Monday 1 March 2010

MINDFULNESS 6: BELIEFS & VALUES


At ChristChurch, Clarendon Park, for the sixth  session in the course, "Mindfulness". This eight-week course is an interfaith opportunity presented by Christians Aware (as part of its Faith Awareness programme) in association with Leicester Serene Reflection Meditation Group.

Our topic this evening is "Beliefs and Values", facilitated by Ian Grayling and Kevin Commons, from the Serene Reflection Group.

We consider how our beliefs and values can form goggles that stop us from seeing things as they really are - which could be good or bad, all things considered. After all, as T.S. Eliot famously said, "Human kind cannot bear very much reality." Our beliefs and values can, of course, prevent us from seeing, acknowledging or appreciating other beliefs and values as well as (arguably) other people who hold them.

Having listened to Alexei Sayle speaking earlier today (as part of De Montfort University's Cultural eXchanges programme) about his childhood being raised in a strictly Communist household, I find this a "join-the-dots" moment here.

If one is hostage to one's beliefs and values, then one is powerless before - or under - them. I'd link that back into a point made at last week's session: Once we become aware of how we think, we become more aware that we can be the author of what we think. This reminds me of a phrase summarising an important aspect of Buddhist belief and practice that Dharmavidya David Brazier gave me when I was writing the Council of Faith's Buddhist leaflet: "that mind can be cultivated". But what if one's beliefs and values are of the sort that don't permit change ... well, let's leave that sort of double-bind for the moment, shall we?

To start with, we were each given a page with reflective and inspirational short passages, some no more than a sentence long, some overtly religious, others spiritual, some others more of a humanist nature. All of them are shown below:

"There will never be any more perfection than there is now. Nor any more heaven or hell than there is now. ... Why should I wish to see God better than this day?" (Walt Whitman)
"Paradise is still upon earth, and only because of our self-thinking and self-willing we do not see and hear God." (Jacob Boehme)
"It is eternity now. I am in the midst of it. It is about me in the sunshine; I am in it, as the butterfly floats in the light-laded air. Nothing has to come; it is now. Now is eternity; now is the immortal life." (Richard Jeffries)
"Better keep yourself clean and bright: you are the window through which you must see the world." (George Bernard Shaw)
"Truly my soul is silently waiting for God." (Eckhart)
"In the true silence of the flesh, and in the pure Stillness of Spirit. ... Tasting the hidden life, the hidden manna in the heart." (Isaac Pennington)
"Speech is of Time, Silence is of Eternity." (Thomas Carlyle)
"Go, sweep out the chamber of your heart.
Make it ready to be the dwelling-place of the Beloved.
When you depart out, He will enter in.
In you, void of yourself, will He display His beauty."
(Marmud Shabistara)
"God be in my head
And in my understanding
God be in my eyes
And in my looking
God be in my mouth
And in my speaking
God be in my heart
And in my thinking
God be at my end
And at my departing.
(Walford Davies)
"When you do something, you should burn yourself completely, like a good bonfire, leaving no trace of yourself." (Shunryu Suzuki)
Consideration of these gave rise to interesting reflections. Some describe the passages as being richer in feeling than they are in logical thought; some say the passages were struggling to say something rational, but still something worth trying to say; others speak about the extracts conveying something of acceptance and appreciation of the moment; but then there's something more, something of awe, of wonder - something of which we've all surely had some experience.

We undertake an exercise to help each of us identify our core values and get the chance to talk about these. We also discuss the difference between mindfulness and other terms that are bandied about in these contexts (e.g. concentration, contemplation, meditation). We're going to pick this up again next week.

Ian Grayling, who's been leading these sessions, isn't entirely happy at how it's gone this evening. He wonders aloud if he's not been as good as he could have been at communicating what he's wanted us to do. I don't think he should be so hard on himself, and tell him so in front of the group. Each week we've gone deeper into this topic and have dealt with increasingly subtle areas. Digging into our core values and central beliefs is a bit more demanding than closing our eyes, sitting quietly and thinking about what me might be hearing.

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