Inter-being

I led my first sangha on Tuesday and focused the meditations on breaking down the boundaries that we use to define ourselves.  Inter-being is based on the idea that everything is composed of the same elements and gives us a sense of unity rather than division.  The lines between matter become a bit blurrier and nature no longer seems like a phenomenon that exists separate from us.  It gives us a sense of belonging and oneness with the universe.  We can stop fighting against the world and melt into our surroundings flowing with all the elements within and around us.  Humans struggle with a superiority complex.  We declare ourselves masters and feel we have the right to rape and pillage the earth to feed our endless desires.  In doing so we are stripping ourselves of what gives us life.  Everything that the earth feels we feel too.  How we treat the earth is a reflection of how we treat ourselves and those around us.  The earth is not here to serve humans. Thay describes this concept with the analogy of a wave.  He says that if a wave thinks itself separate from water, it will end in suffering and death when it hits the shore.  The wave has to look inside of itself and realize that it is not just a wave but also water as a whole.  Without water the wave would not exist.  The wave is water and the water is the wave.  They are different levels of being yet are still one.  This is inter-being.  We are separate beings but cannot exist apart from the whole.  Blurring the lines of division can help us remember that we are not standing alone but are enmeshed in all that is life.        

Giving Thanks

To All the Little Things

Today I recognize the little things

that slip outside my view

They are subtle conditions of comfort

To them a thanks is due

Always present

but never remarked

Today they fill my heart

Today I thank the water

that runs from my faucet

I thank the light in the dark

And even the fleece in my pocket

Today I thank the ground

for being strong and stable

I thank the stars for being bright

and the food for being on the table

Thank you air for containing oxygen

Thank you lungs for breathing in

Thank you eyes for seeing beauty

Thank you toilet for letting me pee

Thanks to the tea that warms my throat

Thanks to China for this coat

Thank you legs for walking

Thank you Adele for singing

Today I thank the planet

for all it has on it

Today I notice these little things

like every bird given wings

When I am feeling sad

I open my eyes and heart

to all these little things

that play their crucial part

The color fades from view as each leaf falls.  The last memories of summer disappear as the temperature slips to zero.  The nip of cold sends us back to the house with a cup of tea.  It can be difficult to see the positive through this month of dropping temperatures and fading colors, but the slower pace gives us more time to reflect.  I spent this month in deep gratitude for all of the conditions that I have to be happy.  Thanksgiving falls at the perfect time reminding us to be thankful through a month that at first glance may seem so dismal.  Through all of this grey, I still find so much light.  I read this poem in front of my 16 guests on Thanksgiving Day and followed it with each person sharing what they are grateful for.  One of my friends was very resistant to partake in the sharing and said that he does not believe in giving thanks because it means that there is someone out there that deserves being thanked for the conditions of life.  He is an atheist and does not believe in any God.  I could understand his argument and yet my heart ached for him.   Recognizing all the little miracles that make my life comfortable and sweet brings me such joy.  I do not believe in a traditional definition of God but that does not mean that I have to be deprived of recognizing the profound privilege we are given to be alive and to have all that is necessary to exist in comfort.  When I give thanks, I am not thanking one being for handing me all of these little gifts.  I am thanking life.  I am thanking every flower for growing, every cloud for forming, every drop of rain for falling, and every molecule for coming together to make life possible.  I am admitting that I don't have the power to create all of this life and yet am so glad that it was created somehow.  We do not have to name a creator to be thankful for the things that were created.  Part of loving life is knowing how miraculous it is that all of these conditions came together to make it possible and realizing that its fragility is what makes every day we live a perfect gift.