"Mindfulness and Meditation allow us to open our hearts, relax our bodies, and clear our minds enough to experience the vast, mysterious, sacred reality of life directly. With Practice we come to know for ourselves that eternity is available in each moment.

Your MMM Courtesy Wake Up Call:
Musings on Life and Practice
by a Longtime Student of Meditation

Monday, July 29, 2024

Lighten Up -- Again!

 

"Get your mind unbound and free; and then from the loosest, highest, best place you have, with the fastest and most humorous mind you can get together, you can reach 
out and make a try at understanding Spirit."
---Stephen Gaskin, This Season's People
 
 
Stephen Gaskin (February 16, 1935 - July 1, 2014)
Sometimes the Universe really lays one on you.  The utterly inexplicable walks right up to you and whispers in your ear "There's magic afoot" -- and invites you to dance.  
 
At those times, the One Love that permeates and transcends each moment lets you know that there is much more to Reality than our rational mind can actually deliver.  That processing channel gets too bogged down in distinctions to grasp the bigger picture.
 
Of course, having Sat Still Doing Nothing (and Everything) for a good chunk of time most every morning for decades, I am often, at least momentarily, aware of the Presence of a dimension of being where magic, miracles, and mystery exist.  
 
Nowadays, even off the zafu, this dimension is more noticeable. It is embedded in the fabric of daily life.  A sense of wonder often emerges amidst the ordinary moments of ordinary days.  
 
In fact, when I'm truly Present, washing the dishes and taking out the trash are as much Ritual Connections to the Sacred as lighting incense, bowing, and taking my seat in meditation. When I'm on my game, the world glows. (When I'm not, Migdalia busts me for the glasses I washed that don't sparkle. LOL)  
 
As best I can tell, Life is just as Thich Nhat Hanh wrote years ago:

"Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don't even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child—our own two eyes. All is a miracle.” 
 
Yet, for sure, within and beyond the ongoing miracle, there are extra special moments.  There are times that the Grand Synchronicity turns up the volume. This happened ten years ago this month.  The Extraordinary concocted up an experience that still defies any attempt to rationally understand what had happened. 
 
As I sat staring at the blank screen of this very same, now much older MacBook Pro that day, a ringtone on my iPhone may just as well have been Gabriel's trumpet.  At that moment, Stephen Gaskin, who had passed away 11 days before, the worldwide web, and Google conspired to proclaim the existence of a dimension where magic, miracles, and mystery will always have the last laugh!
 
The memory still brings a grin to my face and a glow to my heart.
 
With another deep bow to Stephen -- and to this Most Amazing Universe -- I want to share the post from that day.   It's encouragement to "lighten up" bears repeating.

Lighten Up!   
Originally Posted July 12, 2014

A couple of night's ago, unable to get back to sleep after a nocturnal "nature call,"I had tried to write a memorial piece on Hippie Spiritual Teacher Stephen Gaskin, whose Life -- and recent Death -- touched me deeply.   I got nowhere.  After struggling with it for a while, I gave up and read a bit of a Tenzing Norbu Mystery before finally stretching out to meditate into sleep once again.

Still on the mend from the events of the past month, I've been mostly laying low these days, staying away from the computer and cell phone as much as possible, allowing myself to Heal.  A couple of false starts had showed me quite clearly how energy depleting my addiction to these devices can be.  
 
Scrolling for the next dopamine hit takes its toll.

This morning, I was quaffing my first cup of coffee in a couple of days (another addiction under modification) watching bubbles of confusion and angst float through my awareness.  I wasn't quite sure what to do about this week's commitment to Your MMM Courtesy Wake Up Call.  My attempt to express the profound impact that Stephen had had on my life was going nowhere.  I'd made a few false starts. but the back space key had wiped the slate clean each time.
 
I was first introduced to Stephen when a friend handed me a copy of Monday Night Class, a collection of his talks, questions, and answers delivered to the thousand or so hippies that gathered weekly at the Family Dog to meditate and compare notes on the community spiritual exploration that had emerged and mushroomed in San Francisco in the 1960's.  That book propelled me on a journey that included a daily meditation practice, a couple of extended visits to the Farm, my own attempts at a communal "back to the land" lifestyle -- and a number of conversations with Stephen over the course of a couple of decades. 

Sitting here at a picnic table outside my favorite local farm store on a brilliant, blue-skied morning, I continued to stare at a blank screen.  Then, (probably with a furrowed brow), I reached for my cell phone to check my email -- then, perhaps, just fall back and select an old post to republish this week.

