archives: mindfulness

homo sapiens sapiens

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“Consciousness is the subtle and all-embracing mystery within and between Everything. It is like the air we breathe, take for granted, and do not appreciate. Consciousness is not the seeing but that which sees me seeing. You must step back from your compulsiveness, and your attachment to yourself, to be truly conscious. Consciousness cannot be “just me” because it can watch “me” from a distance.”  (Richard Rohr)

Rohr’s comment reminds me of a phrase that a friend recently introduced to me—“homo sapiens sapiens” or “man knows that he knows”.  We all “know” but it is possible for us to “know that we know” and immediately we have went “meta”.  That means we have developed a conscious awareness of our “awareness”.   Someone once said, and I think it was the philosopher Ricoeur , “We cannot have a perspective on our perspective without somehow escaping it.”

This meta-cognition is important as it introduced a “gap” (see Deepak Chopra) into our reality.  It gives us pause.  And, in that pause we have an opportunity to realize that there might be another way of looking at the world.

Prayer and Presence

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Prayer continues to be an essential part of my life.  And for me it is “meditative prayer” which continues to be a challenge because of that “monkey mind” which squeaks endlessly and jumps around….hmmm….well, like a monkey!  The goal is focus in which our hearts and minds are wholly open to God and not given to distractions.  Shakespeare best described this prayerful dilemma when Claudius (in Hamlet), kneeling to pray, lamented, “My words fly up.  My thoughts remain below.  Words without thoughts never to heaven go.”

I also try to choose my words wisely in prayer.  I try to avoid, for example, saying, “Come Lord Jesus.”  For, he has already come and is present in all of our hearts.  To say, “Come Lord Jesus” is to speak of Him as if he is out there, not reflecting an awareness of his inner presence.  He is always here.  In fact, he is intrinsic to our very being.  In fact, without Him we would not even have “be-ing”.  This is relevant to the famous words of Paul, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I,  (my emphasis) but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”  Paul was recognizing that his “not I” was now prevalent in his life–Christ.

When I pray for healing, I don’t pray, “Lord, please visit “x” with your healing power.”  I pray, “Lord, may “x” become aware today of your healing presence.”  For God’s presence, including his “healing presence”, is always with us.  All we have to do is get out of the way, let the ego’s grip on our life dissipate a bit, and the Spirit of the Lord is waiting.

Be nice!

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I watched the Republican debate last night and was made aware of how important it is to “be nice.”  Even when we have strong feelings about something…such as political issues…it is important to realize that we can still “be nice” even as we feel very intensely.  As the two parties gear up for the 2012 election, it is important to remember that it is kind of like being on the playground and choosing sides for some scrap football game, then wanting, re the opponent, “to kick their ass.”  It is fun to win and part of the energy flowing on the political scene is that of a horse race….if I might switch metaphor here…and I want my pony to win.

And the need to “be nice” is always present.  As I lead my day-to-day life, there are often feelings of unpleasantness re other people I come in contact with.   And I try to practice “mindfulness” and recognize these thoughts and feelings as they come.  And it is often very helpful to remember the notion of “random acts of kindness” and respond appropriately.

The media is so often “not nice.”  It is almost as if they seek stories to hold out before us in which someone has acted foolishly and shamefully.  It is so rewarding to listen to or read of these people and snicker, laugh, or heap scorn upon them.  I often think of Michael Jackson and how he became a scapegoat for us.  Sure, he was….well…Michael Jackson.  Michael made some horrible choices because he wrestled with deep-seated personal demons.  But we went too far in ridicule of him.  I recently read where he had acknowledged this experience and how it made him feel.—“Yeah, Wacko Jacko, where did that come from? Some English tabloid. I have a heart and I have feelings. I feel that when you do that to me. It’s not nice.”

Michael suffered a lot in his life, and caused suffering to others, but we didn’t have to demonize him.  When I was a child we had “the village idiot” and it was so fun to view him with contempt, scorn, and derisive humor.  But it was “not nice.”  So, today, let’s all “be nice!”

Paradigm shifts

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An old bromide I’ve subscribed to is, “What we see is what we are.”  Anais Nin put it this way, “”We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.”   And I know I’m harping on this theme but am doing so because I know it has been so helpful to me personally and I think it is very relevant to our world, especially our divided political world.  Nikos Kazantzakis in his wonderful book, Report to Greco, quotes an old Byzantine mystic, “Since we cannot change reality, let us change the eyes with which we see reality.”

So today, I urge each of us to just give this a try.  As we are making pronouncements upon the world, our private and our public world, let us pause for a moment and practice mindfulness.  In that pause, let us ask, “Now what does this say about me?”

And then we might have to follow the advice of T. S. Eliot and, for a moment or two, “live in the breakage, in the collapse of what was believed in as most certain, and therefore the fittest for renunciation.”