Thermals are columns of rising air caused by the sun heating the earth unevenly. They are one important way a glider stays aloft. Near our gliderport, there’s a little brick country church with its attendant cemetery. One time, I was flying with a student when we found some lift over the church. As we circled in the thermal, I looked down the wing at the peaceful church grounds and wondered if that’s not where all our thermals end anyway – in a cemetery. I remembered watching the news and hearing scientists say that in seventy million (or so) years, our sun will implode on itself. There won’t be any more thermals after that inevitable event.
Posted by: John | June 27, 2011
Thermals
Posted by: Jivani Lisa | June 24, 2011
Let’s Be Silly!
Toward the end of my yoga classes, while the students are relaxing in Corpse Pose (Savasana), I like to say, “Whenever your mind wanders away, gently draw it back to the breath.” John enjoys when I say such things in class. He emailed me his own version:
“Whenever your mind starts to wander, bring it back to that loose booger in your left nostril. Why didn’t you blow your nose before class? Why did you clip your finger nails so short? Maybe it’ll blow out on your mat during Down Dog. Just hope your nose isn’t whistling during Savasana.”
Oh, how he cracks me up! He’s good for me because he helps me lighten-up and have fun. Otherwise, I tend to suffocate myself in seriousness.
May we all attend to our various responsibilities – and yet never forget to make room for silliness! The silliness contains its own wisdom.
Posted in Spiritual Life | Tags: breath awareness, corpse pose, savasana, yoga humor
Posted by: John | June 20, 2011
Jesus: A Pilot?
Leonard Cohen said, “Jesus was a sailor when he walked upon the water.” Was he then a pilot when he ascended into heaven? Did the FAA give him a clearance? Did he go to any ground school?
Will he land again among us soon? Who will clear him to descend? Will he see the same old crap? Maybe he’ll just find another cross. Would we understand his flight or would Christianity just be another loss?
Posted in Religion
Posted by: John | June 18, 2011
Logic AND Intuition
Where are the heroes, if there are only one’s and zeroes?
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A moment is right brain, a minute is left. Why should we care if it’s the truth we can share?
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What if there’s no burning bush, no writing on the wall? Where do you go to avoid a fall?
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I look thru the pages
at the wisdom of the ages –
hoping that the sages
can quell my rages.
Posted in Poetry
Posted by: Jivani Lisa | June 10, 2011
Buddhist Wisdom
Posted by: Jivani Lisa | June 8, 2011
Killing Our Ego?
John and I often have discussions about ego. In the spiritual life, ego seems like such a “bad” thing. It’s tempting to think we have to somehow kill it completely. Is that possible?
Not entirely. We couldn’t exist or function in our day-to-day lives without an ego. The ego is what makes us who we are. However, the problems come from allowing our ego to become overbearing, arrogant and/or fearful. Then, we find ourselves doing everything we can to protect and promote ourselves at the expense of other people.
The solution is to think of others first, to ask ourselves what is in the best interest of other people. Whenever we begin to feel overpowered by feelings of “me and mine,” we should shift the focus to other people. This doesn’t mean we stop taking care of our own body, mind, spirit – but we open our hearts to the world around us.
Here’s a simple exercise: The next time you’re in a social situation and find yourself tempted to talk about yourself and your accomplishments, deliberately put the focus of conversation on the people around you. Take an interest in people in the group; ask them questions about their lives, work, etc. However, beware of phoniness in this. Be genuinely interested!
Also: meditate on the interconnection of all people, all beings, all of creation. This reminds us that we are not the center of the universe. Offer a prayer: May all beings know peace, love and joy!
Posted in Spiritual Life | Tags: being egotistical, interconnection, putting others first
Posted by: John | June 1, 2011
Images of Life
Life is a series of still shots.
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It seems sometimes as if there’s nothing but the night to separate one day from another.
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For some, childhood is only a blank space filling up the years.
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I had insufficient flamboyancy to prevent my sinking in a sea of mediocrity.
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I stumbled through a lifetime of afterthoughts searching for a memory to cement a certain resolution.
