the globe rover

Denver, CO (not Costa Rica as it should be)

Recently a lot of what I have been reading and listening to has emphasized the lack of importance of stuff and material things. I am not a materialistic person but do find sentimental value in certain “things” that I own. But due to this recent enlightenment I have been trying to detach myself from these things as they do not make nor break the person that I am.

And ironically, I had a cold harsh lesson in this detachment this week. A friend and I were traveling to Costa Rica on Thursday night. We both have nice digital SLR cameras and debated for weeks on whether to take them given the high petty crime rate in certain parts of Costa Rica. But given that we both love photography and knew there would be great photo ops in CR, we decided to take them.

Leaving my house, I was contemplating how heavy my backpack was given all the equipment and personal items I had in it (two cameras, lenses, accessories, iPod, jewelry, etc. etc.). But I consider myself a keen traveler and know how to protect what I take. Except of course, in the “safety” of my own city.

Before heading to the airport, we had offered to take the friends to dinner that were driving us. So we stopped at a local in-town neighborhood for a quick dinner. After our meal, we went back to the car that was parked on the street just outside the restaurant to find the car window busted out and our backpacks gone. Immediately, the trip got delayed as my friend’s passport was in her backpack (thankfully, mine was with me). Her backpack didn’t have a lot in it and the thieves missed her camera in a separate bag sitting on the floorboard. But they got away with a jackpot in my backpack.

So started my lesson in irony and practical application of detachment from things. The cameras and equipment can all be replaced. The only things in there that bothered me were my journal (I didn’t have a blank one so I took the end of my NZ journal which documented the last and probably best week of the trip), my scuba logbook, and a ring my grandfather gave me when I was born. Needless to say, there were so many lessons in this one incident but I have managed to stay away from anger and apply the truth that it is just stuff and does not change me whether I have the stuff or not.

As I look around, I am thankful for the nice things that I have. But I also now realize more than ever that they are just things and they won’t come with us when we die. So I’ll appreciate them while I have them but when I don’t I won’t look back.

A man is a slave to anything he cannot part with that is less than himself.— George MacDonald

The fear of loss is a path to the dark side. … Attachment leads to jealousy. The shadow of greed, that is. Train yourself to let go of everything you fear to lose.— Yoda, Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith

If you look carefully you will see that there is one thing and only one thing that causes unhappiness. The name of that thing is attachment. What is an attachment? An emotional state of clinging caused by the belief that without some particular thing or some person you cannot be happy.— Anthony de Mello

 

 

Red Feather Lakes, CO

This weekend led me on a journey with three friends to embark on meditation and learn the basics of a practice that I have been curious about for a while. My curiosity was peaked last year when I spent five weeks in Southeast Asia through learning about meditation retreats and seeing monks and monasteries around the countries (Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia). Thus, when a couple of friends started talking about trying to find a retreat as they were interested in learning meditation as well, I was very anxious and excited.

Our search for retreats led us all around Colorado and through places that focus on Buddhism, Yoga, and pure meditation. Timing was perfect when I was reading my National Geographic Traveler magazine and came across an article about “Wellness Destinations” and one of the four that was highlighted was the Shambhala Mountain Center in Red Feather Lakes, Colorado. Their intro program to meditation is called “Shambhala Training Level I: The Art of Being Human” and was exactly what we were looking for.

Not knowing what to expect, we set out with a combination of excitement and apprehension as all four of us (Meg, Lysa, Kathleen and I) were new to meditation and had never gotten closer than yoga. Needless to say, the weekend was not at all what we expected but was filled with discovery, pain, enlightenment, and joy.

The discomfort comes from “sitting on the cushion” (a meditation cushion set on a thin mat on a floor) in a position/posture that is unusual for most Americans (cross-legged with a straight back) for hours at a time. We were a bit surprised at the level of discomfort at times but realized it was mostly because we are used to sitting in chairs and slouching quite often. But the discomfort is also a part of the path to discovery and part of the path of meditation (there are reasons behind the posture which I won’t go into here for sake of brevity).

The second challenging aspect was the actual meditation. If you have never tried to sit quiet and clear your mind of all thoughts - I recommend you attempt it. And my guess is that it will serve to be challenging. We were fortunate to get ample explanation about techniques and methods for this type of meditation but actually putting it into practice is difficult. And after spending 3 1/2 hours Saturday morning and 2 1/2 more on Saturday afternoon alternating between sitting meditation and walking meditation (in a small circle inside our room with a meditation position for the hands and a slight gaze downward), we were exhausted and challenged. And it seems that most of the class was on the same page. However, our Saturday evening talk after dinner provided insight into the purpose of challenging us to “stay with it” and practice the meditation. As with most things, meditation comes with practice.

So clearly there were some discomforts and challenges through the weekend. But the best part was the enlightenment and discovery of a new path. Meditation provides many amazing things, the most important of which to me is presence. Through mindfulness, we are able to be present in whatever we are doing and still our thoughts to focus on where we are. This ability allows us to be gentle and fearless at the same time and through intelligence allows us to hear and see the world. One of the principles of Shambhala Training is that every person has basic goodness in us and it is only through our not being mindful of that and ignoring it that we find pain and suffering in our world. Meditation is a tool that allows us to find our basic goodness and return to living there. Thus, the practice of meditation allows us to be present and to hear and feel our world.

The weekend was filled with so many lessons that are so practical yet so challenging to practice in every day life. From learning to not judge others, to not reacting to other’s pain and anger, to learning how to listen to your own mind, to kindness, to openness, to listening and being present, and to basic goodness. We were fortunate to have both a great staff and great group in the class and only wish there would have been more time to get to know everyone.

As I have been learning lately through different tools, being present allows us to be more appreciative and feel the joy in our lives through everything that happens. This retreat was a great tool to help enforce the lesson of presence and is something that I hope to continue. As we discussed on the way home, it is much like eating healthy - it is something that isn’t always fun to do but the results and outcome are so worth the effort. Practicing meditation on a regular basis will be a challenge but it is something that I hope to add to my daily life in order to continue on this path of development and (hopefully) enlightenment.

I’ll finish with a great Zen quote that will serve as my reminder to focus on presence:

“Remain in the nowhere else. Be here.”