The right side of the bed

I would say that the Zen Buddhist master Thich Nhat Hanh was my first mindfulness teacher. Now, I have never actually met him. I did see him once from a distance, (at an event), when he came over to Ireland in 2012. Instead, my mindfulness journey began through sitting with a sangha, or practice community, based in Thich Nhat Hanh’s Plum Village tradition.

As part of the sangha gatherings, we studied the teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh, or Thay as he is affectionately called. Needless to say, they have greatly influenced my own teaching. In particular, one of his teachings continues to hold strong and it has helped me to remain open, curious and compassionate, both with myself and others. This is the assertion that all views are wrong views. What? I hear you exclaim. How can every view be wrong?

According to Buddhist teachings (and science alike!), how we perceive the world is shaped by whatever lens we happen to be wearing. What I mean by that is how we are socially and culturally conditioned, as well as how we are feeling on any given day will affect how we experience and relate to the world and those arounds us. This means that reality is slightly skewed. According to Jill Suttie, research has found that even whether we are hungry or not affects our perception of reality!

So how do we truly experience reality as it is without our lenses? Well, Thích Nhat Hanh would say that we do this by seeing deeply through the practice of mindfulness. And this is exactly what I was teaching this weekend in the Sanctuary, as we completed the fourth part of the Being Present course.

As part of the Mindfulness Association’s Level 1 Being Present, we cover Rob Nairn’s model of mind: the observer and the undercurrent. Put simply, the undercurrent is the constant stream of thoughts that flow through the mind, whereas the observer is that part of the mind that can watch those thoughts. It’s where our sense of ‘I’ resides. The observer mind is the part of our mind that knows. It is also the observer that can slightly and sometimes significantly skew reality with the lenses of preferences, moods and expectations.

This past weekend, we spent time with our observers in meditation. We turned our spotlight of attention on the observer, gently asking the questions “what lens is my observer wearing in this moment? How am I relating to what is arising in my undercurrent and indeed the world around me?” It’s almost a ‘what side of the bed did I wake up on’ type of question. If we can bring awareness to our attitudes, preferences, assumptions, expectations and goals, then we can move towards being a little less governed by them and maybe even have a taste of what Thich Nhat Hanh calls wisdom or a direct encounter with reality. Now, wouldn‘t that be nice? 😉

My challenge for the week is to touch in with what is shaping my sense of self, my observing part of mind. Am I happy, sad, excited, nervous? Do I have an expectation or a wish for things to go a certain way? What might it be like if I step behind all of that and meet myself, the world and those in it with an open curiosity and a dollop of kindness? If I can remember that my perception is being shaped by a myriad of causes and conditions, maybe I can remember that this is the same for those around me. Perhaps, this might inspire a bit more tolerance and compassion.

If you would like to join me in this challenge, you can listen to the meditation below where we turn our attention towards our observer. This morning, my observer is feeling pretty settled, how about you? What is shaping your experience of the world?

-Jane

To listen to Thich Nhat Hanh speack about percpetion, click here.

To listen to the meditation, click below:

*we will be back for Tuesday morning meditations on September 9th at 10am.