Everyday Meditation

Ordinary Magic
by John Welwood, Ph.D.

Spiritual practice and meditation are often thought of as being the province of priests, monks, and nuns-those few individuals who have returned from the preoccupations of day-to-day life. This inspiring book reveals how the simple practice of mindfulness can be a magical and transformative part of anyone's daily life. Thirty-five wide-ranging essays written by well-known spiritual teachers, therapists, and creative artists show how learning to focus awareness can bring a new richness to ordinary activities; how mindfulness can heighten creative pursuits such as painting, journal writing, or playing music; how contemplative awareness enhances both physical and psychological well-being; and how meditation can contribute to better relationships with family, community, and the world at large.

Just to be is a blessing
Just to live is holy.

—Rabbi Abraham Heschel

Introduction

As children we have all felt, at least occasionally, a powerful sense of wonder at being alive in this world. Yet in growing up, we mostly lose that sense of magic. As we become caught up in worldly ambitions and burdens, life becomes increasingly routine, humdrum, and one-dimensional.

Magic, as I am using this term, is a sudden opening of the mind to the wonder of existence. It is a sense that there is much more to life than we usually recognize; that we do not have to be confined by the limited views that our family, our society, or our own habitual thoughts impose on us; that life contains many dimensions, depths, textures, and meanings extending far beyond our familiar beliefs and concepts.

The loss of a sense of the magic and sacredness of life is also happening in our world at large. In traditional cultures living closer to the natural world, people had a more immediate sense of larger forces shaping their lives. Gods and demons were near at hand. And the culture provided rituals and symbols that helped people remember the larger sacred dimension of life in the midst of their daily activities. Walking, eating, lovemaking, working-indeed, every activity and life passage-were endowed with religious or symbolic meanings that helped individuals connect with the larger, universal forces shaping their destiny.

Now that we have become disconnected from the cycles and rhythms of nature, we frequently seem to miss the whole point of being here at all as we rush through the whirlwind of our busy lives. Yet being busy is not the main problem. What does it matter whether we have ten things to do today or just one, since we can do only one thing at a time, in any case? The problem with having ten things to accomplish is that while doing one, we are often dreaming or worrying about the success or failure of all ten. The speed and compulsion of our thoughts distract us and pull us away from where we are at each moment.

The word dis-traction is particularly useful here. It suggests losing traction, losing our ground-which is precisely what happens when we slip and fall away from being present. It is only in the stillness and simplicity of presence-when we are aware of what we are experiencing, when we are here with it as it unfolds-that we can really appreciate our life and reconnect with the ordinary magic of being alive on this earth.

Wakeful Presence

Our society would have us believe that inner satisfaction depends on outer success and achievement. Yet struggling to "get somewhere" keeps us perpetually busy, stressed-out, and disconnected from that essential inner resource-our ability to be fully present-which could provide a real sense of joy and fulfillment. Our life is unsatisfactory only because we are not living it fully, because instead we are pursuing a happiness that is always somewhere else, other than where we are right now.

Nonetheless, many of us do manage to carve out some niche in our life where we can be fully present; and this is usually where we wind up feeling most fulfilled. Indeed, the things in life we most enjoy-lovemaking, beauty, creativity, sports or strenuous exercise, new and challenging situations-are those that bring us here most fully. Artists often feel most alive when their work demands their total attention. Great athletes become still and centered in themselves when playing because they are totally on the spot, having to keep their attention on the game at every moment. All real enjoyment, success, and excellence depend on this ability to be present.

Presence is like the air we breathe; it is essential for our life, yet so transparent and intangible that we rarely give it particular attention or importance. For instance, as a writer I can easily become distracted by the results and rewards of writing-the finished product-and fail to see that what I value most about it is that it helps me focus and connect with myself more fully in the present moment. Yet when I give more attention to the product than to the here-and-now experience of writing, I lose my enjoyment and much of my effectiveness. Similarly, if athletes become distracted by hopes and fears about winning or losing, they will lose their stillness, their presence, and most likely the game as well. Or if lovers focus on the performance and outcome of sex, they will enjoy it less and may not even be able to "perform" at all.

Cultivating the capacity to be fully present-awake, attentive, and responsive-in all the different circumstances of life is the essence of spiritual practice and realization. Those with the greatest spiritual realization are those who are "all here," who relate to life with an expansive awareness that is not limited by any fixation on themselves or their own point of view. They don't shrink from any aspect of themselves or life as a whole.

Ordinary Spirituality

The word spirituality, like the word magic, often carries with it rarefied and otherworldly associations. That is because the life of the spirit has become divorced from so-called "real life" in the world. For much of history, in both Eastern and Western culture, spiritual practice has been the province of priests, monks, and nuns-those who have renounced ordinary life and retired to a monastery or hermitage. Meanwhile, the world of family life, daily work, business, and commerce has gone its own way, becoming increasingly disconnected from a sense of larger spiritual values.

Yet we can no longer afford the luxury of a spirituality that is separate from the world. Even if we had the time and inclination for such a pursuit, the increasingly precarious condition of our planet and its inhabitants cries out for greater involvement and concern than ever before. The difficult problems facing us on all sides-the environmental crisis, the breakdown of family and community, the loss of humanity's sacred traditions and values, the decline of education, the widening gulf between rich and poor, the increasing speed and stress of modern living-call for a new vision of human purpose that goes beyond just getting and spending.

Human life on this planet can survive and prosper only if there is a radical shift in consciousness. We need to realize that the purpose of being here is not to conquer and control, but to serve something larger than ourselves: life itself and our fellow beings. To that end, we need to develop a grounded spirituality, one that can affect the quality of life on this planet through being thoroughly committed to the here-and-now.

