Contemplative Listening by Reverend Tom Capo preached on 10/18/2020

Meditation #1

            The following meditation for grounding was created for the practice of Generative Somatics (https://generativesomatics.org/).  The words were written by Susan Raffo who works with the Peoples Movement Center.

            First, come into standing position as you are able. If not sit up in your chair.  Notice where you are in a room and feel how your weight and stance are naturally on the ground.

            Now, notice your vertical. Feel the space between your feet and your knees and invite it to lengthen both towards the sky and towards the ground. Feel the space between your knees and your pelvis, invite it to lengthen, for there to be more space that comes here, both up and down. Do the same with the space between your pelvis and your diaphragm, invite it to length. Between your diaphragm and shoulders, along your neck, between your chin and the top of your head, down the length of your arms. Invite a lengthening in both directions. And then feel the entirety of your body and invite a lengthening between your feet and your head, towards the earth and towards the sky.

            This is your dignity, the place where you say “I am.” This is your vertical.

            Now, bring in your width. Start at your feet and feel each foot widening in [all] directions. Move into your leg and feel each leg widening, the inner leg moving further in, the outer leg moving out. Invite it to widen further. Come to your pelvis and feel the space between the two sides of your pelvis. Invite that space to expand, to widen out, left and right. Come into your belly, the sides of your torso, your ribcage, feel your sides and invite them to widen, the space inside to expand. Come to your shoulder blades and invite each shoulder to expand left to right. Continue up your body not forgetting your neck or your head, your arms and your hands. Now feel the entirety of your body and invite a widening between your left and right, an expansion from the center line that runs through your body out to the sides. A widening.

            This is your horizontal, the place of connection, where the “I” connects to other people, plants, all of our relatives. This is the “we”. This is your horizontal.

            Now bring in your depth. Feel your back, pay attention to your clothes against your skin, the feeling of space against your back, remember the back of your head, the back of your neck, the back of your legs your feet your arms, this whole back space and feel the space behind you. Now feel the front of your body and remember your face and forehead, the front of your shins, your feet, you belly and hands and feel the space in front of you. Feel yourself in the middle of this back and this front and connect the two and now expand, letting your front body expand forward and your back body expand back while you feel yourself in the middle. A widening.

            This is your depth, the place where you live in relationship to what has already happened and what is yet to emerge. This is where I and we live within space and time. This is your depth.

            Now bring all of these planes together, feeling them one after the other, vertical, horizontal, depth, feel yourself as 3D.

            Bring your gaze to an object in the room that is attractive or interesting to you. If not an object, an idea, a person, a dream, a thought, something you can sense as separate and outside of yourself. Feel your 3D self and then feel inside for your desire to move towards that item or thought or dream. Sense in for your connection to that thing and then, when you feel the connect of yourself to that idea or thing, let the desire move you towards it. Move until you feel you have arrived and then notice you have arrived. Practice this a few more times with different objects or dreams or other elements of desire. Wait until you feel the want or the longing or the connection to them and then move and then reach them.

            After you have practiced this for a few times and if you haven’t done this already, ground yourself again into the planes but connect them to your purpose. Why are you here? What is it that moves you? Feel your sense of purpose and connect it to those planes and then, when you are ready, let the purpose take your body and move you towards it. 

 

Meditation #2

Written by Martha K. Capo

            For a moment, see yourself at the foaming edge of land and liquid, watching the rhythms of the waves, watching the water transmit the energy of the winds traveling over it, watching that energy crest across the barrier of the sand and pebbles. Some pebbles, larger than others, only shift gently in place as the water sluices around them. Others, smaller, more agile, seem to chase the backwash as the water ebbs away, only to be returned--more or less--to where they began.

            Sometimes, we are boulders at the water's edge, absorbing the water's energy in stoic strength, standing solid and unmovable, defiant and unyielding as the water churns around us. (PAUSE) Sometimes, we are rocks: stubborn, slow to be moved, sluggish in our response to the tides pushing and pulling us. (PAUSE) Sometimes, we are pebbles tumbling helter-skelter, higglety-pigglety-pop, overwhelmed and unable to resist the breaking waves and sucking backwashes that we just can't seem to get away from. (PAUSE) And sometimes, we are sand, with an infinite capacity to accept and absorb and transmit the energies breaking against us, able to allow those energies to pass through us, through the pockets of silence, of space, of peace within us.

