Читать книгу May I Sit with You? - Tom Catton - Страница 24
ОглавлениеJust as entering the twelve-step arena can ruin the “enjoyment” of using, practicing mindfulness meditation can “ruin” living in the past or the future. The daily practice of Step Eleven can eventually become our most important moment of the day. The goal is to carry those moments of mindfulness with us as we arise from our meditation and carry on with our daily responsibilities to ourselves and to others. Noticing our breath throughout the day, we find ourselves refreshed as we return to conscious breathing. Being mindful of our life force is our introduction to enlightenment.
Showing up each day to our area of practice to sit and pay attention to our breath, if only for five to ten minutes, forms our discipline to begin our day with mindfulness. When breathing in, we know we are breathing in. When breathing out, we know we are breathing out. This simple task, repeated again and again throughout the day, can change our lives.
We discover that not all recovery or support group meetings are vibrant and inspiring, but we “keep coming back.” Like support group meetings, not all meditations present us with easily recognized gifts. Many times the message we receive is riddled with thoughts, bombarding us with more questions than answers, and at times returning to the breath is almost forgotten; yet we keep coming back each day. We don’t have to understand the experience of what is going on by showing up to sit upon our meditation cushions, but we continue each day, again and again.
When does a conservative practice like mindfulness meditation become radical? Let’s reflect on why some of us ended up in a twelve-step program with years of recovery behind us. The answer is simple: The using and acting out no longer worked. We were left with the realization that drugs and alcohol, or whatever else, would not give us the relief that they once promised. Only then could our denial be seen initially and eventually overcome.
With the daily practice of mindfulness meditation, we learn to observe and understand our minds. We learn to watch the thoughts that enter and leave our minds. We learn to sit and just be with the emotions that rise and fall in response to these thoughts. We merely observe and don’t attach; when we find ourselves lost in the wilderness of our thoughts, we immediately return to the sanctuary of our breath. When we are not in the moment, that realization acts as a slingshot, propelling us instantly back to the wonderful moment. This is how we practice radically.