Of course, this is a tremendous challenge because the distractions of our world are more pervasive and seductive than ever before. We have created powerful entertainment industries designed to lure us away from the present moment and fill our minds with fantasies of some other more glamorous life we could be leading. Whenever we want to tune out of our own life, all we have to do is to press a button and tune in a high-gloss facsimile of life fabricated by "newsmakers," television personalities, and advertising agents. Everywhere we turn, the engines of materialism are overrunning the earth. The world is driven by the game of buying and selling, which seems to take up more and more of everyone's time. Even in countries with strong indigenous sacred traditions, such as India, Bhutan, or Thailand, the youth seem more interested in Western consumer goods than in preserving what's left of the sanity in their own culture.

Yet we cannot simply blame our materialistic culture for our predicament, since our society is as much the product of our distraction as its cause. The forces of distraction are within us, and they have been with us for thousands of years. In the ancient psychologies of the East, which developed out of precise meditative attention to the workings of the mind and emotions, these forces are described by the term samsara, which literally means "spinning," or "whirling." It just so happens that our technologies, which speed up the pace of life (cars, planes, computers, faxes) and fill up any gaps of free time (television, car phones, portable radios) have set us spinning and whirling at a much faster rate than ever before. And the faster we spin, the more addicted we become to our speedy pace.

How then can we cultivate a ground of sanity and presence so that we do not spin mindlessly out of control, destroying the simple beauty of our life and collectively hurtling over the brink of planetary disaster? Perhaps we could look to those masters of whirling-the Persian dervishes-for some clues. I recently had the privilege of watching a dervish perform his ancient, sacred ritual. As he began to whirl, it was amazing to see the top half of his body spinning at a dizzying speed, with his arms outstretched to heaven, in a state of total abandon. This was all the more remarkable because at the same time the lower half of his body-his pelvis, legs, and feet-was in such total, precise contact with the ground below. It was as though two entirely different kinds of consciousness were operating in him at the same time. It struck me that his dance was an external portrait of how we need to live if we are to ride the energy of our whirling lives without being thrown off center. We can only let go, open up, and dance with life's energies when we establish a strong, reliable connection with our ground.

This book is about how to find our ground in the midst of everyday life, how to develop greater presence of mind, heart, body, and spirit, and how to bring this into whatever activity we are engaged in. The writings assembled here teach us that any activity can provide an opportunity to tap into our deeper being and bring forth its essential qualities of openness and joy, clarity and compassion. They also show how any activity is more creative, enjoyable, powerful, and effective when done in this spirit.

To find a ground of sanity and presence amid the whirling distractions of our lives, we need a way to cultivate and draw upon the sharp, laserlike quality of our awareness, which is the only thing that can cut through the thick layers of our distraction. Meditation-the practice of mindfulness, awareness, or presence-provides such a way. If we want to taste the fullness and richness of being alive, we need to learn to practice meditation in action.

The idea of meditation often intimidates people. It conjures up notions of otherworldly withdrawal, appearing to be the specialized occupation of a chosen few who have the time and inclination for a religious life. But the perspective presented here is quite different. We could define meditation simply as the practice of becoming more fully awake and present. It is nothing more esoteric than that. The contributors to this book regard mindful or contemplative awareness as the key to life, the spice that brings out all the varied flavors of human existence, the doorway to rediscovering the inherent magic of being alive.

Meditation is extremely down-to-earth because it helps us connect with the actual textures of our experience, in all their variety and profundity. Because it puts us in touch with the life in and around us, this kind of awareness practice is the quintessence of spirituality.

Living in Two Worlds

Spirituality, as Chögyam Trungpa simply defines it, is "a means of arousing one's spirit, of developing a kind of spiritedness" that allows us "to have greater contact with reality." In this sense, spiritual practice need not be associated with religious observances or traditions, or with otherworldly pursuits. Indeed, every great spiritual tradition contains teachings, often hidden in its core, about overcoming the separation between worldly and spiritual life. This deeper wisdom insists that the vertical search-for meaning, transcendence, or depth-bears real fruit only when it intersects with the horizontal search-understanding how to live in the body, on the earth, in families, or in the marketplace, with dignity and compassion. The Jewish tradition regards the body as the sacred temple of the soul; the Star of David is composed of two overlapping triangles, one pointing toward heaven, one toward earth. In the Christian tradition the cross is a sacred symbol of the meeting of horizontal and vertical, spirit and flesh, temporal and eternal. And Zen and Vajrayana Buddhism teach that samsara-the world of spinning confusion-is inseparable from nirvana-the realization of freedom, truth, and inner peace.

To be human is to live in two worlds. Our posture, with our head raised to heaven, and our feet planted firmly on the earth, perfectly expresses our dual nature. So if we seek only to transcend this world, or if we only succumb to it, we lose half of our humanness. The human soul becomes impoverished when we try to escape the contradiction at the core of our nature. It evolves and develops through living in the polar tension between heaven and earth, spirit and animal, expansion and contraction. Indeed, we can never be fully present unless we recognize and honor all of who we are, including both our expansiveness and our limitations.

The most powerful kind of spiritual practice, then, involves bringing these two sides of our nature together-cultivating our larger expansive presence in the midst of our daily round, while also facing and working with all the obstacles that stand in the way of that. Here, in the intersection where the two sides of our nature meet, we can begin to re-member the sacred, or magical, quality of existence.

© 1992 by John Welwood. All rights reserved. No Part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any other information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the publisher.

About the Author

John Welwood, Ph.D., has published six books, including the best-selling Journey of the Heart, as well as Challenge of the Heart, and Love and Awakening. He is a clinical psychologist and psychotherapist in San Francisco, and an associate editor of the Journal for Transpersonal Psychology.