            Marine Biologist Rachel Carson wrote "[i]n every outthrust headland, in every curving beach, in every grain of sand there is a story of the earth." In every breath, in every curving muscle and ligament, in every pulse and rhythm you experience, there is a story of you. Of who you were, of who you are now, of who you will choose to be. Of how you choose to be connected to All That Is. A story that is still being written--by you.

            What are you today? The boulder? The rock? The pebble? The sand? All of these? What is the energy that is swirling around you? How is that changing you? How is that energy changed by your interaction with it? How will you choose to write your own story?

 

Sermon

            One of my favorite Buddhist authors is Brad Warner.  I have a couple of his books:  Sit Down and Shut Up: Punk Rock Commentaries on Buddha, God, Truth, Sex, Death, and Dogen's Treasury of the Right Dharma Eye and Hardcore Zen : Punk Rock, Monster Movies, and the Truth about Reality.  I plan to get some of his more recent books, I have my eye on Don't Be a Jerk: And Other Practical Advice from Dogen, Japan's Greatest Zen Master.  Just a little background on Brad, he started out life as a Punk Rock bass guitarist, then decided to go to Japan and needed work.  He was hired to get dressed up in those monster get-ups for Ultraman shows and movies.  While in Japan he studied Zen Buddhism and became an ordained Zen priest.  I actually met him in Cedar Rapids when he was there promoting Sit Down and Shut Up.  His philosophy is that we can all make time in our lives to sit down for a few minutes and be quiet, breathing and allowing our thoughts and feelings to flow through us in Zazen meditation and being open for emotional and spiritual grounding, insight, purpose, direction, and/or connection in the here and now.  The foundation of Buddhism according to Brad is: “Do as well as you possibly can. That's Buddhist morality.”  He does affirm the four Noble Truths of Buddhism, but has sort of a different way, perhaps a more modern way of presenting them: “The first noble truth, suffering, represents idealism. When you look at things from an idealistic viewpoint everything sucks, as the Descendents said in the song called “Everything Sucks” (from the album Everything Sucks). Nothing can possibly live up to the ideals and fantasies you’ve created. So we suffer because things are not the way we think they ought to be. Rather than face what really is, we prefer to retreat and compare what we’re living through with the way we think it oughta be. Suffering comes from the comparison between the two.” And he describes Zen monks as having achieved " a rare state of inner with-it-ness.”

            Now when it comes to meditation, prayer, ritual and all those kinds of things, he believes everyone is capable of getting some benefit from them, but “The very idea of higher states of consciousness is absurd. Comparing one state of consciousness to another and saying one is "higher" and the other is "mundane" is like eating a banana and complaining it's not a very good apple.” He goes on to say that “Practicing zazen [or really any form or meditation] is like gradually (or maybe not so gradually) getting your sight back.”  I hope that helps you with some of your expectations about meditation and prayer; we are not seeking an altered state of consciousness when we meditate or prayer.  We are opening ourselves to the contemplative practice of deep listening.

            To contemplate is to think about an action before doing it.  A contemplative practice is opening oneself to an inner vision or seeing transcendent of the intellect, facilitated by practices such as prayer or meditation.  There are so many contemplative practices and such disparate experiences from those practices, describing it can be like blind men trying to describe an elephant—one who feels the leg says the elephant is like a pillar; one who feels the tail says the elephant is like a rope; one who feels the trunk says the elephant is like a tree branch; one who feels the ear says the elephant is like a hand fan.  With contemplative practices you might here one person describing the effects as relaxation; another might say a contemplative practice resulted in their transformation; one might say a contemplative practice helped them learn more about themself; and another might say a contemplative practice connects them with their Goddess.

            When someone ask me what a contemplative practice can offer, I often tell the story of the martial arts student who approached his teacher with a question. "I'd like to improve my knowledge of the martial arts. In addition to learning from you, I'd like to study with another teacher in order to learn another style. What

do you think of this idea?" "The hunter who chases two rabbits," answered the master, "catches neither one.”  When we are focused on the goal or the benefits of meditation or prayer, we stop looking as deeply or clearly within ourselves.  Part of our conscious attention is devoted to the moment where it will all come together for us. Our desire and attachment to a particular outcome clouds the way, and keeps us from actually receiving the gifts, blessings, grace that we might receive from our contemplative practice.  

