Meditating on the miracles we encounter in daily life

Meditating on the miracles we encounter in daily life

By Rahayu Ratnaningsih

JAKARTA (JP): We have recently incorporated outdoor meditative
practices in our meditation retreats thanks to the breathtaking
environment of our meditation center.

The center, in Telaga Kahuripan, Parung, is a new housing
complex set among lakes and idyllic greenery. Outdoor activities
include walking the Vipassana as well as doing sitting and
walking awareness practices. These practices are effective for
disseminating the underlying message of unity between "I" and
others, including nature, between all parts of the universe,
which are inherent in all contemplative traditions, and is also
confirmed by modern physics.

Our typically mechanistic, fragmented Greek-world view -- the
sense of independence, isolation and separation from the rest of
the world -- has created much destruction and an antiecological
view of the environment based on the belief that in order to
survive we must conquer and exploit nature. Most of us identify
with Cartesian philosophy, the one espoused by Rene Descartes
with his famous sentence, Cogito, ergo sum (I think therefore I
exist). The Cartesian dualism allowed scientists to treat matter
as dead and something completely separate from themselves, and to
see the material world as a multitude of different objects
assembled in a huge machine. Also as a result of this view, we
equate our identity with our mind, instead of our whole organism
and we are aware of ourselves as isolated egos existing "inside"
our bodies.

The inner fragmentation mirrors our view of the world
"outside" which is seen as a multitude of separate objects and
events. The natural environment is treated as if it consisted of
separate parts to be exploited by different interest groups. The
fragmented view further contaminates the way our society takes
shape with its well-defined boundaries of different nations,
races, religious and political groups. The belief that all these
fragments -- in ourselves, in our environment and in our society
-- are really separate can be seen as the essential reason for
the present series of social, ecological, moral and cultural
crises in the world at large and in our country, in particular.
It has alienated us from nature and from our fellow human beings.
It has brought a grossly unjust distribution of natural resources
creating economic, social and political disorder; an ever-rising
wave of violence, both spontaneous and institutionalized, and an
ugly, polluted environment in which life has often become
physically and mentally unhealthy.

As I have always emphasized over and over again in my
writings, to believe that our abstract concepts of separate
"things" and "events" are realities of nature is an illusion.
Hindus and Buddhists tell us that the root cause of this illusion
is avidya (ignorance) produced by the mind under the spell of
maya. In the words of Albert Einstein: "A human being is a part
of the whole, called by us 'universe,' a part limited in time and
space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as
something separate from the rest -- a kind of optical delusion of
his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us,
restricting us to our personal decisions and to affection for a
few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves
from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace
all living creatures and the whole nature in its beauty."

Happiness

This illusion of separateness has then contributed much to our
suffering for the illusory belief it engenders that there is a
solid, independent self that needs to be pleased and taken care
of all the time. Hence, we incessantly pursue sensuous, physical,
mental or emotional pleasures, believing that by doing so we can
be free from suffering and be happy. And of course, the more we
try the more we become unhappy. As long as our happiness lies in
the world "out there" or in the distant future or in the
compulsive act of pleasing the self, then we can never really be
happy. By going back to nature and merging with it, we learn to
dissolve this "self" and appreciate life as it is unfolding here
at the very moment, in all its bare simplicity without prejudice,
judgment, analysis and any mental or intellectual construction.
We learn to accept life as it is, not as how it should be.

I take an afternoon walk every day. I let go of all thoughts
and I am mindful of what is happening around me and with my body.
I am aware that I am walking; that my left foot is stepping on
the ground, my right hand is swinging forward, and then my right
foot and left arm are moving. I am aware of the gentle breeze of
the wind touching my face and skin, the sunny blue sky, the
picturesque clouds playing astounding visual effects, the
melodious chanting of the birds, the distant hum of crickets, the
fresh smell of grass and earth, the verdant green paddy field and
the splendid stretch of sparkling water in the lake. There is
just me and nature, and nothing else.

And then I sit in one of the gazebos, staring intently into
the water or at the landscape before me, feeling every sound, the
rhythm and motion of the Dance of Shiva, watching the sky change
colors along with the retiring sun. At times the metamorphosis is
so glorious and dramatic that I can't possibly have anything else
in my mind but the unadulterated awe at the poetic splendor of my
surroundings. Every second is a uniquely pristine and precious
experience that can never be repeated in any following day.
Every day -- every sunset -- is a different experience, nothing
stays the same. I do not think or do not analyze who is behind
this or how it comes into being, I just experience what is
unfolding before me. Just be here, now.

When the rational mind is silenced, the intuitive mode
produces an extraordinary awareness; the environment is
experienced in a direct way without the filter of conceptual
thinking. In the words of Chuang Tzu, "The still mind of the sage
is a mirror of heaven and earth -- the glass of all things." The
experience of oneness -- the dissolution of the self with the
surrounding environment is the main characteristic of this
meditative state. It is a state of consciousness where every
form of fragmentation has ceased, fading away into
undifferentiated unity. The Sufis attest that when the individual
self is lost, the universal self is found. At that point, there
no longer is the "I" and the universe; no more the observer and
the observed.

Given the luxury of bare attention of the dynamic cosmic
dance, and of quiet time in which to reflect, it shall become
clear that what is meant by the phrase, "This, too, shall pass
away." Things are seen to be impermanent in practice, not merely
in theory. Major events strike hard. But they fade. They come
and go. What is, is. What might happen is not yet here. Daily
life does flow more harmoniously whenever we lower the flapping
of the sovereign "I", shorten the defensive perimeter, and let go
of the clutching tentacles of personalized attachments. And by
celebrating this simple awareness of the now, we come to the
appreciation of the miracle of everyday living.

The writer is the director of the Satori Foundation, a center
for the study and development of human excellence through mind
programming and meditation techniques. She can be reached at
satori@cbn.net.id.