At that very moment the phone "dinged"with an incoming email. Peering down I read the notification
"Your MMM Courtesy Wake Up Call:
 Lighten Up! 
Posted 18 January 2014"

WTF!!!???

I have no idea what strange permutation of the space time cyber continuum at that moment could have possibly have had Google generate and deliver to me an email version of a post I'd written six months ago.  This had never happened before.  (and still hasn't happened again ten years later! -- L.)

How could I not lighten up?  

I broke into a bemused grin as I clicked it open.  The Serendipity of receiving this unsolicited and inexplicably"cosmic" reprint of a blog piece at that moment was magic enough. The decision was made for me.  I'd just read and tinker with it bit, write an introduction describing what had happened and re-pubish it.
 
Then, I began reading the post...

It got even more mind blowing!
As I often do, I had begun "Lighten Up!" with two quotes.  The first was from my current Dharma mainstay, Pema Chodron.  Her presentation of the Lojong Practice had been the central focus of my study and practice life for the past few years.  I've often quoted her.

And then...
 
I would love to have had a photograph of the expression on my face as I read the second quote. There -- laying it on me from beyond the grave -- was Stephen Gaskin!  Although I'd mentioned Gaskin several times in the previous 75 posts, this post was the only time I had quoted him.  
 
He didn't let me forget it!

Try as I may, I have no rational explanation for any of this.  Although when I first started blogging I had Blogger set up to send me an email copy of each post, Google had changed things up.  I hadn't received such an email for almost a year.  Stephen Gaskin, I imagine with a grin on his face, had appeared out nowhere -- and everywhere -- just as I reached for the iPhone.  
 
All I can do is grin, offer a deep gassho to Stephen, express my gratitude to the Primordial Comedian of the Cosmic Mystery Medicine Show -- and renew my commitment to lighten up!  
 
Here's that post!

Lighten Up!
Originally posted January 18, 2014
 
  "The key to feeling at home with your body, mind and emotions, to feeling worthy to live on this planet, comes from being able to lighten up. When your aspiration is to lighten up, you begin to have a sense of humor. Things just keep popping your serious state of mind."
---Pema Chodron, Start Where You Are: A Guide to Compassionate Living

"Get your mind unbound and free; and then from the loosest, highest, best place you have, with the fastest and most humorous mind you can get together, you can reach out and make a try at  understanding Spirit."
---Stephen Gaskin, This Season's People

 
Archbishop Desmond Tutu and HH Dalai Lama  
All too often, it seems like those of us who are sincere seekers can get a bit too stodgy and uptight about our Spiritual Practice.

It's not surprising, I suppose.

Although some of us may have experienced lives of relative comfort and success, I think many of us who were drawn to the Practice were like me.  We were having a hard time of it.  
 
By the time I was exposed to Buddhism as I young adult, I was struggling with a life that included layers and layers of unexplored childhood trauma and the stress of making my forward in a society that made no sense to me. Even though I was "successful" in my studies and in sports throughout my school years, and, briefly, as a schoolteacher and coach afterwards, I experienced re-occurring bouts of deep depression and crippling anxiety.  It was hellish to suffer a rolling mid-life crisis and repeated burn out before I hit thirty.

So, when I stumbled across Buddha's First Noble Truth, all conditioned life contains suffering, it rang true to me.  I certainly knew suffering to be real in my life.  It was even a relief to discover it wasn't necessarily even my fault! The angst and despair I experienced weren't solely my own.  They were embedded in the nature of the human condition!

As I read on and saw that the Second Noble Truth described a reason for this suffering, I was intrigued. Then, I went on to discover that, there is (Noble Truth 3) a release from suffering ---and (Noble Truth 4) a set of understandings and practices that presented the way out !!??

Seriously!?  Damn!  Sign me up!

Even if you were drawn to other spiritual traditions as you entered the Practice, I think there was often a similar dynamic.  Whether seeking nirvana or heaven, sat chit ananda or salvation, liberation or atonement, we all were looking for Light at the end of the tunnel, some form of release from this "veil of tears.".  Then, whatever our path, at a certain point it dawned on us.  If we wanted to move toward the Light, we had to get serious about it.  

Very, very, serious.

Unfortunately, some of us then got deadly serious about it.  I, for one, know I did.  At one point all my friends hated to see me coming.  Having just spent a month on The Farm, I was committed to being a "truth yogi."  What was a common practice in a single men's tent there, didn't exactly fly with the folks that I hung out with when I returned.