            I both pray and meditate.  I pray because I believe there is something out there beyond just the physical things around me.  Not that I pray with the intent to connect with whatever is out there, but just because I believe there is something out there.  And I pray because I believe that prayer helps me to affirm within me the values that I try to live by in this life.  And I don't prayer to make me live my values, I just feel that giving voice to those values makes it more likely that I will remember them as I live my life.

            I use a formulaic prayer that I developed—first I call out to that Infinite Power, whom people call by varying names, but whose grandeur and whose love no name expresses and no words can tell.  I don’t have a name for it; so I use many different names, depending on how I am feeling at the time—mystery, God, Goddess, father, mother, that which is beyond understanding, love, that which causes the flowers to shine and the stars to blossom, the list goes on. 

            Then I voice what I am grateful for in my life.  I list such things as the cool breeze on my face, the warmth of the sun, the ability to exercise to be healthy, my family and friends…sometimes something like—“I am grateful for being able to write this sermon." I give voice to these.  And I have noticed that voicing my thanks has resulted in an increased awareness of the many blessings, gifts, and grace that I experience in my life. 

            The next section of my prayer is for understanding of all that I am experiencing in my life.  I do not believe that things are put in my life by some greater power to help me learn or grow or be humble or whatever.  I do believe that I am called by my very existence to make meaning in life’s experiences.  Like what meaning or learning or wisdom will I gain as I move through this Covid 19 time.  This section of the prayer is to remind me to open my heart, mind, and soul to life. 

              Finally, I send out my hope and blessings for others.  Sometimes it sounds like this: “May the winds, the oceans, the herbs, and night and days, the mother earth, the father heaven, all vegetation, the sun, be all sweet to humankind.” And sometimes I send blessings and grace to healing for those who are ill or in pain.  I do believe that intentionally sending out my blessings out to others makes a difference.  I have read about studies showing that sending out positive regard positively affects people around you, but even without those studies I believe I would still send out blessings and hope because our world is so much in need of them.

            I also meditate.  When I meditate, I find my mind becomes clear and sometimes I experience insight or a different perspective on what is going on around me.   Not because I am looking for either of these things, but because I am open.

            I use Zazen meditation.  Basically what this is focusing on one's breathing.  I sit up straight, let me eyes rest, put my feet on the ground, and attend to all the sensations of my breathing.  Often, my breathing is from my abdomen, slow and steady.  That is it.  I sit there and breath mindfully.  I don’t expect anything, but I am grateful for what I receive.  My meditation helps me be mindful and live in the moment, and not just while I am meditating.  Through regular meditation, I have come to learn what many teachers of meditation have always said—that meditation needs to be looked upon “as a teacher rather than a servant,” “a process rather than a goal.” So I just breathe without expectations, without goals; I just practice bringing my focus to my breathing.  

            There are some elements that are consistent from one technique to another in meditation:  be relaxed, be comfortable, have a passive attitude, and focus on a “concentration point.”  A focus point or concentration point might be a candle, a picture, music, a mandala, drumming, chanting, sitting or walking.  Like we did in the last part of the first scripted meditation today, bringing your attention to an object across the room.  Or "if not an object, an idea, a person, a dream, a thought, something you can sense as separate and outside of yourself."  Like the visualization in the meditation by Martha that you heard today.  During this focus you might ask contemplate questions:  "What are you today? The boulder? The rock? The pebble? The sand? All of these? What is the energy that is swirling around you? How is that changing you? How is that energy changed by your interaction with it? How will you choose to write your own story?"  

