Buddhist insight in our day to day life
We can experience deep Buddhist insight by examining our present moment experience of seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching, and thinking.
This mind of our is pretty amazing. Our cognitive power propels us to the top of the food chain on this planet, and maybe even on others as we plan the colonization of Mars.
But the mind can also make us feel miserable, stressed and confused.
Our cat Piko doesn’t seem concerned at all about what might happen tomorrow. He appears oblivious to metaphysical or philosophical concerns or anxieties.
He’s definitely got a leg up on me here.
Whenever Piko feels an emotion, it seems to arise and fade naturally, like a cloud passing in the sky. He might carry a grudge briefly; but I doubt he feels guilt or blame the way we do.
His kin don’t look the type to carry a grudge around for centuries
Looks like he’s got two legs up on all of us.
The Buddha taught that everything we need to free ourselves from all emotional or philosophical anxieties is available right here and right now just by noticing how we experience the world.
We can experience deep Buddhist insight simply by examining our present moment experience of seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching, and thinking.
We may notice chains of discursive thinking arising out of nowhere, about anything.
While sitting quietly we may hear a bird and within a second we are worrying we haven’t heard as many birds as we used to in the mornings and become enthralled in a climate change revenge fantasy.
The meditation teacher Shaila Catherine recounts a student described what she observed in her thoughts and feelings the day she lost a hair clip:
She knew she had to go buy a new one and felt annoyed that she had to make a special trip to the store that day. Thoughts arose how could she lose it?
Now she has to spend more money. Her job is not paying well. Thoughts drifted to never having enough money and fear she will never have enough.
Feelings of failure and self-criticism are amplified. She decides she had better get a new job. But doubt arises: what else can she do for work?
All this arose from a simple thought about losing a hair clip.
This may seem like a trivial example. But, heck, I admit my days are peppered with anxieties which are as benign as those brought about by losing a hair clip, and which, if not experienced with some mindfulness, morph into self-recrimination, and anguish.
Even after forty years of meditation, I catch my mind running around on a mental hamster wheel trying to figure out some vital issue, which, after a mindful pause and some reflection, turns out to be on the same order as losing a hair clip.
We can explore the feelings that lie underneath the issues we go on and on about in meditation. We can bring these feelings to therapy sessions and learn about how our past influences our life today.
Or perhaps the absurdity of what we are going on about gives us a good laugh.
Simple reminders can help- we can remind ourselves to just pause for a moment. Take a breath. Interrupt the flow of that restless thinking.
We can employ the Buddhist insight technique of labeling your daily life experiences- recognize that “this is what restlessness feels like” or “this is worry.” If we put the time into practice, we move our baseline capacity for this kind of self-reflection.
Our lives become more livable. Love visits more often. And we are here for it all with care and compassion.
