If you’re looking for something new to help you focus and feel more peaceful this year, then consider mindfulness meditation. You don’t have to adopt a new religion to do this. Contemplation is something found across religions and secular psychological traditions and there are many simple ways to learn about this calming practice.
For example, check out the free daily teaching from Tricycle Magazine this month; find more information below.
“Famed for his rapier wit as much as his ill-temperament, Henry Louis (H.L.) Mencken rose to national prominence as a journalist and correspondent for the Baltimore Sun.” See https://allthatsinteresting.com/hl-mencken-quotes
Two of my favorite Mencken quotes are: “After all is said and done … a lot more is said than done.” and “When somebody says it’s not about the money, it’s about the money.”
I will be celebrating this new moon at a meditation retreat center that includes monastic and lay people sharing observations on the state of our four-fold sangha practice. Previous retreats with this group have generated surprises and new insights. We shall see what this day brings.
First, the Tricycle article, Where to Find Joy and How to Cultivate It, (August 27, 2021) is co-authored by Christina Feldman and Jaya Rudgard, both mindfulness teachers in the Insight Meditation community. One of their main points is: the best way to find joy is to create it. Their 1,500 wordcount article can be found in its entirety here: https://tricycle.org/article/cultivating-joyfulness/
Second, the authors make a reference to The Dhammapada; specifically, verses 197 – 198 on Happiness. My copy of this book, see translation mentioned above, says:
“Ah, so happily we live, without hate among those with hate. Among people who hate we live without hate.
Ah, so happily we live, without misery among those in misery. Among people in misery we live without misery.” p.53
The point of the article, the quote and this post is that we are very unlikely to find ourselves in a perfect place, with perfect people all enjoying perfect joy. More likely we will need to work with ourselves and with a small group of kindred spirits to cultivate joy for one another.
I welcome your thoughts and your translations on how you find joy …. individually and together with others.
With three brothers and three brothers-in-law, I am fortunate to have both allies and smart alecks close at hand. Here’s to men who remind us who we are, keep us grounded when we need it and kick us in the ass when we need that too.
National Brother’s Day
Nemesis and friend
reliable and honest
brothers have our back
Below is a picture, taken many years ago, of my brother Mike (on the right) and me. Mike passed (aka continued) nearly thirteen years ago. I think of him often and especially today.
Life Matters 