Just sitting - ロンドンで坐禅

ここ3年程ロンドンの曹洞宗の道場で週に3日坐禅しています。世界中から老若男女多国籍、様々な背景の人種が集まるロンドン坐禅会での出会いや自分の気づきなどを綴ります

When things fall apart

いかん、なんかドラマチックなタイトルになってしまった。

これ、こないだの坐禅会でのトピック。

Pema Chödrön ペマチョドロンの本のタイトル。ここからの抜粋部分を読みながらみんなで話し合い。

 

Covidー19のパンデミック、ロックダウンが始まってから情緒不安定になっているというアメリカ人Katの提案。

 

不安を感じる時、先が見えない時、ネガティブな感情が渦巻いている時、その瞬間こそが

「the perfect teacher」である。

 

逃げずにその不快感にどっぷり浸ること。

 

真っ直ぐにメンチ切る*1こと。

 

坐禅会のメンバーが年も国籍も職業も様々、共通項といえば坐禅をしてることぐらい。スピリチュアルなこと、哲学的なことを真面目に話し合える仲間なので禅以外の今回のようなセンシティブなトピックもオープンに話し合える。

かなり助けられてるな、坐禅にもサンガにも。

 

 

人生の面白さは酸いも甘いも天国も地獄も暗闇もドン底も全てを受け入れない限りわからないということですね。

 

 

 

 

This very moment is the perfect teacher Pema Chödrön

 

en.wikipedia.org

“Generally speaking, we regard discomfort in any form as bad news. But for practitioners or spiritual warriors - people who have a certain hunger to know what is true - feelings like disappointment, embarrassment, irritation, resentment, anger, jealousy, and fear, instead of being bad news, are actually very clear moments that teach us where it is that we're holding back...They're like messengers that show us, with terrifying clarity, exactly where we're stuck. This very moment is the perfect teacher, and, lucky for us, it's with us wherever we are.

 

Those events and people who trigger our unresolved issues could be regarded as good news. We don't have to go hunting for anything. We don't need to try to create situations in which we reach our limit. They occur all by themselves, with clockwork regularity. 

 

Each day, we're given many opportunities to open up or shut down. The most precious opportunity presents itself when we come to the place where we think we can't handle whatever is happening. It's too much. It's gone too far. ...That’s being nailed by life, the place where you have no choice except to embrace what's happening or push it away.

 

Most of us do not take these situations as teachings. We automatically hate them. We run like crazy - we use all kinds of ways to escape - all addictions stem from this moment when we meet our edge and we just can't stand it. We feel we have to soften it, pad it with something, and we become addicted to whatever it is that seems to ease the pain… There are so many ways that have been dreamt up to entertain us away from the moment, soften its hard edge, deaden it so we don't have to feel the full impact of the pain that arises when we cannot manipulate the situation…

 

Meditation is our invitation to notice when we reach our limit...what's encouraging about meditation is that even if we shut down, we can no longer shut down in ignorance. We see very clearly that we're closing off. That in itself begins to illuminate the darkness of ignorance

 

...we [could] take it as a message that it's time to stop struggling and look directly at what's threatening us. Things like disappointment and anxiety are messengers telling us that we're about to go into unknown territory…

 

 

 

*1:古い、しかも大阪限定かも? 笑