Sometimes inspiration seems like it’s around every corner… just breathing in and breathing out, there is an inspired-ness… as sense of breathing in something that is holy, to enliven you.
And I don’t mean holy as in religious… but you know, don’t you ever get that feeling… it’s like electricity… it’s like listening to an incredible piece of music, reading the best part of a book, a really cool breeze when it’s least expected, the touch of a new love…
There is an excitement, a freshness or newness. . . there is definitely a positive charge to it. When we’re hooked up, hooked in, wired, stuck in our habitualness, it’s hard to feel these moments.
I know at work, there is little space for magic or awe as I crunch behavioral data, update Excel spreadsheets, and print out graphs to chart behavior for psychiatric medication reviews.
But there are ways to get out of your everyday headedness… no, that’s probably not a word, but I’ve just crafted it…
I find little things break up my day and break me out of the sleep walking.. wearing shoes I can slip in and out of and in the morning hours, when I need to wake up at work, I take a quick walk outside and find some cool damp grass to walk through. This wakes up my senses and reminds me to be present.
Later in the day, between meetings, I shut my door and will get into a meditation pose such as warrior or downward facing dog… The later is particularly effective because it improves my circulation and gets the cobwebs out after hours of sitting in front of the computer.
There are small ways to bring mindfulness or awakening into your day, no matter where you are.
A few years ago, when they still had it, I was part of Upaya Zen Prison Outreach Program. I was always so filled with awe to write with someone who had a small space, no privacy, and in such a difficult spiritual and psychological space. . . and yet this one person to whom I wrote with for awhile was really a teacher for me.
He taught me that even in hell one can be mindful, one can keep a practice. I may have shared resources with, books, etc but it was indeed he who taught me just where a bodhisattva can dwell.
What a valuable lesson to learn because there are times that we can be sitting in the most lovely meadow or hiking the most lush path and we are in hell. We bring it there with us, on our shoulders, in our hearts and heads. . . by our deeds, thoughts, and intentions.
Holiness and inspiration can come in simple places, in brief moments when we set our attention for living in heaven… that is to say, here and now. . .
We don’t have to fix our eyes ahead for a time that may or may not ever come when we have this breath, this moment that we can tap into our breath and be one with the touchstone of our true experience.
Written on the way out to Upaya….
