{"id":1968,"date":"2024-01-27T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-01-27T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/?p=1968"},"modified":"2024-01-27T01:51:53","modified_gmt":"2024-01-27T07:51:53","slug":"january-27-how-am-i-experiencing-this-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/january-27-how-am-i-experiencing-this-now\/","title":{"rendered":"January 27 &#8211; How am I experiencing this now?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Dear Friends,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In his book, <em><a href=\"https:\/\/gregorykramer.org\/a-whole-life-path\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/gregorykramer.org\/a-whole-life-path\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">A Whole-Life Path<\/a><\/em>, Gregory Kramer outlines six tenets for crafting a whole life path, and for me, one of them is particularly relevant when it comes to wise samadhi (concentration), which is &#8220;Find each teaching in the here and now.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On this tenet, Gregory says, &#8220;Nearly all of the Buddha&#8217;s teachings, even those on subtle aspects of body-mind and refined meditative states, can be directly experienced by just about everyone.&#8221; He continues a bit later, &#8220;Most of us can experience most of the teachings here and now in their fullness.&#8221; One of the questions he says we can ask is, &#8220;How am I experiencing this teaching now?&#8221; (pages 14-15)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When it comes to wise samadhi, I have often wondered if it was even possible for me to experience any sort of concentration. The striving mixed in with doubt certainly made that difficult! But this invitation of &#8220;how am I experiencing this teaching now&#8221; is interesting &#8212; how am I experiencing collected, gathered attention? Where is there already some ease, steadiness, or simplicity? When I approach my practice &#8212; and my life &#8212; with this lens, there is more samadhi available than I realize.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Here are a few reflection questions Gregory poses in his chapter on Right Samadhi:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>What experience of easeful focus have I had while working?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>What experience of easeful focus have I had while playing or engaged in an avocation?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>What experiences have I had of relating to someone where we have become deeply calm?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>What is our experience now of samadhi?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<cite>A Whole-Life Path, page 302<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I often find this easeful focus is accessible when I spend time in nature, as Mary Oliver describes in this poem:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Today<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Today I&#8217;m flying low and I\u2019m<br>not saying a word<br>I\u2019m letting all the voodoos of ambition sleep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The world goes on as it must,<br>the bees in the garden rumbling a little,<br>the fish leaping, the gnats getting eaten.<br>And so forth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But I&#8217;m taking the day off.<br>Quiet as a feather.<br>I hardly move though really I&#8217;m traveling<br>a terrific distance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Stillness. One of the doors<br>into the temple.<\/p>\n<cite>Mary Oliver, <em>A Thousand Mornings: Poems<\/em> (2012), As shared here:<br><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mindfulnessassociation.net\/words-of-wonder\/today-mary-oliver\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">https:\/\/www.mindfulnessassociation.net\/words-of-wonder\/today-mary-oliver\/<\/a><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">May you find a door into your temple today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With good wishes,<br>Andrea<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dear Friends, In his book, A Whole-Life Path, Gregory Kramer outlines six tenets for crafting a whole life path, and for me, one of them is particularly relevant when it comes to wise samadhi (concentration), which is &#8220;Find each teaching in the here and now.&#8221; On this tenet, Gregory says, &#8220;Nearly all of the Buddha&#8217;s teachings, even those\u2026 <span class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/january-27-how-am-i-experiencing-this-now\/\">Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[355],"tags":[161,234,17,368,345],"class_list":["post-1968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-jan-2024","tag-eightfold-path","tag-gregory-kramer","tag-mary-oliver","tag-right-concentration","tag-samadhi"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1968"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1968\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1969,"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1968\/revisions\/1969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}