            I haven’t talked a lot about passive attitude, other than to say don’t have expectations or goals.  Jack Kornfield, teacher in the vipassana movement in American Theravada Buddhism, offers this bit of wisdom (1993, Tricyle) about having a passive attitude during a contemplative practice.  He says as we practice "we become our own monastery. We create the compassionate space that allows for the arising of all things: sorrows, loneliness, shame, desire, regret, frustration, happiness."  I would frame this as creating a space for that which is stirring within us, a space that might offer us an opportunity for relaxation, awareness, insight, and/or wisdom to arise and for us to become aware of it.  Or as Kornfield's teacher, Achaan Chah describes this you are "taking the one seat." Achaan said, "Just go into the room [within oneself] and put one chair in the center, [then] open the doors and the windows [of the room], [and] take [that] seat in the center of the room… see who comes to visit. You will witness all kinds of scenes and actors, all kinds of temptations and stories, everything imaginable. Your only job is to stay in your seat. You will see it all arise and pass, and out of this, wisdom and understanding will come.'”

            But here's the thing, taking that one seat and simply observing one time, doesn't usually result in much.  Perhaps you get some relaxation of your body or mind that first time, but maybe not.  Let's just say that you are more likely to experience something more if you practice, practice, practice one type of meditation without expectation of what you might receive.  Not a very Western way of doing things, is it?  As with any practice, this is a process, not seeking perfection or a result.  After picking one practice, be patient and open as you stick with it. 

             I hope you do make some time for prayer and or meditation in your life.  I believe that in one way or another we all have some sort of contemplative practice, but I believe be intentional, consistent, and open during your practice offers many benefits for the practitioner, especially during difficult times like we are experiencing in our lives and in the world right now.  Keep in mind what Tibetan yogi Milarepa writes: “The affairs of the world will go on forever.  Do not delay the practice of meditation [and, I would add, prayer].”  There are always distractions, many things going on in the world—prayer and meditation are practices that can help you discern your path as the world moves on around you. 

            This life we have each been given is a journey of the holy, if we just recognize the holy in our experiences.   This life offers experiences of transformation, experiences that no words can express, that are just as real as the ground beneath our feet.  At one time in our lives our spiritual path may be a journey of the heart, for what the heart expresses, we call prayer.  At another point in our lives our spiritual path may be a journey of being, for what our inner being knows, we call meditation. This is your journey, your life practice.  Own it, and know yourself to be fully alive.  Namaste, Shalom, Peace.

"Practicing Attention" with African Folktale, reading by Windell Berry, meditation and sermon by Reverend Tom Capo, preached on 11/3/2019

African Folk Tale
Once there was a blind man who lived with his sister in a hut near the forest. Well, the blind man’s sister fell in love with a hunter, and they were married. When the wedding feast was finished, the hunter came to live with her new wife. But the hunter had no time at all for here brother-in-law, the blind man. “What use,” she would say, “is a man with no eyes?”

Every day the hunter would go into the forest with her traps and spears. And every evening, when the hunter returned to the village, the blind man would say, “Please, tomorrow, let me come with you, hunting in the forest.”

But the hunter would shake her head: “What use is a man with no eyes?”

One evening, the hunter was in a good mood. She had returned home with a fat gazelle. Her wife had cooked the meat, and when they’d finished eating, the hunter turned to the blind man and said, “Very well, tomorrow you can come hunting with me.”

So the next morning they set off into the forest, the hunter with her traps and spears leading the blind man by the hand. Suddenly, the blind man stopped: “Shhhh, there is a lion!”

The hunter looked about; she could see nothing.

“There is a lion,” said the blind man, “but it’s all right; he’s fast asleep. He won’t hurt us.”

They went along the path and there, sure enough, was a great lion fast asleep under a tree. The hunter asked, “How did you know about the lion?”

“Because I see with my ears.”

They continued deep into the forest until they came to a clearing. The hunter set one of her traps and showed the blind man how to set another one. Then the hunter said, “We’ll come back tomorrow and see what we’ve caught.”

The next morning they walked into the forest to where the traps had been set. The hunter saw straight away that there was a bird caught in each trap. And she saw that the bird caught in her trap was a little gray one, and the bird in the blind’s man trap was a beauty, with feathers of green, crimson and gold.

 “We’ve each caught a bird,” she said. “I’ll fetch them out of the traps.”

And what did she do? She gave the blind man the little gray bird, and she kept the beautiful bird for herself. Then they set off for home.

As they walked, the hunter said, “If you’re so clever and see with your ears, then answer me this: Why is there so much anger and hatred in the world?”

And the blind man answered, “Because the world is full of so many people like you — who take what is not theirs.”

