Re-Awaken To Joy

06.12.2020 RE-AWAKEN TO JOY From June 24 to June 28, Lion’s Roar is gathering together 15 renowned spiritual teachers for five days of teachings and meditations on how to avoid burnout and look after your mind and body; overcome division to build healthy communities; and, rediscover joy, hope, and the motivation to create a better future.    With 29 inspirational teachings, meditations, and reflections, the Re-Awaken summit is a call to action for anyone looking for a positive way forward filled with loving-kindness, insight, and compassion.   Last weekend, we shared teachings from three summit panelists on how to re-awaken to your true self. In this Weekend Reader, we’re thrilled to share three more articles in our archives from summit panelists.    Sharon Salzberg is a well-known teacher of Insight Meditation and author. She is one of the founders of the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts. She is the author of Faith: Trusting Your Own Deepest Experience. In her article, “Real Happiness,” Sharon shares how we can re-awaken to “understanding that gives us the courage to go into the unknown and the wisdom to remember that as long as we are alive, possibility is alive.”   Lama Rod Owens is a frequent contributor to Lion’s Roar and co-author of Radical Dharma: Talking Race, Liberation, and Love. In his instructions for shamatha meditation, Lama Rod demonstrates how the practice “calms our thoughts and emotions” so that we “experience tranquility of mind and calmly abide with our thoughts as they are.”   Sylvia Boorstein is a psychologist and leading teacher of Insight Meditation. She has many best-selling books. In the following excerpt from Happiness Is An Inside Job, Sylvia explains how to deal with distress. “In the years since I’ve begun teaching Buddhist Concentration and Mindfulness meditations, I’ve often had students ask me how it feels to be peaceful all the time. I am eager to tell them that although I think I am wiser about the decisions that I make, and generally kinder, I am not peaceful all the time… I am able to say to myself (I honestly do use these very words), ‘Sweetheart, you are in pain. Relax. Take a breath. Let’s pay attention to what is happening. Then we’ll figure out what to do.’”

Real Happiness Renowned Buddhist teacher Sharon Salzberg explores the myriad benefits of meditation. Daily meditation will remind us that if we look closely at a painful emotion or difficult situation, it’s bound to change; it’s not as solid and unmanageable as it might have seemed. The fear we feel in the morning may be gone by the afternoon. Hopelessness may be replaced by a glimmer of optimism. Even while a challenging situation is unfolding, it is shifting from moment to moment, varied, alive. What happens during meditation shows us that we’re not trapped, that we have options. Then, even if we’re afraid, we can find a way to go on, to keep trying.

How to Practice Shamatha Meditation Shamatha meditation — mindfulness or concentration — is the foundation of Buddhist practice. Lama Rod Owens teaches us a version from the Vajrayana tradition. Shamatha meditation allows us to experience our mind as it is. When we practice shamatha, we are able to see that our mind is full of thoughts, some conducive to our happiness and further realization, and others not. It is not extraordinary that our minds are full of thoughts, and it is important to understand that it is natural to have so much happening in the mind.

Restoring the Mind to Kindness When Sylvia Boorstein is in distress, she says to herself, “Sweetheart, you are in pain. Relax.” Here, she explains why those words work so well. I consider my meditation practice a success because of one crucial and definite change in me in the thirty years since I began. I now trust that even when what is happening to me is difficult and my response to it is painful, I will not suffer if I can keep my mind clear enough to keep my heart engaged.

JOIN THE RE-AWAKEN SUMMIT