Take Refuge in Awareness
Yesterday, Jon Kabat-Zinn, the founder of Mindfulness-Based Stress
Reduction (MBSR), joined us live to open the first day of our “ How to Live a Good Human Life”
summit. His keynote talk, “Mindfulness/Heartfulness: Taking Refuge in
Embodied Wakefulness and Our Common Humanity” was both grounding and
inspiring, leaving those who joined feeling more connected to ourselves,
to one another, and the world around us.
Throughout the talk, Jon invited us to see mindfulness and meditation
not as another task on our to-do list, but as a refuge — a safe place to
shelter from “the winds that are too tough to stand up in,” where we
can return to our natural human capacity for presence, clarity, and
compassion.
In Buddhism, we take refuge in the Buddha, the dharma, and the sangha.
But, as Jon reminded us, we can also take refuge right here in the
present moment — in the vast space of awareness itself. By taking refuge
in this awareness, he noted, we drop out of the story of “me,” and into
a place where there’s nothing to do, nowhere to go, and nothing to
attain.
“When we drop into the present moment, we become refugees of a certain
kind,” he said. “What taking refuge really means is to be at home in
awareness itself.”
Below, you’ll find a clip from Jon’s talk, along with two pieces on
uncovering your natural awareness.You can watch the full keynote replay
and explore all summit sessions through October 27 by signing up here.
—Lilly Greenblatt, digital editor, Lion’s Roar
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In this excerpt from his keynote talk for the “How to Live a Good Human
Life” summit, Jon Kabat-Zinn shares how simply sitting in awareness each
day is a radical act of love where we can recognize the miracle of life
itself.
Jon Kabat-Zinn: I began to realize that taking my seat
in the morning is a radical act, not only of sanity, but actually a
radical act of love. That it’s an expression of belonging and an
expression of a certain kind of trust — a worthy, dependable, reliable,
trusting in the domain of being. I realized its capacity to influence
all the actions that flow out of any moment when we allow, or invite, or
exercise the possibility or train ourselves to let our doing come out
of our being.
Then, while sitting on the cushion — metaphorically and literally in
whatever ways you practice formally — is absolutely essential. Just like
violinists in the greatest symphony orchestras, they all tune their
instruments before they play. Even though they have great instruments,
and they’re playing great music, and they’re wonderful musicians, they
still tune the instrument.
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Diana Winston on three ways to bring natural awareness into your mindfulness practice — and your life.
Natural awareness is a way of practicing in which your focus is on
awareness itself, rather than on the things you are aware of. It is
generally relaxed, effortless, and spacious, and it can elicit a
profound sense of well-being. The term natural awareness invites you to
notice or rediscover the awareness that already exists and is available
to you at any moment.
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Shine the warm light of awareness on your thoughts and feelings, says Thich Nhat Hanh.
Throughout your meditation, keep the sun of your awareness shining. Like
the physical sun, which lights every leaf and every blade of grass, our
awareness lights our every thought and feeling, allowing us to
recognize them, be aware of their birth, duration, and dissolution,
without judging or evaluating, welcoming or banishing them.
It is important that you do not consider awareness to be your “ally,”
called on to suppress the “enemies” that are your unruly thoughts. Do
not turn your mind into a battlefield. Opposition between good and bad
is often compared to light and dark, but if we look at it in a different
way, we will see that when light shines, darkness does not disappear.
It doesn’t leave; it merges with the light. It becomes the light.
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