Eyes
of Wholeness
“Perhaps
the most 'spiritual' thing any of us can do is simply to look through
our own eyes, see with eyes of wholeness, and act with integrity and
kindness.”
Jon
Kabat-Zinn
Jon Kabat-Zinn is best
known for his book, Wherever You Go, There You Are, about
mindfulness meditation. Being in the present moment with the fullness
of your body, mind and spirit is far less common than most of us
believe it to be. We tend to keep our minds busy thinking of what
happened in the past or what may happen in the future. Many of us
operate from a fear-based model. We ponder what did or didn't
happen to us as children, and what the impact of that is on our
adult lives. We project into the future, either fearfully,
anticipating the worst, or fancifully, imagining the improbable. We
have a hard time staying with this moment, and not moving beyond right
now. I'm speaking for myself, of course.
Jon Kabat-Zinn, master
meditation teacher and practitioner, puts it this way: “Whatever
you wind up doing, that's what you wind up doing. Whatever you are
thinking about, that's what's on your mind. Like it or not, this
moment is all we really have to work with.” Today, with our
perpetual news cycle, half of our mind is glued to the ever more
distressing news of impeachment, treachery and murder. Here in
Birmingham, for instance, a little three year old girl's body has been found in a
dumpster at a landfill. This child was abducted ten days ago—snatched
from a birthday party—which set an Amber Alert in motion. The
entire community has been searching for her. There have been vigils
and prayer services. Large cash rewards were offered for information.
We hoped and prayed for the best outcome, but received the worst.
It's easy to get jaded when such things happen. It takes a long time
to quell the fear and paranoia. Whatever we're doing, our minds are somewhere else, worrying about what might happen to little children
in this crazy world. We're distracted by our own imaginations.
Our minds like to
imagine; they do it effortlessly. That's part of being a co-creator
of life. We don't want to get rid of our ability to imagine. At the
same time, when we're off in the clouds creating scenarios of
possible events—past and future—we're not here in our bodies,
paying attention to what's around us. Time passes, and we may do ten
things we will have no memory of, because we weren't paying
attention. We lose things, remember inadequately or incorrectly, and,
if you're like me, trip over sidewalks and curbs, and injure
ourselves—all because we aren't fully present in the moment. We
miss out on our own lives.
A rich imagination is a
fine thing as long as it's grounded in the here and now. Perhaps we
should take “imagination breaks” in which we set aside time to
just sit down and allow our minds to wander and wax eloquent. And the
rest of the time, we should stay with our bodies, with our hands and
feet, look through our own eyes, grounded in this moment, here and
now, and whole.
In the Spirit,
Jane
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