Nothing is standing out or making me reflect. I will set with this. It use to bother me, now…its just where i am at. Today, its ok just to be.
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I’m depresed. Opened Working with the Slogans of Atisha. Read this.
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Begin the sequence of sending and taking with yourself.
You may want to develop greater compassion and the ability to take on the suffering of others, but what about yourself? What about your own suffering? According to this slogan, that is where you start. You begin by recognizing your own suffering.
It is not always easy to look into our own discontent. But if we are to work with others we should try to understand our own suffering as deeply as possible. We need to look into our many layers of suffering, including everything from physical pain, emotional confusion, regrets, anxieties, fears, the whole deal. We cannot hide out. We may prefer to think that we are beyond that, and our situation may be very fortunate, but we need to bring out whatever is there.
Whatever suffering we dig up, from our surface to our depths, we take in as fully as possible. We breathe it in wholeheartedly. It is a part of us, it is real. Why does it fester? What keeps it going?
It is our avoidance and our fear. We don’t have to be heroic. We could start by taking just a little bit of our suffering and breathing it in.
We could accept it little by little.
Each move we make in this direction, which sounds so difficult, in fact, is a tremendous relief. It is like the story of the return of the prodigal son, where the family is once again whole and there is rejoicing.
The idea of this slogan is to take in your own suffering first, and then expand that to take in the suffering of others. It is to be compassionate to yourself as well as other beings. Seeing clearly the nature of your own suffering is a way to understand more clearly the suffering of others.
Today’s practice.
In your sending and taking practice, this week place attention on your own situation, breathing in various forms of suffering and breathing out to yourself loving-kindness, openness, and strength. To conclude, reflect on other beings who suffer in similar ways and extend your loving-kindness to them as well.
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Wow, that one hits.
Thank you for sharing.
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Honestly this is one of the most curageous things I can imagine.
I had a family member with a very serious mental illness. All my life I have been afraid of being or becoming like them. I still am. So when depression, anxiety or low moods hit I try and try to run away. I still am not good at dealing with that.
Breathing in my suffering sounds like heroism to me 
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I have not read much by Thich Nhat Hanh til now. I started with “You are here”.
The heart of Buddhist practice is to generate our own presence in such a way that we can touch deeply the life that is here and available in every moment. We have to be here for ourselves; we have to be here for the people we love; we have to be here for life with all its wonders. The message of our Buddhist practice is simple and clear: “I am here for you.”
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From
From Working with the Slogans of Atisha, by Judith L. Lief
- Be grateful to everyone
(…)
According to this slogan, we should be especially grateful for having to deal with annoying people and difficult situations, because without them we would have nothing to work with. Without them, how could we practice patience, exertion, mindfulness, loving-kindness or compassion? It is by dealing with such challenges that we grow and develop. So we should be very grateful to have them.
Today’s practice
To begin with, reflect on the things in your life for which you are grateful. Notice what happens when you acknowledge all that you have to be grateful for. Now reflect on something difficult, the kind of situation or person that would not inspire conventional gratitude. Can you extend your gratitude to include that as well? What happens when you do so?
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It’s been a while since I posted here, and since I’ve attended a meeting with the Sangha where I got my sober footing back, over two years ago now. I’d been facilitating meetings, participating in the planning mtgs, etc. In the last year, as with any community, thankfully, there’s been turnover in attendees, some changes, and I and others kind of moved aside to let the newer folk take more ownership, management of the Sangha. It made me realize that others had done that for me.
That said, I had to examine my dwindling desire to participate in that Sangha. Was I being wooed away from it by the wine voice disguised as “you’re ready”? I don’t think so. Was it a desire to see new faces, hear new stories? Yes, and for that I am grateful I can attend random online RD meetings. Staying involved in a recovery community is essential for me.
Also? If the 8-fold path can get me sober, it can help me live better too, no? I’m just wrapping up week 3 of a 12 week online “Who is Thich Nhat Hanh” course. (Course offered by Deer Park Monastery. No I don’t have time! Yes I love it!). I have weekly dharma-sharing group, and in my introduction I included my Recovery Dharma experience - tentatively, as - after all, it’s not a group of addicts, and it’s still new for me to introduce this part of myself, but I’m so grateful for my recovery and for the program, how could I not?
It makes sense though, now. We’re all learning to look at the world with softer eyes. Part of that, for me, is looking at those in active addiction with soft, compassionate eyes. If I can’t do that with them, how can I do that for myself and my past? 
Sharing this. 
It’s a beautiful and hard read (TW: rape, violence). I’m not there yet. But I can work on having softer eyes where I can…
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Needed to read this. Thank you, friend.
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Thank you so much for sharing his compassionate teaching.
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Beautiful share!
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There is this RD meeting called SatiSeva which is centered around a set of mindfulness and meditation practices. The meetings are on the first and third Wednesday and Sunday of the month out of Spokane Souls Center.
I attended two of those meetings and can not recommend them enough. The community is great and I find the practices very beneficial to my healing process.
Previous meditations are also available as recordings on the website.
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This sounds really up my street! I’m on the website as I type this.
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I love the book of Slogans I’m reading. No more than one slogan a day, and often less, right before sleep. The slogan and its explanation come back to me at seemingly random moments during my day, and give me new insights and new ways to Iook at myself and the world.
From Working with the Slogans of Atisha, by Judith L. Lief
- Always maintain only a joyful mind
(…)
According to this slogan, we should not practice the dharma with gritted teeth, but with delight. We should appreciate our good fortune in having found a teaching that not only talks about uprooting suffering and its cause, but also shows us how to do so. We should have a little humor.
This does not just apply to when things are going well, and it does not mean that we should be disengaged. Instead, we could touch in to a sense of lightness and joy repeatedly, in whatever we do, no matter what is going on.
Today’s practice
For today’s practice, I would simply like to pass on a practice I received from Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche which is simplicity itself, but oddly effective: No matter what you are feeling or what is going on, smile at least once a day.
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