The Mindful Life with Waylon H. Lewis

Nirvana! Enlightenment! Who Cares!

By Waylon H. Lewis, 2-20-06

	Caption: Brigitte Bardot has nothing to do with the Mindful Life.

Pema Chödron, a famous-ish American Buddhist nun, once gave a beautiful, succinct definition of the path to spiritual realization. To paraphrase: 'If one can keep the sadness and pain of samsara in their heart, and at the same time the vision and brilliance of the Great Eastern Sun, then the warrior can make a proper cup of tea.'

A proper cup of tea. The fruition of a spiritual path ain’t fireworks and trumpets and angels descending from heaven. It’s more likely to be whatever happens to be happening, in that moment. Or, as the Zennies say, before enlightenment you chop wood and carry water. After enlightenment? Chop more wood, carry more water. Nirvana—or whatever you want to call it—is no big deal.

I publish a little Boulder-based magazine called elephant. We do stories on yoga, on conscious consumerism and green living, on Buddhism and the ‘contemplative arts.' We do stories on a lot of other things, too—everything from bicycling to work and the stock market to green tea and green fashion. So what do all these things have in common?

They can, related to properly, be a part of living a ‘mindful life’—which just happens to be elephant’s slogan, our raison d’etre, and our mission: bringing together those working and playing to create enlightened society.

So what is this ‘mindful life,’ anyway? And more to the point, who really gives a shit? Is this just the latest focus-grouped marketing slogan to come out of money-grubbing pseudo-hippies wanting to ride the coattails of the success of Whole Foods?

Well, yes and no. Mindfulness refers to what the Buddhists call ‘authentic presence’—the ability to be genuine and fully present, no matter the circumstances. Good or bad, happy or sad—whatever the circumstances of our life—being genuine can cut through a great deal of unnecessary suffering. We’re so used to a basic level of emotional turmoil that, like the sound of Broadway’s traffic outside my apartment windows, we often forget it’s there. This forgetting isn’t a good thing, always—it’s a kind of falling-asleep to the vicissitudes (good scrabble word) of life. For when we’re ‘awake’—whether through something as mundane as meditation practice or something as spectacular as a first love—the world can be vivid, ordinary and magical, full of possibilities.

The Buddhists’ version of a life well-lived, or ‘the mindful life,’ is referred to as the Bodhisattva path—essentially, living a good life that also happens to be good for others. As the saying goes, ‘If you want to be unhappy, think only of yourself. If you want to be happy, think only of others.� It’s that simple.

We’re not talking about renouncing worldly possessions, shaving our head, finding the closest cave and becoming nuns or monks. At least, I’m not. I like to work hard, work out, play hard, love...I like life. And that’s the ‘life’ half of the ‘mindful life’ equation. We’re not hiding our (spiritual) light under a bushel, as the saying (sort of) goes. We’re talking about finding ways to connect spiritual and temporal, to engage the world directly, with mindfulness—whether it’s taking the time to smell the roses or write yo’mama, remembering to take your tote bag to the grocery or recycle the toilet paper roll instead of tossing it in the trash, mindfulness can be—must be—banal, basic, everyday—or it’s just a lot of high-minded, nice-sounding talk.

So, at the end of the day, the Dalai Lama doesn’t have much on your average soccer mom or Nascar dad, frat boy or sorority girl. We all want to live a good life (whether happiness means a Soho loft or two-car garage, 72 virgins or just one Mr. Right, organic granola or a quarter-pounder with cheese). We want to love our children. We all like blue skies and a green earth. We all want to leave the world just a little bit better than we found it. If it sounds trite or cliché, that’s because it’s so true, so often. The big ideas—world peace and such—we can all agree on. It’s the brass tacks, the day-to-day and moment-to-moment stuff that tangles us up.

The devil, as always, is found in the details. And so is the mindful life.

Bookmark www.newwest.net/themindfullife to keep up with this new blog from Waylon H. Lewis [End of article]

Hey Way,

I'll enjoy hearing your voice in this venue, and having the chance to trade some ideas with you.

