Jan 1st, 2023 Happy New year
It's inherent in being human to shrug changes, especially when we welcome a new year. The past year was just yesterday and within the blink of an eye here we are, arriving in the year of the rabbit.
For me personally, stepping into the new year I find myself a bit disoriented, and unready, filling in forms subconsciously to write the year which just disappeared.
However, around this time, on a peripheral plane, I am stuck with a certain propensity of the past year. Conversely, I tend to ponder and contemplate impermanence, shedding the past year and putting on the new year is a real change. Like a stream in upstate NYC, murmuring, Impermanence... change... or perhaps saying ...acceptance...
In 2022 I took a serious inclination to read only one meditation teacher, the late 11th reincarnation of the Trungpa Rinpoche (Ear-Whispered Lineage) who was born in Tibet, but due to Chinese revolution fled the country to India, eventually settling in the West in the 1970s. He introduced "meditation in action" and coined the term "spiritual materialism" in the Occident. The early 70s was the era when the West was mystified by the Eastern esoteric religion, and spirituality was traded for promises of happiness and satori.
I had already read a few books by Trungpa Rinpoche, but as he was such a prolific author there were still 20 books I wanted to explore. From sources like Strand, Barnes and Nobles and the thrift shop, I managed to get my hands on these books. Thus, 2022 began with reading his book, Journey With No Goal.
For me personally, I find writing and reading very meditative - or rather I would say Dharmic. Being a meditation practitioner, writing and reading are my “meditation in action” or post-meditation. I also find reading transcends any deep sufferings in my life, so when I read it opens my heart, opens me and I feel I am an ocean, a mountain, a cloud, an autumn leaf.. somewhere way beyond...a flowing river...
Understanding the mind is crucial, but then how do we learn our monkey mind? Perhaps that's when the Buddhist Abidharma explains human psychology.
Since Buddha, 2,500 years ago, meditation is, in practice, for understanding one's mental neurosis. Without the mind in union with the body we are not living in an aware now. Practicing yoga helps synchronize the mind and body, yoga in sanskrit yug, meaning union.
In my beloved December 2022, I ended the year reading Chogyam Trungpa's book "The Future is Open, Good Karma, Bad Karma & Beyond Karma", and "Karma" by Sadhguru.
Sometimes, the wildness of our mind needs a walk in the countryside. Or perhaps the wildness of our mind, needs a good book. Reading becomes a pilgrimage; a pilgrimage you can begin right here in your bedroom, in your PJs in Queens, NYC with your cat, Tipsu, purring by your side as you pay homage to the book you are about to venture into.
Happy Lunar year 2023, may the rabbit bestow us with compassion and intuition.
xx