Having formally practiced meditation for over three decades, I have found that one’s mental attitude in daily life is the most influential factor in establishing peace and equanimity.
External conditions existing outside ourselves, such as the environment, physical health, emotional well being, marital relationships, family and career, can only be successful when approached from a still point, a not moving center, a place of inner peace. It is analogous to becoming the central fulcrum in a grandfather clock.
A state of mind where calmness serves as an anchor guiding our everyday activities, compassion, lovingkindness, and tolerance is possible even in the midst of a pandemic.
To that end, time honored techniques have been handed down over centuries in meditation monasteries. They are designed to neutralize anxieties and fears that are especially prevalent now during these challenging times due to a global pandemic. More about that in a moment.
First of all, one of the tenets of zen teaching is to be aware of how thoughts and feelings continually arise and impact our 24 hour day. If we remain diligent in observing this process, we learn to let go of our all consuming mind meanderings. When not attached to thoughts, we have no time to get caught up on things; we are always flowing. When we stop flowing, our minds become foul like stagnant water.
People are often intrigued by a Buddhist approach to life but find it enigmatic. They have trouble translating the message into a form that is applicable in their daily lives. What is essential is the ability to do one thing at a time without looking aside or allowing any distractions. Peace and equanimity are not possible when we are engaged in one thing while at the same time diverting ourselves with lots of other concerns. When performing the simplest acts without digressing attention to extraneous things or looking away from what is being focused on, fears and attachments increasingly drop away. Suddenly, we become even more deeply focused.
Our main issue then during this time of Covid #19 is to deepen this undistracted one-pointed attention.
Perennial questions such as whether the world is eternal or whether the world is finite are put on the back burner. Finding ourselves focused on the precision and intelligence found in each moment, moment by moment, becomes the salient point.
Certainly, loss of family members, loss of income, and structural changes in our children’s education are of great concern worldwide. The existential reality of the pandemic with it’s insidious destruction of human life is daunting. This however makes it all the more important to stay focused on the pragmatic aspects of daily life.
When moved around by the daunting daily information regarding Covid #19, breathing becomes shallow, and consciousness becomes scattered. It seems like the whole day is spent jumping from one thought to the next.
The Buddha taught tranquility and wisdom in that order. First establish tranquility, and from there, wisdom will appear of itself. That being said, one of the aforementioned techniques of zen practice is an emphasis on deep diaphragmatic breathing.
To reduce the stress experience of the pandemic, first and foremost is to begin lengthening breathing particularly the exhalation. With each breath, exhale clear down to the lower abdomen. When done correctly, you should feel a tautness there. That is a good thing. That is how we should breathe. Wide, expansive, smooth and calm. An embryonic breath similar to how we all breathed when first born.
Practicing this breathing totally and completely in all places and at all times, the rapid, whirlwind, random thinking process calms down considerably. It is a physiological phenomena. Please don’t just believe me, try it for yourself. People buried in thoughts are unable to reflect clearly. Wisdom can only come forth from a clear, quiet mind, established through breath awareness. Not absorbed by outer phenomena or ephemera when in contact with objects, conditions, and situations, we then become one with whatever we do. The five senses of seeing, hearing, smelling, touching and tasting become heightened, increasing our ability to stay in the present moment.
Being right here, right now, is liberating. When not moved around by circumstances equanimity is established. With a mind that is well aligned, anxious emotions and negative mind sets cease to be a problem.
Ji Haeng Zen Master – The Desert Dragon