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Don’t try to walk on water if you don’t know how to swim.
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It’s possible to become so serious, nothing appears serious.
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Twists of fate, like twists of lime, add zest to the drinks of life.
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I’m lying in wait, trying to ambush an idea.
Posted in Poetry
Posted by: Jivani Lisa | May 29, 2011
Impermanence
“To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.” (Ecclesiastes 3:1)
I was married to a sailor for thirteen years. We weren’t wealthy, of course, but we managed to save money for little vacations or dinners at fancy restaurants now and then.
One year, after he returned from a six-month deployment, we went out to eat at a nice restaurant to celebrate our reunion. We dressed in our Aloha wear (yes, we were in Hawaii!) and arrived in time for our 5:00pm reservation.
It was the most incredible meal of my life! Not the food – rather, the company, the atmosphere. The food was delicious, too, but I don’t remember what we ate. The service was perfect – so perfect that we lingered over our five-course meal for five hours. We enjoyed catching each other up on the past six months of our lives.
In the middle of the meal, I suddenly burst into tears. My husband hugged me and asked what was wrong. I said, “This is so wonderful! I don’t want it to end!”
Ah, impermanence. Years later, when I came across the Buddhist teaching of impermanence, I immediately remembered this experience in the restaurant. I was relieved to know there wasn’t anything wrong with me for reacting the way I did. I was simply acknowledging a fact of life, however unskillfully.
The Buddha’s First Noble Truth states that life is “suffering” (or, I prefer the translation “unsatisfactoriness”). It means we are never truly satisfied; things are constantly changing in life and therefore, we can never get too comfortable. We must learn to stop pushing away things/people we dislike (which are part of life anyway) and stop clinging to things/people we love (which will eventually end/break/die anyway). I do not find this depressing. I just sigh with relief knowing this important truth about life.
I went through a long phase of life where I didn’t want anything fun or pleasurable in my life because I knew it would eventually end – so why bother? Now, thankfully, I’m in a place in life where I can live more in the moment. If something wonderful is happening, I can enjoy it fully and yet let it go at the appropriate time. If I’m dealing with rough times or a bout of depression, I KNOW it will not last forever. I pray everyone may find this place of peace.
“[God] has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of all people; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end. I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and do good while they live. That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil—this is the gift of God.” (Ecclesiates 3:11-13)
Posted in Spiritual Life | Tags: Buddhism, Ecclesiates 3, Four Noble Truths, Impermanence, Religion and Spirituality
Posted by: Jivani Lisa | May 25, 2011
My Hermitage Experience
As I researched religious life in the Catholic Church, part of me glorified the cloistered life as the highest, surest path to spiritual perfection. I liked the idea of being locked away from the world and renouncing material possessions and family relationships in favor of a more intimate relationship with God.
Yet part of me also wondered if cloistered life was some kind of cop out. After all, it’s a highly unusual form of life that has very little bearing on the day-to-day reality of most people’s lives. I wondered if cloistered monastics and hermits were just fooling themselves into believing they were on a sure path to holiness.
I visited a particular hermitage for two weeks in May 2007. The mother superior and the chaplain picked me up at the airport and drove me to the hermitage. During the drive, we discussed several topics, but I was surprised that the nun seemed obsessed with finding out what types of food I liked to eat. I’d thought food was supposed to be pretty inconsequential in cloistered life. Not that nuns don’t eat – but they’re content to eat whatever’s put in front of them.
During the drive, I also noticed the priest and nun had a certain way of bickering with each other. I thought, “Gee, they sound like an old married couple.” That observation should have tipped me off about the quality of life in this particular hermitage.
I spent two weeks immersed in the life of the hermitage: going to Mass every day, following a schedule of prayer and manual labor. I also had several long private discussions with the mother superior. She seemed nice enough, interested in me as a person. At the end of my visit, I asked permission to formally enter the hermitage as a postulant (a kind-of pre-novice). Permission was granted and we made plans for me to return in August.
