Dharma Topic: Our Psychic Circulation

Interbeing As A Practice
Thursday, November 29, 2007

Dear Still Water Friends,

This Thursday evening, after our meditation period, we will practice together the Three Touchings of the Earth. The Three Touchings are a wonderful guided movement that helps us recognizing our connections to our spiritual and blood ancestors, our contemporaries, and to the flow of life.

After the Touchings our program and discussion will focus on incorporating interbeing as a practice.

In the Second of the Three Touchings we read:

I am one with the wonderful pattern of life that radiates out in all directions. I see the close connection between myself and others, how we share happiness and suffering. . . .

I am one with the great beings who have realized the truth of no-birth and no-death and are able to look at the forms of birth and death, happiness and suffering with calm eyes. I am one with those people, who can be found a little bit everywhere, who have sufficient peace of mind, understanding and love to be able to touch what is wonderful, nourishing and healing, and who also have the capacity to embrace the world with a heart of love and arms of caring action.

I am someone who has enough peace, joy and freedom to offer fearlessness and joy to living beings around me. I see that I am not lonely and cut off. The love and the happiness of great beings on this planet help me not to sink in despair. They help me to live my life in a meaningful way with true peace and happiness. I see them all in me and I see myself in all of them.

These are inclusive, noble ideas. Most of us relish the thought of having "enough peace, joy and freedom to offer fearlessness and joy to living beings around me." But if they are just ideas, the tradition of mindfulness remind us, then we have very little. It is as if we had ideas about food, but we continued to be hungry and undernourished.

We are nourished when interbeing becomes a practice, and by practice I mean two things. First, that with mindfulness we develop the capacity to recognize interbeing through deep and direct observation. For example, I may deeply comprehend, with both mind and body, that the tension I hold in my jaw is not just my tension, but also the tension of my parents and grandparents, and of all the conditions of their lives (and of my life). And I may understand that its presence affects what I say, what I think, and how I act.

The second meaning of practice is that we act from our insights, and in so doing affirm them and deepen them. For example, understanding the interbeing nature of the tension in my jaw, seeing how it contributes to outcomes different from what I want for myself and others, I can change how I live. I may decide to be more consistent in noticing when the tension is present, I might try massage or see a physical therapist, or I might change my job, or reduce the busyness in my life.

Interbeing becomes a deep practice when this coming together of deep awareness and action becomes the way I orient myself to what is present in me and also what is present outside of me.

In our discussion we will explore the areas in our lives in which we are able to nourish ourselves through practicing interbeing, and also the areas in which it is a challenge for us -- when we lose our focus, clarity, and peace of mind.

You are invited to be with us. The best times to join our Thursday evening gatherings are just before the beginning of our 7 p.m meditation, just before we begin walking meditation (around 7:25), and just after our walking meditation (around 7:35).

For at least the next four weeks, there will be no informal dinner gatherings beginning at 5:45. If you would like to see the dinners re-initiated, or have comments or suggestions, please email Steve Allen at sallen@jubileemd.org.

An excerpt on the practice of interbeing by Thich Nhat Hanh is below.

Warm wishes,

Mitchell Ratner
Senior Teacher

The Practice of Interbeing
by Thich Nhat Hanh, from Transformation at the Base

When we live in mindfulness, everything takes place in the concentration of looking deeply. When our concentration is weak, we might be able to see the nature of [interbeing] for a short time, but we soon fall back into seeing things as permanent and having a separate self. But with strong and steady concentration, we can continue to see the nature of interbeing of things within and around us. . . .

Generating the energy of mindfulness is essential for the practice. We have to live each moment of our life mindfully. We look, listen, and touch with our mindfulness. When we cook, we cook mindfully, aware of our breathing and what we are doing. Enjoying our breathing in whatever we are doing, we produce the energy of mindfulness to help us touch life deeply. Meditation helps us obtain insight, dissipating our misunderstanding and ignorance, and brings about love, acceptance, and joy. There is no need for us to run away from birth and death. There is no need to run away from our garbage. We can learn the art of taking care of our suffering and transforming it into peace, joy, and loving kindness. If suffering, fear, or despair is there, adopt the attitude of nonfear. Learn the techniques of transforming the garbage of the afflictions into flowers of well-being, solidity, and freedom.

Looking deeply into a flower, we see the interbeing of the flower. Looking deeply into the garbage, we see the interbeing of the garbage. Looking deeply is not speculating. We have to practice. We have to be concentrated. We have to be present in order to touch the flower deeply, to really experience its nature of interbeing. When we live mindfully, everything reveals the nature of interbeing. Looking deeply at a leaf, we touch the sunshine, the river, the ocean, and our mind in it. This is true practice.