Fragrant Heart Blog

When you experience inner peace through your meditation practice it will show in you as you move through your day.  You will not be so agitated or irritable by what others do, or don’t do.  You will smile and laugh quite spontaneously for no other reason that just the sheer joy of being alive.  When people around you are angry and disturbed you will have a soothing effect on them.  With inner peace comes an open and loving heart.  Others will be inspired by your presence.  You will pass strangers in the street and they too will receive the emanation of inner peace from you.  Inner peace gives you focus and concentration so that your mind is still and yet decisive.  You won’t feel pressured to multi-task, as you will be effective in each moment with what you are doing.  There will be a glow and radiance about you that makes you beautiful to behold.

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Last week I blogged about bringing more awareness into doing the “menial” tasks in daily living.  This week I want to discuss with you recycling your garbage, and how you can make that a moving meditation, and a loving kindness practice.

Not so long ago I saw a documentary about New Zealand’s recycled plastic and glass, and where goes.  I was naïve enough to believe it was all processed locally.  I find that it is shipped overseas to countries like China.  There, in huge compounds women sit all day sorting out different grades of plastic.  The stench from the unwashed containers is horrific.

I usually wash out plastic and glass containers before I put them in the recycled bin.  Perhaps you do too.  Now I’m putting greater focus and concentration into this task.  I realize it’s like the loving kindness meditation.  As I wash each container I send loving kindness to the people who will sort it, and by washing and cleaning the containers carefully I know it will reinforce the loving kindness I am sending.

It may take a little extra time to do this but why not give it a go and feel what that’s like for you.

How much thought do you give to what you consider to be the more unimportant things in life?  Or perhaps what is not so important to you?  For a lot of people it would be housework.  I know someone who describes getting it done as quickly as possible so as to get onto more interesting things. 

There’s an old saying, “before enlightenment chopping wood and carrying water, after enlightenment chopping wood and carrying water.”  In other words the so-called mundane things of life go on even if you get the wake up call.  It’s just how we experience them that makes all the difference.

If you have some resistance to housework you could consider turning it into a moving meditation practice.  I know it’s not so easy when you’re under pressure with other commitments like getting the children off to school, and getting to work yourself. 

Taking the opportunity to go on a silent meditation retreat as a support person helped me to understand that each activity I did whether it was cooking the food, or cleaning the bathrooms became an extension of my sitting practice.  The same focus and concentration were there in the menial tasks; the same metta (loving kindness) was there in the caring for the well being of other students.

What would it mean for you if you were to bring more awareness into the “menial” tasks in your life?  Why not experiment with just one task and bring as much awareness into that as you can?

Now and again you may consider walking as meditation and mindful practice.  Go to some place in nature if that is possible for you.  Find an area where you won’t be disturbed and can walk about twenty paces to and fro.  Begin by being very aware of how you place each foot on the ground, where you notice the weight of your body through your feet, step after step.  I find keeping my eyes lowered is less distracting. I also find that my hands and arms feel comfortable placed behind my back.  My gait is usually slow.  You can speed up a bit if you start to feel too lethargic, but just be aware of whatever feelings are arising in your body as you walk back and forth.  What may be lethargy could simply be resistance and mental thoughts arising like, “this is pointless,” or “I’ve got better things to do with my time,” or something else.  The mind will always have an endless number of reasons as to why a walking meditation is unnecessary.  Anyway, see how you go, and accept and allow resistance in your body when it arises as well as resistance in your mind.  Continue the walking meditation for about forty minutes. During this time be mindful of what is happening in your body, how your body is moving with each step, how each walking step creates a rhythmical flow in your body.  Remain mindful of how you place each foot down, and how your feet touch the ground.  As this unfolds you may notice the stillness that spontaneously arises in you, and the centering that happens in that stillness to bring you into here and now. 

If you are absolutely new to meditation I would encourage you to do some simple relaxation practice before embarking each day on your meditation technique. 

Relaxation methods help to still the physical body.  This often makes it easier to meditate.  Sometimes you may sit down to begin and find that you are quite restless.  In western culture we are so often caught in extreme busyness.  This is very stressful as there never seems to be any relief from what has to be done and deadlines to meet.  We forget how to smile and laugh.  Your body may be so over adrenalized that sitting still becomes just another thing to be stressed about. 

On Fragrant Heart there are a number of relaxation practices you can listen to and learn to do by yourself.  When you sit to meditate, spend some time just relaxing your body.  You will find that your mind will settle much better when you start your chosen meditation technique.