And the hunter was filled with shame. She took the little bird from the blind man’s hand and gave him the beautiful one instead. “I’m sorry,” she said.

As they walked, the hunter said, “If you’re so clever, then answer me this: Why is there so much love and kindness in the world?”

And the blind man answered, “Because the world is full of so many people like you — who learn by their mistakes.”

From that day on, if the hunter heard anyone ask, “Blind man, how is it that you are so wise?” she would put her arm around the blind man’s shoulders and say: “Because he sees with his ears … and hears with his heart.”

Reading 

The Vacation by Wendell Berry

Once there was a man who filmed his vacation.

He went flying down the river in his boat

with his video camera to his eye, making

a moving picture of the moving river

upon which his sleek boat moved swiftly

toward the end of his vacation. He showed

his vacation to his camera, which pictured it,

preserving it forever: the river, the trees,

the sky, the light, the bow of his rushing boat

behind which he stood with his camera

preserving his vacation even as he was having it

so that after he had had it he would still

have it. It would be there. With a flick

of a switch, there it would be. But he

would not be in it. He would never be in it.

Meditation

Letting go is perhaps an overused directive in meditation and mindfulness circles, but despite the overuse of the concept, letting go remains a very profound practice with many different levels.

Let us move into a time of meditation.  Sit comfortably, let your eyes rest, take a deep slow breath and bring your attention within yourself.

As you breathe in acknowledge a difficult feeling or experience, accept it, let it come into your body, heart, and mind. As you breathe out, let it go. Let the experience come, let it go, go with the flow of your breath.

As you breathe in acknowledge the good, the enjoyment and the richness of your life; let it come in. As you breathe out let yourself go into the flow of this richness and enjoyment; relax into this flow of appreciation. Let it come, let it go, go with the flow of your breath.

As you breathe out consciously let go of something or someone that you are ready to release and move on from in your life. As you breathe in be aware of the space that your letting go has created, open yourself to the new energy and possibilities that can come into your life as a result of letting go. Let things go, let things come, go with the flow of your breath.

Sermon

We are inundated with news, views, ads, and information.  We have immediate access to more knowledge than any humans have ever had.  We connect with hundreds or thousands, sometimes millions of people through Facebook, Instagram, Whats App, Twitter, and so many other social media platforms.  So much information, so easy to be overloaded.  Do you attend to every ad that comes across Facebook?  Do you pay attention to all the news scrolling beneath every cable news broadcast?  Do you watch every commercial that comes up before the YouTube video that you want to watch?  Our brain constantly blocks from our conscious awareness some of the overstimulating information that bombards us.  Do we realize what is being blocked?  Is our attention span getting shorter and shorter so that we can cope with the rapid flow of good, bad, and indifferent information that passes before our eyes and comes into our ears? The answer is yes!  According to research, our attention span has markedly decreased in just 15 years. In 2000, it was 12 seconds. 15 years later, it shrunk significantly, to 8.25 seconds.  As a point of reference, a goldfish’s attention span is 9 seconds. If it is getting harder and harder to sustain our attention, how do we hope to hold our attention onto the important or meaningful things in our lives?

            I want you to try an experiment today during the rest of the sermon.  I want you to do one of two things.  You can either take out a piece of paper—your order of service is okay--and a pen and write down one or two ideas that touch you during the rest of the sermon, could be something interesting, informative, useful, affirming, spiritually uplifting, whatever it might be.  Or you can take out your phone and go to the Twitter address ADDY @uumiami and tweet one or two ideas from the sermon that touch you—interesting, informative, etc.  We will reflect this later.

            I don’t know about you, but after the last Presidential election, I couldn’t watch the news for many weeks.  I was so full of grief and fear that watching the news pushed my emotions over the top, and I would feel miserable, sometimes even depressed.  It was as if each news story was more than I could handle.  After a few weeks, I eased back into watching a news story here or there, paying very close attention to my emotions and my inner critic, consciously categorizing theses stories in my brain, categories which I labeled acceptable and unacceptable.  I tried to ignore the unacceptable stories by minimizing them, criticizing them, denying them or making fun of them.  Over time, I realized this was not a good plan.  My emotional reservoir was filling with unwanted emotions and I had little capacity for positive emotions.  I was becoming more reactive, less kind, more judgy.  I had to choose a different path. 