Having observed the intimacy and telepathic connection that openness and honesty fostered, I was committed to being totally honest and pointing out "the vibes" in every situation.  Rather than relax into to my own "class clown" persona and enjoy the company of friends,  I was insistent on pointing out the subconscious patterns of energy that were happening in the room.  Saving the world is a serious business, after all.  I could quickly squeeze the life out of any party.

Little did I know that in order to be the light, you have to lighten up.  

The Laughing Buddha

Two Laughing Buddhas?
 When I first was gifted with a      figurine of Hotei (Budai) a  widespread representation of a jolly enlightened monk in East Asia, I put it aside.  The big bellied laughing figure with arms held high didn't grab me. It seemed a bit vulgar and disrespectful. 
 
 I was used to images of the stern- eyed Bodhidharma or the serene countenance of the Theravadan Buddha in meditation.    
 
Little did I know.

In my childhood, I often found myself being the class clown.  After numerous hours sitting in the corner or sitting in the detention hall, I learned to stifle it.  I'm grateful that at this stage of the game I've been able to reclaim that part of me.  Humor, at its best, is a healing art.  Like tears, laughter releases blocked energy and connects us to our hearts and one another more deeply.
 
Today, the old saw, "laughter is the best medicine," is even supported by medical science.  The staff of the Mayo Clinic presents the case on their website in Stress Relief from Laughter? It's No Joke.  Citing the short term and long term health benefits of laughter, they even go on to suggest a number of practical things we can do improve our sense of humor.  (check it out)
 
It's clear that the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Tutu don't need to read the article.  If a future Worldwide Buddhist Conference was to consider folding in a Ninth Path, I'd like to see the DL make a pitch for Right Humor.  On the Christian side of the aisle, I'd also make a case to the College of Cardinals that any candidate for Pope should enhance his ecumenical and pastoral chops by matching belly laughs with Archbishop Desmond Tutu. 
 
But I digress...
 
A Joyful Mind
 
The 21st slogan of the Lojong Trainings* of Tibetan Buddhism is: Always Maintain Only a Joyful Mind.  In her own inimitable, down to earth style, Pema Chodron points out that this primarily involves "lightening up."  We can learn to free ourselves from the judgmental mind that emerges as we grasp onto a fixed model of how it "should be." Instead, we can take a breath, relax, and approach what actually is, with a deeper sense of curiosity and appreciation.   Humor and ease go hand in hand.   Like any quality of consciousness, they can be cultivated. We can practice.  

The Latin root of the word humor means "moisture, fluid."  That makes sense to me.  Humor lubricates. It serves to loosen things up. It  It makes things flow.  Thich Nhat Hanh even suggests that we bring a half smile to our lips as we meditate as a way to "prime the pump." There is nothing quite like a relaxed smile.  It may even lead to a wide grin -- or a belly laugh.
 
Examining it closely, we see there is a certain movement of energy that occurs with laughter.  A form of release, it has a healing effect.  Norman Cousins, the longtime editor of the Saturday Review, wrote that the ten minutes of belly laughs he experienced while watching a Marx Brothers film could give him hours of relief from the pain of a fatal debilitating disease.  He believed that this "laugh therapy" extended his life for years.

Being of "good cheer" is also a quality of consciousness that contains great wisdom.  With Practice, we are able to perceive even our own rather dysfunctional patterns emerge and meet them immediately with a grin rather than allow them to sweep us along into the same untenable position time and time again.  
 
Although a direct perception of the Truth can sometimes come in a flood of tears as we open our heart, it can also readily appear with a smile, a chuckle -- or a belly laugh. Sitting alone, or sharing a good laugh with friends, we catch a glimpse the Real Deal --and It's a Hoot! 
 
I'll take it any way it appears.

But, perhaps, you don't agree.  Maybe I'm just trying too hard to be a wise guy. Maybe, once again, I've got it all wrong? 
 
If so, when we meet at the pearly gates, maybe you'll have the last laugh!

I hope you don't mind if I join you.


*In the Tibetan tradition of mind training, Lojong Practice consists of working with a series of training slogans as a framework for understanding how Mind operates, and as an aid in actualizing our commitments to kindness, clarity and compassion -- both on and off the zafu.  I wrote a bit more extensively about Lojong in "The (Heart) Beat Goes On" in the MMM Courtesy Wake Up Call awhile back.

(PS.  I finally did get it together to write a memorial to Stephen Gaskin -- a year later:
 This Season's People: In Memory of Stephen Gaskin.  Better late then never, right? LOL  One Love, Lance)

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