If we don't know how to love ourself,
how to take care of ourself, how to understand ourself deeply, it
will be difficult for us to love another person. Therefore it is very
important that we learn to come back to ourself. First of all we need
to truly be there for ourself. Often we are not there for ourself, we
work very hard, we don't have much time for ourself. We have to earn
money, raise our children, and there are many things that we worry
about. We even forget that we have a body. That's why we have to be
there for our body. We can use the first mantra from Plum Village: „I
am here for you.“ In many traditions, for example in the tibetan
buddhism, mantras are sacred words in a foreign language that we
don't understand. In Plum Village we continue the tradition of using
mantras, but we use our own language so we can understand the words.
So the first mantra is: „Darling, I am here for you.“ First of
all we are here for ourself. We need to learn how to relax our body.
When we have strong emotions, like anger or fear, our body can get
sick. That's why we need a technique that can help us calm our
emotions. When we are angry, we have the tendency of wanting to speak
immediately in order to express our anger. We want to react
immediately. In the past we have done that many times. Later we often
regret what we have said, and we wish that we wouldn't have said it.
But in that moment it is already too late. We vow that next time we
will not react again in the same way. But the energy of anger is so
strong that next time it makes us say something unkind again. We
suffer from that, and the people around us suffer as well.
But
we can learn how to practice walking meditation. We say to ourself:
„When I have a strong emotion, I will not say anything. I will not
do anything. I will speak only when I feel that I am calm again.“
But how can we calm ourself when our emotion is so strong? We can use
the technique of practicing walking meditation. With each step, we
feel the contact between our foot and the ground. We can silently say
to ourself: „Right, left, right, left...“ and we pay our
attention to the contact between our feet and the ground. When we go
too fast, it is difficult to keep our attention on our steps.
Therefore, in walking meditation we walk more slowly than normally.
When anger is arising in us, there is a lot of energy in our head,
but when we keep our attention on the contact between the feet and
the ground, the energy in our body can move down again.
In
the Plum Village tradition, we also have a Gatha for the practice of
walking meditation. A Gatha is a short poem that can support us in
our practice. It is also possible to coordinate the steps with the
breath. But according to my experience, I don't recommend this
practice for beginners. Some practitioners who are new in the
practice reported to me that they tried to coordinate their steps
with their breathing, and later they felt that they were suffocating.
It is often difficult for beginners to coordinate the steps with the
breathing, and then they start to force their breathing. That's why I
recommend to practice in a simple way: We just pay our attention on
the contact between the foot and the ground. While we are doing this,
we can observe what is going on in our body and in our mind. When we
notice that we got distracted, and we forgot to be aware of the
contact to the ground, we just come back to our steps. Walking
meditation is a very peaceful practice.
No comments:
Post a Comment