Energy Medicine - a Zen Perspective

     “Some people understand energy medicine as a process whereby the healer gives energy to the person in need of healing. From a Zen perspective energy is not viewed as a commodity or thing that can be given or received. Your energy is not separate from the energy of the whole universe. You are not separate from the whole. A healer helps you stop building walls & barriers within yourself and between yourself & the world. Letting down the walls & barriers that block the flow of energy allows you to experience wholeness & healing.”

       Birx E. “Healing Zen. Awakening to a life of wholeness and compassion while caring for yourself and others.” Viking Compass, NY, 2002. 

Michael Wood   http://miksang.com//michael_wood.html

 

Deeper Teaching, Deeper Learning

     Our consciousness is flooded with data, a great deal of which can be categorized as distraction or outright spam. Anxiety keeps us focused on the future; depression on the past. Mindfulness - our natural wisdom - rarely has a chance to manifest.
     "Ellen Langer writes that perhaps one of the reasons that we become 'mindless' is the form of our early education. 'From kindergarten on' she writes 'the focus of schooling is usually goals rather than on the process by which they are achieved. This single-minded pursuit of one outcome or another, from tying shoelaces to getting into college, makes it difficult to have a mindful attitude toward life. Questions of "Can I?" or "What if I can't do it?" are likely to predominate, creating an anxious preoccupation with success or failure rather than on drawing on the child's natural, exuberant desire to explore.'"
     Fortunately, contemplative practices are increasingly being introduced into all levels of the education system. It is possible, indeed foolish not to, intentionally cultivate our inherent natural wisdom.
     "The (contemplative) exercises are relatively simple and mainly conducted in (students') own minds, relating directly to their personal experience discovered through attention and awareness, yet these private investigations yield increased empathy with others and a deeper sense of connection around them.
     Formally legitimizing their experiences changes students' relationship to the material being covered. In much of formal education, students are actively dissuaded from finding themselves in what they are studying. All too often, students nervously ask whether they may use 'I' in their papers. A direct inquiry brought about through their introspection validates and deepens their understanding of both themselves and the material covered. In this way, students not only more richly understand the material, but they retain it more effectively since they have a personal context in which to frame it."

       Barbezat, Daniel & Allison Pingree. (2012). Contemplative Pedagogy: The Special Role of Teaching and Learning Centers.  In James E. Groccia and Laura Cruz (Eds.), To Improve the Academy, 31, 177-191. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Perception and Maturation

     "When a thief sees a saint, all he sees are his pockets."                  Sufi saying

      Let's be honest, reading about saints, especially from a different culture, we tend to quickly disconnect. We fancy ourselves as modern intellectuals, with little if anything in common with mysticism from the "dark ages". And anyway, we certainly would not be fixated on a person's pockets - would we?

     Isn't "objectifying women" about seeing them only as sexual objects? Are men the only ones guilty of this?? Don't we all, in our fame- & wealth-obsessed "culture", routinely objectify celebs from rock stars to politicians, pro athletes, CEOs etc - seeing them only as superhero- or down-and-out cartoon characters? What about objectifying even our friends and loved ones according to what they "should" do for us?

     As we slowly mature past self-centered neediness, our perspective changes radically. It can take a lifetime to come to feel comfortably at home in our own skin, at home in the world. Many of us will never get there, "always busy" chasing after and running from stuff till the very end. But for those of us that do mature into conscious, open-hearted human beings, personal needs, wants, and even preferences become minimal, while generosity dominates. 

     “Now I can look at you in peace; I don't eat you anymore.” Franz Kafka

Gandhi's belongings   from: http://www.ruraluniv.ac.in/gallery%20of%20gandhi.htm