See where "I" comes from and it will disappear

Repost from LinkedIn Article from November 2023

This summer I visited Plum Village in Southern France, a Buddhist monastery under "The Order of Interbeing", which is just it. The sisters and brothers receive people from all over the world with all kinds of religious and non-spiritual backgrounds, which is not unusual, since neither Buddhist meditation nor the recognition of inter-being is exclusive to one religion, even though we sometimes might romantically push this towards Asian realms. 

My journey of interbeing started with a journey to myself truly many years ago. It was the practice of simple mindfulness exercises, such as feeling your breath, feeling the movements inside your body, perceiving the sensations around you, and also the practice of forest bathing, which awakens your senses and brings them to the here and now through exercises that draw your attention to the natural environment in which you are practicing. 

Throughout the years I ventured into Brazilian indigenous cultures, only to be brought back to our own indigenous roots here in our many European cultures, whereas much of the indigenous has been oppressed throughout centuries. It still survived in "the oppressors" (Christians) own rituals and their knowledge of plant medicine and rituals which are mixed forms of Christian practices and "what was there before", since even these believers once had descended from "what was there before". And sometimes I feel that this knowledge is dying away with the oldest generation of our cultures (those over 85), and then again I meet lovely people from all over the world, who are still connected to what was there before in their own way. And the teaching of interbeing requires the understanding of interconnectedness, and the latter cannot be taken away or disappear, since everything always "is" "one". 

Practicing mindfulness can bring you into feeling and perceiving the interconnectedness and thus our interbeing at all times. Mindfulness can be practiced by trying to come back or stay longer at the present moment. This means that our wandering thoughts of past experiences or future plans we usually have distract us from feeling the present moment. Sometimes we are also addicted to "story-telling" such as TV-shows, films, music etc. which pulls us away from being able to feel ourselves and thus connect with "what is there at the present moment". 

The following exercise from Gary Weber is an analytical one, one that might start your meditation journey. It is about becoming aware of your thoughts. 

• Sit down comfortably somewhere and close your eyes. Have a straight back to avoid discomfort.

• Follow your breath in and out. 

• At some point a thought will arise in your mind. 

• Have three buckets prepared in your mind, the left one with the label "past" and the right one carrying the label "future". The middle one is "now". 

• "Now" can be what is truly perceived "now", like a sensation on your skin, an out-breath. 

• "Past" could be a thought about something that comes to you about what you did earlier that day.

• "Future" could be the thought of having to still reply to an e-mail or do any kind of work. 

• Practice your breathing, always come back to your breathing in and out. But when you are distracted by having a thought, try to "put" that thought into the right bucket and see in the end, which bucket got most attention. 

• What can you learn about yourself and your thoughts? How does it feel to now be more aware of how your mind works? What will it change from now on?

See where your idea of yourself, your ego or identity, your "I" comes from, and the clearer you will see, the more "I" will disappear and you will feel the interbeing.

What many people call illumination is achieved by being more present. Only then can we realise how everything we do affects everything else. 

Those who would like to know more about Plum Village can look into the work of our Dharma Teacher Sister Chân Thuận Nghiêm and Sister Chan Khong, whose singing I had enjoyed very much.

#mindfulness #breathing #now #interbeing #interconnectedness #beone #breath #dogood