It’s Brigid’s weekend over here in Ireland. Whether one celebrates the Saint or the Goddess, it doesn’t matter. She’s definitely within the collective conscious. There has been much talk about putting scarves out on her eve so that they can be blessed and imbued with her healing powers for the year ahead. As well, the fields are picked over for the reeds needed to weave her crosses. I can declare that I was one of those pickers, as I was teaching all weekend and weaving crosses was part of the programme.
Whether I am teaching or not, weaving a Brigid’s cross is an annual ritual for me. I like to weave in my intentions for the year ahead, making the process a meditation. This year, as I was weaving in my intentions, it struck me that intention setting is simply the first step. Intention setting is setting the course of direction in which I would like to go, all of which is important. However, we need action to move towards that direction. In other words, we need to create the causes and conditions for our intentions to become a reality.
I have been having a few conversations lately on the Buddhist concept of causes and conditions. In Buddhism, causes and conditions (hetupratyaya) explain that all phenomena, experiences, and suffering arise from dependent origination, meaning nothing exists in isolation. The cause is what brings about whatever is arising, whereas the conditions shape the form. Sometimes the concept of causes and conditions within Buddhism can have a strong focus on the arising of suffering. And some of these causes and conditions are out of our control. However, I have been noticing that the good things in my life have unfolded as a result of the effort I had previously put in. And what has added joy to the ‘good things’ is that all of that effort was done without having any inkling or idea as to exactly what are the blessings and grace that this effort would produce. This has had a profound effect on how I set intentions.
My intention setting has shifted from focusing on specifics to simply an intention to create the causes and conditions for a life infused with what I hold dear to my heart. Which is actually more simple and less complicated than I imagine: love, health, my family, some solid and enriching friendships and just enough good quality work that is of use to humanity.
The question then becomes, if what I do today will affect how I live tomorrow, how do I live a little bit more deliberately?
Perhaps it is the remembrance of the Buddhist concept of cause and conditions and that each step that we take is a new seed planted for how the garden of our lives will grow. And as Brigid’s day marks the return of light and the beginning of Spring, how can I attend to this garden with each step that I take? Not just on Brigid’s day, but everyday.
Sure there will be unexpected and unavoidable storms and threats to what it is that I hold dear, but if I can learn to remain open, curious, kind and compassionate, just maybe I will have the tools to weather those storms. This is where my mindfulness practice supports me. It helps me to live deliberately. It helps me to cultivate the qualities of openness, curiosity, kindness and compassion. For this, I am eternally grateful.
If you would like to join me on Tuesday morning at 10am Irish time at the Sanctuary’s online community meditation, to explore what it might be like to move towards living more deliberately, I would love to see you there.
-Jane
My Silent Place 
Leave a comment