Dear Friends,
The qualities of heart-mind we’ll be investigating this month are referred to as the brahma viharas, which is often translated as the “divine abodes” – and that can seem like something to which we cannot relate.
However, Christina Feldman points out these qualities aren’t unfamiliar. Likely all of us can think of times we have experienced kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity – however brief or fleeting:
The brahma viharas are not an exotic import of transcendent states, unfamiliar to us, but are an invitation to train, develop, and nurture the seeds of kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity that line in each of our hearts. They are pathways that begin with acknowledging that these moments of unhesitating responsiveness do not need to be accidental or episodic encounters but, with dedication and cultivation, can become our home, the place our hearts abide. Our path does not begin with these qualities being immeasurable and unshakeable, but with their being elusive, unpredictable, and measured.
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We know what it’s like, but we forget, and then we fall into patterns of reactivity. We shouldn’t be disheartened when this happens. Christina says, as “this is the classroom in which the immeasurable capacities of our hearts are nurtured and cultivated.”
Kindness compassion, joy, and equanimity can only be cultivated in the present, in our willingness to meet our life with a responsive and wise heart.
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Today, I invite you to take some time to notice occasions you experience kindness and other positive states.
Dr Rick Hanson, Ph.D., has a practice he calls “Be mind full of good“. He explains the practice as
Have It, Enjoy It.
In other words, have a beneficial experience in the first place – usually because you simply notice one you are already having: you’re already feeling a bit of ease, relief, pleasure, connection, warmth, determination, confidence, clarity, hope, etc. And it’s fine to create beneficial experiences, such as deliberately thinking of things you feel thankful for, or calling up compassion for someone in pain, or recalling how it felt in your body to assert yourself with someone who was being pushy.
Then, once you’ve got that good experience going, really enjoy it: taking 5, 10, or more seconds to protect and stay with it, and open to it in your body.
https://www.rickhanson.net/mind-full-good/
I find that as I start to tune into this practice, I find it easier to cultivate these qualities.
Sometimes it can be fun to share the positive. Maybe post a comment to the blog!
With warm wishes,
Andrea
Andrea, thanks very much for all your research, care and hard work in creating this opportunity for all of us. Today’s post speaks to me through its potential simplicity. Looking for moments throughout the day to bring these qualities into my awareness is something I look forward to today and onward I hope! Thanks again!
Andrea,
I find the article by Rick Hanson quite fascinating. How interesting that we are wired to have a negativity bias, so that it’s become easier for us to learn from our negative experiences. As a result we don’t integrate and internalize most of our wholesome, beneficial experiences. I’m so glad to have this awareness. I’ll be more alert to each moment where I feel relaxed, capable, peaceful, glad, successful, contented, appreciated, loved. And once I capture the feeling, I’ll hold it as long as I can so that I can grow these inner strengths and hopefully they’ll become a greater part of my neural structure. Great beginnings! Thanks so much.
Geralyne