            In Psychology Today, (July 2010), Allison Bonds Shapiro, MBA wrote: “We may think we understand the art of paying attention but many times, unfortunately, we mistake attention for judgment. We think about attention as a "critical" function. Attention is not critical. Judgment is. Attention is neutral. We begin to pay attention to something and then we start to judge it, evaluate it, categorize it and, yes, generally "criticize" it. But judging, while certainly useful, is not attention. Judging involves an underlying assumption that our purpose is ultimately to categorize and take action. We judge something to be done with it. The rush to being done with something does not increase our capacity to pay attention to it.”  Judging has to do with assessing whether or not we need to "fix" whatever it is, [or] reject it or enhance it, and move on.  Attention is noticing and being with something without trying to change it.  “Attention takes      the time to fully explore, to discover whatever there is to know about something, to watch as things change by themselves without our trying to “fix" [it]. Attention is patient and attention is kind. No rush. No burden. No criticism.”  “Paying attention is ultimately an act of loving kindness…the more we pay attention, the more we learn.”

            So, about three years ago, if I wanted to continue watch, read, or listen to the news, the first thing I had to do was to recognize that it was not useful to me to be so judgy.  I guess I should define judgy--to judge reactively, without reflection or consideration, so I can fix, reject, or move on from whatever it is I was exposed to.  I had to find a way to attend to the news without feeling that I had to fix everything, or feeling hopeless about everything that needed fixing.  I don’t know about you, but that was extremely challenging. 

As counterintuitive as it may sound, diving deep into the news stories helped me.  When a news headline prodded a nerve, provoked judginess, I stopped myself, took a deep breath, reflected on it, and then took a deep dive into the story without rushing, managing my desire to criticize it or categorize it.  I found this helped center me and I started to feel hope that I would no longer be controlled by what I saw and heard. I was able to remember, for apparently I had forgotten, that life is not simple or easily categorized, and that no headline lasts forever.  For instance, when I started reading headlines about the Dakota Access Pipeline, I dove in deep.  I learned about those protesting the pipeline, the Standing Rock Sioux.  I also read about the 50 Unitarian Universalist clergy who had joined the Sioux in their protest.  I couldn’t join the Sioux, but I was grateful that others did.  This helped me have some peace, so I could attend to this upsetting news without feeling as much fear or feeling as overwhelmed.   While the pipeline is now operational, there are still protests and court cases fighting against this pipeline and the harm it can do.  Today I am not so panicked or stressed about this, I know more about the pipeline and about the people who are continuing to try to shut it down.  And now I can decide from a place of peace, whether I am called, and if I am, how I am called, to be of help to this or other causes.
  It is easy to be judgy.  It’s a tricky and complicated thing to separate paying attention and judging.  Remember “judging involves an underlying assumption that our purpose is ultimately to categorize and take action.  We judge something to be done with it.”  Is that really the Unitarian Universalist way?  To judge something so that we can be done with it?  No it is not.  I believe the Unitarian Universalist way is, when exposed to the news of the world, to stop, reflect, learn about, and then judge the situation so we can choose whether to put our collective energies into action to fight injustice and inequity.  It is not our way to act from fear or panic or categorization.  But many times we need spiritual practices to help us and ground us in our attention, before reflecting, learning or judging.

            See with your ears and hear with your heart.  Be present in your life.  And go with the flow.  These headline like, catch phrases can be mantras to increase your attention.  In the readings and the meditation today, I hope you wondered how these concepts might impact your attention.

            See with your ears and hear with your heart.  When you focus on the world with one predominant sense, rather than all your senses, you are more likely to attend to something different, something unexpected, something outside of your conscious awareness. Let’s try it for a moment.  If you wish to try this, close your eyes and bring all your attention to your hearing.  Keep bringing your attention back to your hearing, over and over.  What do you notice?  Anything you were not attending to with your eyes open?  Open your eyes.  This is one practice to increase your attending to life, focusing on one sense at a time.  So often we assume that we are attending to life when using all our senses, when in fact we are actually missing many things around us and within us, as we inattentively walk through life. 

