Agenda for Today
“Agenda for today: breathe out, breathe in, breathe out.”
The Buddha (c. 563-483 BCE)
“If water derives clarity from stillness, how much more so does the mind! The mind of the sage, being in repose, becomes the mirror of the universe, the speculum of all creation.”
Zhuangzi (c. 369-286 BCE)
Today is the first day of Lent in the Christian liturgical calendar. When I was a child growing up in the Episcopal Church, I was given, on the Sunday before Ash Wednesday, a small slab of cardboard that folded into a church-shaped box. That box was for collecting the money I would have spent on whatever guilty pleasure I was giving up for the season of sacrifice. I loved the little box, but I never made it through the forty days of surrender. On Easter, I would stuff whatever change I could scrounge from Mother’s purse into the little box and shamelessly place it in the basket at the altar. Mallow Cups were my vice at that time; something you must admit would be hard to give up for forty whole days.
In typical American fashion, I will not sacrifice something for Lent this year---I will add something to my day. I will add at least five minutes of doing nothing. I will allow myself to light a candle, sit down, close my eyes and breathe in, breathe out. If I can’t still my mind, I will say the Buddha’s prayer for myself and everybody I love. And then I will say it for people I don’t love---people who irk me. It goes:
May I be at peace.
May my heart remain open.
May I awaken to the light of my own true nature.
May I be healed.
May I be a source of healing for all beings.
I have found that saying this prayer daily--and anytime I begin to fume about something or someone--brings my mind back to stillness and calms my emotions. I don’t know how you feel about prayer, but in my world view, prayer has the power to transform hearts, beginning with mine.
Thanks be to God,
Jane
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