Kristin Cashore's Blog, page 39

Metta (Lovingkindness) Meditation

When the news from my own home is so sad, this is all I feel I have to offer: instructions for a metta meditation. "Metta," also known as "maitri" and often translated into English as "loving-kindness," comes from the Buddhist tradition. Here are some links, in case you want to know more about the roots of the practice: Buddhist nun and teacher Pema Chödrön, who's always worth reading, explains maitri/metta here. Over at Wildmind Buddhist Meditation, there's a clear introduction to lovingkindness meditation (check out all the links to the left).  These folks at Dharma Seed provide a number of talks and guided sits around metta. Finally, just to be thorough :), I'll link you to the wikipedia page for Metta. My own practice of meditation, this and others, is secular.

I present here the version of the meditation that I tend to use, written from memory, but I've encountered variations from different teachers, so it may be different from whatever one you might know or use.

Sit, or lie, or stand, however is most comfortable. Many people sit on a cushion but this might be hell on your back; it is on mine. I sit on a meditation bench. You can sit on a chair or do whatever works for you. If you're lying down on the bed and it makes you sleepy, try lying on the floor.

You are going to be sending good wishes from your soul to at least five specific people, and it might be helpful to choose your people before you start. The first person will be you. The second person will be a loved one (which whom you may have a complicated relationship). The third will be someone with whom you have an unambiguously positive relationship – a benefactor in your life. The fourth will be a neutral person in your life – maybe someone you see at the coffeehouse or the person who drives the bus or delivers your mail, but whom you don't know personally (maybe you don't even know their name). The fifth will be someone you consider an enemy.

Hold the first person – yourself – in your mind. Find a way of viewing yourself – a position with which to regard yourself – that makes you feel warmly toward yourself. Then, send the following wishes to yourself, perhaps repeating them silently once, or even several times:

- May you be peaceful and serene with what is.

- May you be happy and joyous.

- May you be healthy and strong.

- May you be safe and protected from harm.

- May you have ease of body, ease of mind, and ease of heart.

- May you be free from suffering and delusion.

Repeat these steps for your loved one, your benefactor, your neutral person, and your enemy.

When I'm done with that, I like to expand my view to my neighborhood, my region, my country, my hemisphere, etc., so that in my final steps, I'm sending the wishes to everyone in the world, and finally, all living beings. Really, you can do any variation of the meditation that you want. When I do it next, I'll spend some time focusing on those suffering because of the explosions at the Boston Marathon on Monday, those suffering because of violence everywhere, those suffering for any reason.

Thank you to Eve for this version of metta. Thank you also to Sunada Takagi, who teaches the online meditation courses at wildmind.org and who taught the wonderful Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) course that I took recently.

No Guarantees

Guess What Season It Is in Cambridge?

Misread

Me, reading out loud the label of the Belgian porter, Zwet.be, that I'm about to drink: "This unusual ale is the brainchild of Armand Debelder, brewer and blender of the world-famous Drie Fonteinen lambies. A Belgian Porter, brewed with wild yeasts cultured from Armand's casks of lambie." Ew! Ew! Ew!

My friend: Sweetie, might that word be "lambic"?

(Lambic: A type of beer brewed traditionally in the Pajottenland region of Belgium.)

(Lambie: A cute fuzzy baby animal you don't want in your beer.)

(Whew.)

(It's yummy.)
 

Nasturtium Season at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

The nasturtiums are currently hanging from the balconies in the courtyard of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and it's a breathtaking sight, so much so that when I got home from the museum, I wrote hanging nasturtiums into the courtyard of the building in my current WIP. They'll be on display until mid-April or so. (There are some lovely photos at that link.)

As I stood in the courtyard gawking -- thinking about how description often works best in books if you're able to capture the mood something creates with a few words, or maybe briefly say what it's like rather than providing lengthy and specific details about what it actually is or precisely how it looks -- my friend told me that the museum invites artists-in-residence to live in the museum and work. LUCKY DUCKS. What a dream to write in a place like that. Then we went to the tiny red concert hall with the custom-built Steinway and watched and heard pianist Paavali Jumppanen and violinist Corey Cerovsek have a lot of fun playing Beethoven really well. I'm also a lucky duck.

This is a really special museum, right next door to Simmons, where I got my MA in children's literature (and started writing!), around the corner from the Museum of Fine Arts, and down the road from Fenway Park. If your name is Isabella, you always get free admission ^_^. Here's the website for the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.

Keeping My Center in the Era of the Interwebs

Here are a few questions I ask myself before I hit "publish" on any blog post:
Is it too personal? Will it make me feel exposed in some way? Why?Does it compromise my self-respect? How? To the best of my ability to judge, does it respect others?How recently have I blogged and how much have I been blogging recently? Why?Why do I want to blog this thing?  -----> No self-deception or delusion allowed here. Whatever the real reason is, am I okay with it?What if I didn't blog this thing? What if I kept it to myself, or emailed a friend about it instead? Would that feel more peaceful and centering? Why?For every blog post I hit "publish" on, there are probably two I delete. For every two paragraphs I leave in a blog post, there's probably one I delete. It doesn't feel like a waste of time to me, because in the writing and questioning, I organize my thoughts and learn about myself, which I dearly hope helps me move respectfully and responsibly through the world. The internet is a wonderful tool, but I think it's wondrousness is very tied up with its dangerousness. Even more than most of the tools at my disposal, I want to use it mindfully.

What questions do you ask yourself before clicking the magic button?

(Why?)

Can you help with an issue of disability discrimination in Massachusetts?

Over at Rebecca Rabinowitz's blog, a woman who needs MA state licensure for the job for which she's qualified is having a terrible time getting that licensure, because the state is failing to provide her with the assistive technology she needs to take the licensure exam. According to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Jeanette Beal is entitled to a fair chance at taking this exam, but she's not getting that fair chance. Beal has a master's in special education and specializes in assistive technology for disabled people. Any chance you can help? Please go read Jeanette's letter, repost (in full, please), link to my or Rebecca's post, offer to help if you can. Thanks.

View from a Train

Looking over the rooftops of Queens, with the Manhattan skyline as a backdrop.

Building a Great Wordlessness in Stages

I love what Eddie Vedder can do by himself live on stage with his gorgeous voice and a loop pedal.

From the documentary Water on the Road.

Keeping Quiet

Keeping Quiet by Pablo Neruda
Now we will count to twelveand we will all keep still.
This one time upon the earth,let's not speak any language,let's stop for one second,and not move our arms so much.
It would be a delicious moment,without hurry, without locomotives,all of us would be togetherin a sudden uneasiness.
The fishermen in the cold seawould do no harm to the whalesand the peasant gathering saltwould look at his torn hands.
Those who prepare green wars,wars of gas, wars of fire,victories without survivors,would put on clean clothingand would walk alongside their brothersin the shade, without doing a thing.
What I want shouldn't be confusedwith final inactivity:life alone is what matters,I want nothing to do with death.
If we weren't unanimousabout keeping our lives so much in motion,
if we could do nothing for once,perhaps a great silence wouldinterrupt this sadness,this never understanding ourselvesand threatening ourselves with death,perhaps the earth is teaching uswhen everything seems to be deadand then everything is alive.
Now I will count to twelveand you keep quiet and I'll go.