And hearing with your heart.  Let’s try that.  If you wish to try this, close your eyes and bring your attention inside yourself; bring your focus to your body. When we feel our emotions, we tend to feel them in certain places within us.  When you feel anger, is it in your belly or your heart, or does your mind race?  Where do you feel fear?  Joy? Sadness?  Attend to where you feel your emotions as best you know and let your thoughts flow freely through you.  As you do this, notice if you have even the smallest change in your emotions.  Did you notice anything that you weren’t aware of before?  Okay, open your eyes.  This is another practice, attending to your emotional reactions to life experiences, even small ones, can help you be more aware of negative emotions growing within you, emotions that can result in more reactions, judginess, and categorization. 

Another practice is being present or being mindful.  We have talked about mindfulness, but to review it is peacefully observing, without reacting to what is going on around and within you as you experience it.  The practice requires you to bring your attention to the present again and again and again, grounding yourself in the present, without judging what you see, feel, or experience.  Embracing the experience fully, recognizing that this is your experience, it is unique and special as you experience it.  Being mindful can also help you assess how much emotional and spiritual space you have within you right now.  The more space you have within, the more space you have to mindfully experience the enjoyment and the richness of your life in the present.

And going with the flow.  What did you notice when you experienced the meditation?  Remember you acknowledged a difficult feeling or experience, accepted it, let it come in and let it go; and you acknowledged the good, the enjoyment and the richness of your life; let it come in and relax you, and let yourself appreciate the joy and richness of life.  And then finally you consciously let go of something or someone that you were ready to release, were aware of the space that your letting go created, opened yourself to the new energy and possibilities that can came into your life as a result of letting go. 

Can you hear in this meditative strategy of letting go a new way that you might let the noise of the world come in and go out, with intention, with breath, with mindfulness?  Can you embrace those aspects of life that bring joy, appreciation, richness, and let them flow around and in you, before letting them flow out?  Can you let go of some of the accumulated junk that fills your soul, creating more emotional and spiritual space?

The image I use to help me with this process of letting go is cafeteria plates.  You know when you go into a cafeteria, the plates or trays are there stacked and ready for you.  When you take the top one off, the next one pops up.  As you let go of one thing or person you are ready to let go of, another thing or person pops up.  This does not mean that you will always have something to fret over, but that with each issue you deal with, more space is created within you.  I tell you this because it is easy to get frustrated with getting rid of one negative thing to only have another negative thing right there in your face.  That is the way of life. You work your way down the plates, each thing you deal with is usually less difficult and less painful, but there will always be something that pops up and there will always be a need for us to let go of something to keep peaceful space within us.  Space where we can attend to life with fewer distractions and less negativity. 

Let’s check on your attention.  What was it like to focus your attention on noticing something in the sermon that impacted you and write it down or tweet it while still trying to fully experience the sermon?  Did noticing and writing/tweeting split your attention or impact your experience of the sermon? Did this process of noticing and writing/tweeting seem like a natural helpful process; did you attend to the sermon by hearing with your heart or hearing with your mind?  Were you distracted by tweeting or writing?  Were able to do both things at once without it having any impact on your experience of the sermon?  Now notice what you wrote down or tweeted.  How did you choose what to write or tweet?  What feelings or thoughts are going on within you now about what you wrote or tweeted?  What will you do with what you wrote or tweeted?  Will you think more about, talk it over with a friend or family member, write more about it, meditate on it?  Or will you let it flow through you and out of you?  All of these are options, choices are available to you now. 

I can tell you that I am now more patient, kind, less rushed and more attentive to life since I have added these practices to my routine.  I am also less overwhelmed by the media frenzy I am inundated with.  Perhaps some of the practices you heard today could be helpful to you to increase your attentiveness.  The invitation I offer is this: choose a way to practice attention, over time notice what changes within you without any expectation of what might change.  When you are exposed to news that pushes your buttons, be aware of any judginess or desire to put experiences into boxes that can be easily understood and dismissed.  Stop, reflect on, learn about things in the world that you want to fix, so you can judge how you will respond to them.  Perhaps, over time, with these new practices of attentiveness and reflective judgement you will feel increased space within you to experience the wonder and awe that life provides.  My friends, “Paying attention is ultimately an act of loving kindness…the more we pay attention, the more we learn.”