The Tibetan texts call it: "Great bliss arising from the experience of emptiness".
Pema Chodron, the great Tibetan lineage teacher, suggests that we just not take ourselves so seriously--or rather, not take this entire existence so heavily. We need to lighten our load and stop making such a big deal out of every little experience--all the failures, all the successes, the punishments and the pay-offs.
We need not to criticize ourselves so much. Not loath ourselves so much. Not slam our neighbors for doing or not doing what we would like them to do...or not do.
"Always maintaining a joyful mind" seems almost impossible (in a week that contains two suicides; one murder of a teen-ager I used to teach; one death of an eight year old student in the classroom--an accident just up the street from here; and the Olympics). So much drama. So much sadness. So much criticism and pomp.
Yet, realizing that everything CAN be used to wake up--to inhale the pain and exhale the joy--each and every minute--everything can be used to examine others' and our own sorrow--then, to bless ourselves and others and to send off the joy--holding on to neither. Realizing everything is in transition. (Every single thing.) Even as it feels interminable. Unalterable. Final. Breathe it in and out and let it go...realizing, it is already gone on its own.
Not to be desperate in grasping pleasure, or so worried at its departure, is another step towards lightening our loads. Being happy where we are--being happy in who we are--not needing to be anyone else-- is another radical departure from depression. Coming to understand that, often, it is not our circumstances but how we are relating to them, that causes the deepest wells of sorrow.
(Relate by breathing.)
Relate by watching the breath.
(Relate by sending the breath out, into the world, blessing all.)
Be present in the moment, even if you cannot be deliriously happy.
Be curious about this moment, even if you are in the midst of sadness.
Chodron suggests, finally, to "do something different" to lighten the load: splash water on our faces; blow bubbles; whistle an opera; laugh out loud instead of sobbing; eat a peach; breathe mindfully.
Even once.
Pema Chodron, the great Tibetan lineage teacher, suggests that we just not take ourselves so seriously--or rather, not take this entire existence so heavily. We need to lighten our load and stop making such a big deal out of every little experience--all the failures, all the successes, the punishments and the pay-offs.
We need not to criticize ourselves so much. Not loath ourselves so much. Not slam our neighbors for doing or not doing what we would like them to do...or not do.
"Always maintaining a joyful mind" seems almost impossible (in a week that contains two suicides; one murder of a teen-ager I used to teach; one death of an eight year old student in the classroom--an accident just up the street from here; and the Olympics). So much drama. So much sadness. So much criticism and pomp.
Yet, realizing that everything CAN be used to wake up--to inhale the pain and exhale the joy--each and every minute--everything can be used to examine others' and our own sorrow--then, to bless ourselves and others and to send off the joy--holding on to neither. Realizing everything is in transition. (Every single thing.) Even as it feels interminable. Unalterable. Final. Breathe it in and out and let it go...realizing, it is already gone on its own.
Not to be desperate in grasping pleasure, or so worried at its departure, is another step towards lightening our loads. Being happy where we are--being happy in who we are--not needing to be anyone else-- is another radical departure from depression. Coming to understand that, often, it is not our circumstances but how we are relating to them, that causes the deepest wells of sorrow.
(Relate by breathing.)
Relate by watching the breath.
(Relate by sending the breath out, into the world, blessing all.)
Be present in the moment, even if you cannot be deliriously happy.
Be curious about this moment, even if you are in the midst of sadness.
Chodron suggests, finally, to "do something different" to lighten the load: splash water on our faces; blow bubbles; whistle an opera; laugh out loud instead of sobbing; eat a peach; breathe mindfully.
Even once.
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