I just got home from work, teaching martial arts and meditation, and I'm reading your comments about the need to get the mindful-life operating in our ordinary selves. I'm reminded of a corollary to that - the need to get our instincts to turn to mindfulness under pressure. When things are difficult is when we need mindfulnes the most (as individuals and as a society), but it's so tempting to flail about for the first solution that comes along.

Martial arts beats that into you (pun intended). If you try to react from an unstable heart or body, you just get yourself in more trouble. Only by tuning in to the dynamics of the problem -- painful and real as it is -- do you perceive solutions and take intelligent, effective, compassionate action. So as you referenced at the beginning of the article, a tolerance for the pain and suffering of violence and destruction is needed, so that we can face it head on, along with a broad and deep vision of the extreme power and beauty available to us, inherent in the situation.

When I was preparing for my black belt test, my teacher pointed out that I knew the movements to defend against punches, kicks, knives, and clubs. Therefore, there was nothing that I should fear, but fear itself. His advice was not to get so tough as to ignore fear or somehow not feel it, because that's not a realistic approach. His advice was to focus on the situation, tune in, calm down, pay lots of attention. Mindfulness, to use what we know to be true.

I also teach meditation and energy healing, and it's amazing how much those are the same as combat. I have to remind my students, "You don't have to sit there and take the suffering. You know how to fix yourself. Remember to do it." I've been the one reminded, too. It's amazing how suffering takes us away from our talents, and mindfulness takes us back to our power to transform. Re-mind... mind again... and again until mindfulness itself is our instinct, our refuge.

--Kevin

my friend in san fran w/ the enviro site is marcus morrell.

the site is: http://www.bigpicture.tv/

if you email him direct tell him you know me or remind me to do an e-introduction.

hugs

marlowe

Editor,
Regarding, Waylon Lewis's article Nirvana! Enlightenment! Who Cares!, his point is well taken about mindfulness, but Lewis almost leaves one with the impression that mindfulness and caring exist in some sort of vacuum, that sadhana is not ultimately rooted in a profound cosmic state, which, as realized, avails almost indescribable brillance, beauty, and spiritual realization. Read Paramhansa Yogananda's chapter, My First Experience in Cosmic Consciousness, in Autobiography of a Yogi (or follow a path of meditation toward that realization) to understand. And yes, after Yogananda literally experiences the ecstacy of beholding manifold universes through his own consciousness, his teacher instructs him to sweep the floor. Even an affintiy for this state of consciousness leads to profound realization. In this context, caring for others and mindfulness come naturally with this affinity for the whole. And Nirvana, Samadhi (or whatever we call it), while beyond the scope of many, are still the magnetic core, the beacon, leading all toward oneness with the moment and all life.

Dear Mr. Lewis,

Point taken. It's just been my experience, both personally and with the Buddhist community, or sangha, that I grew up in, that folks are generally more concerned with their jobs and loves and children and cars and houses and going out than Nirvana and Enlightenment. And that's not entirely a bad thing--we should be concerned with our daily life, and not just the emerald palace at the end of the yellow brick road. So I guess the question I wanted to ask you and others who kindly read my blatherings is, how do we connect spiritual and temporal? How do we behave as if we're enlightened, when we're obviously far from it--how can we effect positive change in ourselves and others and the world if we happen to be, like myself, far from guruhood?

Thanks for the brilliantly explicated thoughts on the spiritual path—you blew me out of the water.

Mr. Lewis

First, let me applaud whoever officially made room for mindfulness on New West. Exploring this topic with insightful, diverse dialogue is not only fascinating, but helpful—for me, the best way to understand the simple yet inexorably complex teachings of the Buddha is by batting around personal interpretations and anecdotes with others.

I found myself nodding while reading most of what Waylon discusses. And then I got to the “Nirvana—or whatever you want to call it—is no big deal� and the “Dalai Lama doesn’t have much on your average soccer mom or Nascar dad, frat boy or sorority girl� bits. Perhaps in wanting to be happy and having all the basic ingredients for achieving it, those statements are true. But in terms of actual attainment, they just ain’t. Or at least not as far as I can tell.

