January 18 – Wow. Thanks.

Dear Friends,

In the latter part of the talk on Sympathetic Joy, Mudita, DaRa describes some of the impediments and allies of mudita, appreciative joy.

The impediments include judgment, comparing, prejudice, demeaning, envy, avarice, selfishness, boredom.

Thinking about boredom as an impediment to mudita is interesting!

When we stop paying attention to the little things in life, and the little things in our meditation practice, we find ourselves in a state of boredom. By reconnecting to the little things, we awaken again to a delightful kind of openness.

The allies are appreciative joy: rapture, gratitude, metta, and compassion.

They all share their origin in our basic goodness, and they form a potent team to reduce suffering, and to bring happiness.

She defines rapture as “our capacity to take active delight in things, And this depends upon our ability to actually let ourselves feel joy.”

Gratitude can bring delight that counters boredom.

I’m participating in a 6-week session with Melina Bondy, a former nun from Plum Village. The course is called “Gathas, Gratitude and Interbeing.”

As I understand it, in the Plum Village tradition, there are several gathas (poems) that can be reflected on in a variety of situations – like looking into an empty bowl before filling it, which was one of the reflections we considered on Sunday:
“Looking at this bowl, I see how fortunate I am to have enough to eat to continue the practice.”

You might already have a practice of reflecting before eating a meal. Growing up, my family’s tradition was to say grace before meals. You might have something similar. So see if you can attune to the joy that can supported by that gratitude practice.

[Side note: If you have a complicated relationship with food/diet, then turn to where you find a sense of gratitude – could be when have your morning cup of tea or put on your favorite shirt or climb into bed at night, etc.]

In the introductory comments, Melina said that if you forget the words for a gatha or if you’re not interested in the words, you can use this short form:

Wow. Thanks.

According to Melina, the essence of a gatha practice is “a little gratitude, a little wonder, and paying attention to something very simple.”

The other gatha we were invited to consider was
“In this food, I clearly see the entire universe supporting my existence.”

This relates back to DaRa’s talk – she shared a reflection from Carl Sagan, a poem by Suzy Kassem, a reflection from Lawrence M. Krauss, an affirmation from Jonathan Lockwood Huie, and a poem by Fred LaMotte, all of which express this sense of “wow” and awe of how we are even here.

So see if that type of reflection is supportive of joy in your practice.

I’ll invite DaRa’s mudita meditation in tomorrow’s email, but for today, I’ll share a meditation from Jill, which starts from appreciation and then tunes into mudita for others.
https://www.dharmaseed.org/talks/62248/

With much appreciation,
Andrea