ASSIGNMENT – Session Two, Week 4, November 2013 <\/b><\/p>\n
TSK 139 says that we may try to break out of our sense of being trapped in \u00e2\u20ac\u02dclower time\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 by practicing meditation or other spiritual disciplines. You might have other ways of doing this as well: ways (as we discussed in the phone call) that help you contact the aliveness of time.<\/b><\/p>\n \u00c2\u00a0<\/b>WIR 41 adds: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153If you have background in a meditative or spiritual tradition, you may want to reflect on this claim. . . . Would a different understanding of time change the way you approach such teachings?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/b><\/p>\n \u00c2\u00a0<\/b>Look into this question. Where does it lead you?<\/b><\/p>\n * * * * * * * *<\/p>\n Browsing in Waterstones bookstore the other day, I was stopped in my tracks by a display right in the centre of the aisle dedicated to \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcMindfulness\u00e2\u20ac\u2122. I noticed myself feeling a mixture of delight, triumph and a slightly cynical sadness. Delight that all the benefits of mindfulness are now in the mainstream (even Jon Kabat Zinn was among the books); triumph to recognise that this was down to the efforts of millions of meditators since the Buddha first taught the Satipatthana Sutra, not least to those of us in the UK since the 1950\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s (and particularly since the 1970\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s) who have added our flames to this mounting fire. So, why sadness? Well \u00e2\u20ac\u201c I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve noticed again and again that once a teaching or principle hits the public eye, it has already been distorted, corrupted or is out of date \u00e2\u20ac\u201c it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s as though truth dives underground to refresh itself as soon as it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been spoken \u00e2\u20ac\u201c perhaps this is the first of Time\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s little jokes to be noticed in this assignment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We are here to find the moment!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d It was a cold winter\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s day in 1980 in Buxton in Derbyshire and with this statement my teacher opened a week long retreat in mindfulness\/insight. On hearing the words my whole being tightened and tears began to flow under the strain and constraint that I knew this admonishment conjured in me. For seven long years I had striven to find \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcthe present moment\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u0153when walking, sitting, standing, lying down, or attending to the needs of the body\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u201c as Shakyamuni Buddha had recommended to his early band of followers. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Be mindful,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d we are told he told them, and in this lineage I made much effort to practise.<\/p>\n \u00c2\u00a0This had many positive results, but after seven years its limitations began to dawn and now, especially in the context of exploring TSK, are of much more interest to me. Those early years were characterised by striving and driven-ness <\/i>\u00c2\u00a0to improve and to achieve a future<\/i> imagined goal, which I described to myself as \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcenlightenment\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 and to become different in almost every way to how I currently perceived myself. This created enormous tension, self-judgement, disappointment, and separation \u00e2\u20ac\u201c because there was always a \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcme\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 watching \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcthe breath\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 or naming sensations, eating in slow motion, or whatever it was.<\/p>\n My efforts were often devoted to getting away from patterns, pain and suffering or straining towards my imagined idea of freedom from suffering (enlightenment, perfection). Of course, all this simply served to fuel frustration, solidify the patterns, and exacerbate the vicious circle.<\/p>\n Oddly, at times, when I did relax and the simple doing of whatever was happening took over, almost despite my efforts, enormous vistas of peace, spaciousness and insight revealed themselves, but, on reflection, rather than being \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcin the present moment\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 (past as soon as recognised) I found myself in a new kind of time<\/i>, a time beyond time, a time where the past-present-future structure no longer held me in its grip; a time best described experientially as time-less-ness.<\/i><\/p>\n \u00c2\u00a0Could it be that at any moment it is seen that there actually is no self to make progress, or perhaps that the \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcfruits\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 of any \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcprogress\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 are never gleaned by a self, that a second stage of time is making itself known?<\/p>\n Perhaps teachings which appear to originate from \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcthe past\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 are actually an expression of Great Time and in that carry, in their essence, though not necessarily in their form, a quality of timelessness.<\/p>\n \u00c2\u00a0Exhausted by my efforts, disillusioned, and concluding that I was a failure at meditation, I gave it up – for years. During those early years of practice I had also turned a blind eye to unhealed aspects of myself and neglected much that required attention (as, indeed, I now see with hindsight, did several of my teachers). Perhaps blind to the blind side would be one definition of what is termed \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcthe shadow\u00e2\u20ac\u2122. It seems that being fully in time, such ignore-ance could never occur. The phrase being in time<\/i> unveils a fuller significance.<\/p>\n \u00c2\u00a0Returning tentatively to sitting quietly, as encouraged by TSK, I experience time as a fountain of refreshment which effervesces through my being and revitalises it. No need to look for a \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcpresent\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 moment, or any other kind of \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcmoment\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 in any kind of conceptual way. No need to fix the attention so tightly.<\/p>\n \u00c2\u00a0Advanced teachings often counsel that there is \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcnothing to do\u00e2\u20ac\u2122. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m beginning to get a flavour of that. To do is to make effort over time<\/i>, rather than relaxing into being in<\/i> time.<\/p>\n \u00c2\u00a0The meditative inquiry-disciplines of TSK are hard work (sometimes I am tired and hungry after applying such effort); they are rather like \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcexistential gym\u00e2\u20ac\u2122. (It feels like learning to exercise atrophied spiritual muscles or even creating previously non-existent ones). I think, though, that this is partly because of their unfamiliarity and partly because of my habitual way of approaching things. Time will tell\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6!<\/p>\n \u00c2\u00a0What I do know is that the practices affect the quality of simply sitting. There is much less sense of seeking<\/i> and separation<\/i>. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s something like this: resting in the arms of Time, Space unites and Knowledge reveals.<\/p>\n \u00c2\u00a0Time seems to be asking: what if there was no need to break out of something, or strive for anything? What if the completion, previously sought and strived for, were already here simply because Time is<\/i>?<\/p>\n Caroline Sherwood<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" ASSIGNMENT – Session Two, Week 4, November 2013 TSK 139 says that we may try to break out of our sense of being trapped in \u00e2\u20ac\u02dclower time\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 by practicing meditation or other spiritual disciplines. You might have other ways of … Continue reading