I rented a car (since I wouldn’t be able to have my own car) and drove over 1,000 miles to enter the hermitage. It was fun – I love road trips – and cheaper than flying.
During the seven-and-a-half months of my stay, I witnessed many sobering incidents. Here are a few:
(1) Bickering about the best way to accomplish simple tasks such as moving furniture or transporting dirty dishes from the table to the kitchen. (“We don’t stack dirty dishes.” Really? Everybody else does!)
(2) Throwing away fresh vegetables because they were rotting faster than we could eat them. (Me: “Couldn’t we donate some of these to a soup kitchen?” Mother superior: “We need all of them for ourselves.”)
(3) Spending money on luxuries such as frozen pizza, Subway subs, ice cream and cake. (I thought we were supposed to be living in poverty!)
(4) Gossiping about other women who had entered the hermitage, stayed a few months and left. These women were portrayed as psychologically weak – or in some other way “unfit” for religious life. (I wonder what they say about me now that I’m gone.)
(5) Complete lack of supervision and accountability for the chaplain and the mother superior. They made up their own rules and did whatever they wanted, however they wanted. I’d thought religious life was supposed to be about subduing the ego and giving up one’s own preferences for the sake of doing God’s will.
Being in that place showed me that “religious” people aren’t any better than the rest of us. The nuns seemed to put themselves on pedestals, considering themselves better than people living so-called “selfish” lives out in “the world.” They seemed to enjoy insulating themselves from “sinful” outsiders.
On one occasion, when the mother superior approved an outside woman to stay with us for three days on a private retreat, I was cautioned to stay far away from her to avoid being contaminated by “evil spirits.” The priest told me: “She’s been married for twenty years but only has one teenage son. She’s probably contracepting and that’s a mortal sin.” I was dumbfounded.
As I prepared to leave that place – the place I’d thought I’d stay for the rest of my life – the mother superior paid me a compliment: “You were the best dish washer we ever had.” I’m serious.
Posted in Journal entry | Tags: Cloister, God's will, hermitage, holiness, relationship with God, Religious order
Posted by: Jivani Lisa | May 18, 2011
The Great Flood
“As soon as the seven days were over, the waters of the flood came upon the earth…. it was on that day that all the fountains of the great abyss burst forth, and the floodgates of the sky were opened.” (Genesis 7:10, 11b)
I don’t usually blog about current events but I’ve been greatly disturbed about the intentional flooding occurring in Mississippi/Louisiana to spare Baton Rouge and New Orleans. Sure, it makes sense to send the flood waters into areas that are less densely populated, but that doesn’t mean the suffering for affected people is lessened.
Yesterday, while I was walking on the treadmill at the gym, I saw a TV interview with a university professor about the ethics of the intentional flooding. Her answers were highly intelligent and compassionate at the same time. She helped me find some peace in this situation.
She said no one should be saying things like, “Well, those people live in a flood plain; they should expect to be flooded.” We should acknowledge that most of the people who are losing their homes and farms are poor people who couldn’t even afford flood insurance. Their income goes for the necessities of life: food, shelter and clothing, etc. They are losing everything. I believe that people who make such heartless comments about the flood victims are just trying to cover up their own fear and uncertainty about what’s happening.
The professor also said the communities of Baton Rouge and New Orleans have a responsibility to show gratitude to the “sacrificial communities” up river — in a way that’s similar to Americans showing gratitude to members of our Armed Forces who sacrifice their lives for our freedom. The cities that are spared in this disaster should help to rebuild the towns that are being destroyed. The people will need money and building materials, of course, but they may also need psychological assistance and other help to rebuild their lives.
Some people feel the flooding must be easier to handle because the victims have received plenty of notice. I must disagree. It’s like finding out a loved one has a terminal illness. Watching “the inevitable” approach is frightening. Even though we know the person will die, we are not spared the pain and grief. The flood victims are dealing with a similar pain and grief.
Thousands of our brothers and sisters are suffering in this disaster. May we remember their sacrifice and do what we can to show our gratitude and help them find solid ground once again.
John and Lisa's Blue Skies Blog - Soaring with God 