Despite its academic simplicity, attaining enlightenment is a big deal. In fact, for many, the biggest deal. Living in the moment, quieting the revolving, on going, seemingly endless internal conversations (and I’ll be the first to admit, judgments) take more than just practice. It requires understanding, motivation, and time—all rare in our society, but requisite to glimpsing the freedoms that will inevitably flow from such investments. I sit, I practice yoga, I read Thich Nhat Hanh before bed. Still, I feel lifetimes away from coursing with nothing but inner peace and compassion. I know, I know, I am the Buddha—in essence, we all are. But the path to realization is not easy, nor should it be trivialized.

It’s interesting though, how complex something so simple can be. Are our many distractions just too enticing, or are our “selves� just too scary?

Thank you for sparking this discussion Waylon. I look very forward to more.

Waylon,

I'm happy you're writing here! Looking forward to seeing more!

Dear Mr. Waylon,

Your comments - as is the vision of elephant, and spreading the 'mindful life' - are inspiring. I believe, however, that we need to avoid the overuse of 'labels' to describe our vision. I appreciate your Buddhist upbringing, and philosophical perspective, which is very different to my own (Church of England), which is very different to my husband's (Judaism). But as soon as you - or any of us - use religious terms to portray our point, that pertain only to our own particular belief system, you run the risk of alienating a big chunk of the population who might otherwise have read on. I believe that we must glean wisdom from all spiritual traditions. Whether we pursue our mindfulness through Buddha, Mohammed, Jesus, yoga, martial arts, sports, or simply reading our favorite mag - the point is to INFECT our culture with mindfulness, period. No matter what the medium. And without labels. We are, after all, all alone together.

I'm wary of labels. Labels breed exclusivity, which defeats the purpose of making mindfulness accessible to all.

I loved your comments, Pippa [for those of you who don't know Pippa Sorley, she's worked with Whole Foods, Wild Oats, the Sustainable Resources conference, and now Pangea Organics]. They made me think about how we at 'elephant' magazine term our eight areas of focus (yoga, organics, buddhadharma, sustainability/green living, contemplative arts, conscious consumerism/indie business). How can we say 'buddhadharma' in a more open way? What I really mean is 'spirituality' or 'wisdom tradition'—Christianity of various kinds, Judaism (we have articles on both in elephant's Spring issue), Islam etc as you said—how can we emphasize that we want to talk about those who are living those paths in an open-minded, non-judgmental, yet serious and full-on, no-bullshit manner? That’s a hard thing to say in one or two words. I was thinking of saying ‘genuine spirituality.’ What do you think? I just hate that word, spirituality—it’s so vague and meaningless and syrupy and makes me think of crystal balls and hugs that are just one or two seconds too long.

Thanks again, Pippa, for caring enough to comment so intelligently. You've helped start a little conversational smoke that could, with others' input, become a little fire of dialogue.

Love to you, Pips.

Yrs.,

Way

Nice work -
Nice words, Waylon.

WF

Kudos to New West for making room for Waylon Lewis to present mindfulness in this forum. Waylon's outstanding journalistic work with "elephant" have changed the periodical landscape of the Front Range and beyond, tying together intersecting strands of culture. New West is doing us all good by presenting talented, articulate young voices such as Waylon's in this online realm - bravo to you both!

Hello from Halifax Nova Scotia,
I am happy to see your 'mindfull life blog.'
You layed out in a colorful, hip voice the importance of mindful living. Yes we all want blue skys and we may have little Dalai Lamas
aching to come out of our hearts...
You also talked breifly about 'authentic prescence' which looks good on paper...but how do we develope that. Can you have a mindfull life without a formal mindfullness practice?
Good luck with your blogging....
e

Dear Waylon,

Thank you for your energetic promotion of mindfulness as it can be practiced in daily life, however that may appear. Your enthusiasm feels contageous. That's great!

