January 2 – Creating a container of safety

Dear Friends,

At the insight meditation retreats I’ve attended, the first day often starts with reviewing the precepts. For those not familiar with the concept, the precepts are a way to explore creating a community with an attitude of respect and care for the community – a container of safety – oriented towards non-harming.

Andrea Fella’s first talk in the Daily Life Practice Retreat includes a discussion of the precepts:
https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/audio_player/6526.html

She says: precepts aren’t a list of “should”s or shouldn’t”s but are often described as “training rules” – an exploration – what does it mean, how does it work, what happens?

Toward the end of the talk, she explains how the precepts apply more broadly, beyond the retreat setting: “the precepts are a place of cultivating wholesome and beautiful qualities in relationship with each other, not only in this room, but in the world.”

In the January 2017 issue of the Lion’s Roar magazine, Sylvia Boorstein writes about aligning intention with your values (something we explored in yesterday’s email) – and she suggests that the precepts express our intentions as practitioners.

She closed the article with this practice:

What are my Intentions for Today?

Here is a set of intentions based on traditional Buddhist precepts. Some people I know have them taped to their bathroom mirror and say them aloud each morning:

On behalf of myself and all beings,
I intend to refrain from consciously hurting anyone.
I intend to refrain from overtly or covertly taking what is not mine.
I intend to be sure that my speech is kind as well as true.
I intend to refrain from addictive behaviors that confuse my mind and lead to heedlessness.

In the same magazine issue, Thupten Jinpa says that in addition to starting the day by setting your intentions, one can close the day with another contemplative exercise called dedication.

The role of this exercise is to complete the circle, as it were. At the end of a day, or a meditation, or any other effort we have made, we reconnect with the intentions we set at the beginning, reflecting on our experience in light of our intentions and rejoicing in what we have achieved. This is like taking stock at the end of the day. It gives us another opportunity to connect with our deeper aspirations.

At the end of the day, for instance, before you go to bed or as you lie in bed before sleeping, reflect on your day. Briefly review the events of the day … and touch back on the spirit of the morning intention setting. See how much alignment there is between the two. … The idea is not to keep exhaustive scores, but to broadly survey to see the synergy between your intentions and your life that day. …

Finally, think of something from the day that you feel good about–a helping hand you gave your neighbor, an empathetic ear you lent a colleague in distress, not losing your cool in the drugstore when someone cut the line. Then take joy in the thought of this deed. If nothing else, take joy in the fact that your began your day by setting a conscious intention. …

Taking joy in the day, even in the simple fact of the effort we have made, is important. It gives us something positive to carry into the next day, and helps us harness motivation in the service of our intentions. Joy plays a crucial role in our motivation, especially in sustaining motivation over a prolonged period of time.

My suggestion for today is to start your day with intention and end your day with dedication.

With best wishes,
Andrea