In my years as a beginning meditator, I also worked as a nurse in an inner city emergency department. Those were the days of the crack cocaine epidemic of the 80's. The violent suffering was at times unbearable and many of my colleages became very hardened in their heart, unable to extend loving kindness to those in such intense pain they were there to serve. It rendered many of them ineffective in their ability to act directly and effectively in many of the emergent situations that occured. At time it was heart breaking to be with them as well as the patients! It all was good practice of mindfullness for me, but I was and still have difficuly pointing out to those with whom I work the benefit to themselves as well as others in going beyond themselves by being willing to stay with the pain while keeping a bigger than oneself veiw.

Indeed, over the years, I learned through remembering and forgetting over and over, it is possible that one is able to make a proper cup of tea, in other words be with, stay with whatever is going on, by keeping the pain, sadness and heartbreak of the temporary, conditioned existence in which we all find ourselves within ones heart and at the same time remain with the vision and brilliance of the authentic, unconditioned mind that is beyond ourselves, beyond avoiding the pain which keeps us stuck in petty, small mindedness.

Agian, thank you for promoting mindfulness and whatever practices that can be applied to oneself with loving kindness to bring this about for the benefit of the whole world. Good luck with your magazine and your blog.

Yours,
Susan

I really enjoyed the latest issue of elephant, particularly the interview with Reggie. It's great to see issues worked out with as much candor as is needed.

Interesting voice, please give us more of Mr. Lewis.

Waylon,
you always stir the pot of thoughtfulness and sound the drum of good living with your easy going and precise style. One point on the latter-your paraphrased quote attributed to famous-ish American Buddhist nun Pema Chodron originates with her teacher, the infamous mahasiddha and dharma king, Chogyam Trungpa.
Regarding the discussion about mindful life, there is a buddhist slogan, "All dharmas agree at one point." The slogan does not mean "all spiritual paths are essentially the same," or some other version of "it's all good." The point at which all dharmas, or genuine spiritual practices, agree is in the cutting of ego. With that in mind, the notion of lifestyle is interesting. Recycling, composting, eating organic food and so on are all excellent practices, but are they intrinsically more genuine than any other? Genuineness is what remains and shines through when the ego is cut. So how do all the brass tacks of mindful living connect with dissolving ego?
Warmly,
Noel

way to go waylon!

I like your honest comments-experience of the famous teachers the
>> best, along with the selections of photographs.
>> and someones political opinions the least...
>> Is part of the point to see how we can lead a mindful
>> life, no matter what the circumstances?
sorry to not take more time to read and comment, but feeling me middle age leaning in...thankyou so much for your passionate compassionate politicalism and energy, Waylon.


>>
>> best and vision, J
>>

Check out the Yoga Documentary that Arthur is starting up with Shiva Rea clippings on
http://www.myspace.com/iPracticeYoga

http://www.myspace.com/yyogamovie

I happenned across Dalai Lama blog on
http://www.myspace.com/xivdalailama

Incredible themes for living mindfully from one blog to another blog!

-surfing the virtual world from my laptop as I travel the world!

"The Buddhists’ version of a life well-lived, or ‘the mindful life,’ is referred to as the Bodhisattva path—essentially, living a good life that also happens to be good for others. As the saying goes, ‘If you want to be unhappy, think only of yourself. If you want to be happy, think only of others.�? It’s that simple."

The first sentence and second are not the same.
I generally now choose the first path. I've gone too far on both the one way paths. I may at times in the future, but the first balanced path is more sound.

I have just posted the first 8 minutes of the 88 minute film on You Tube... the full film will be available this fall at http://www.YYogaMovie.com until then please enjoy the clips that are online.

8 minute sneak
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cm8BivsCsm0

Diamond Dallas Page (DDP) teaching Yoga to soldiers in Iraq
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjM3-1mbQLw

Shiva Rea
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1988490209786468812&q=YYogaMovie

Tibetan Bowls in Yoga Class
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LaoUSBEVHVQ

the complete feature film Y Yoga Movie is now available from http://www.YYogaMovie.com. Please let me know what you think of the entire 88 minute documentary about Yoga today.

namaste,
arthur