“Sitting mindfully with our sorrows and fears, or with those of another, is an act of courage.”
– Jack Kornfield, The Wise Heart
In The Wise Heart, Jack Kornfield recaps some well documented and effective ways that mindfulness is used as a healing tool. Being willing to look within; at emotions, feelings, the restless mind, takes guts; it isn’t easy. No, easy is turning away; stuffing, avoiding, ignoring; pretending that everything’s okay.
Too bad the easy way doesn’t stop the suffering. No. Pain finds a place to hide; in our bodies, our mood; the physical world we create.
Thich Naht Han says:
“People have a hard time letting go of their suffering. Out of a fear of the unknown, they prefer suffering that is familiar.”
Hmm …
Four Principles for Mindful Transformation
Using the acronym RAIN; recognition, acceptance, investigation, and non-identification, Kornfield offers these principles to open the door for mindful transformation. Love acronyms … they help me remember stuff when I set the book down.
According to Kornfield, “RAIN can transform our difficulties.”
- Recognition – “we must begin with a willingness to see what is so” – “with recognition we step out of denial. Denial undermines our freedom. If we deny our dissatisfaction, our anger, our pain, our ambition, we will suffer. If we deny our values, our beliefs, our longings, or our goodness, we will suffer.” – STEP 1; recognize what is.
- Acceptance – “allows us to relax and open to the facts before us.” It doesn’t “mean that we cannot work to improve things. Acceptance is not passivity. With acceptance and respect, problems that seem intractable often become workable.” – STEP 2; accept what is.
- Investigation – “Whenever we are stuck, it is because we have not looked deeply enough into the nature of the experience. As we undertake investigation, we focus on the four critical areas of experience: body, feelings, mind and dharma.”
- Body – “become aware of what’s happening in our body. Can we locate where our difficulties are held?
- Feelings – “investigate what feelings are part of this difficulty” – are they “pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral?”
- Mind – “ask what thoughts and images are associated with this difficulty” – “become aware of the stories, judgments, and beliefs we are holding.”
- Dharma – “what are the elements and patterns that make up the experience”? “Is the experience actually as solid as it appears?”
Is our “relationship to it a source of suffering or happiness.” – STEP 3; ask, do we “identify with it”?
- Non-identification – “stop taking the experience as “me” or “mine.” – “see how our identification creates dependence, anxiety, and inauthenticity . . . inquire of every state, experience, and story, “Is this who I really am?” – STEP 4; stop clinging.
“Mindfulness does not reject experience. It lets experience be the teacher.”
As I sang along with my play list on the elliptical this week, I recognized a few of my selves:
- The Badass; sly, devious, sarcastic, cynical
- The Idealist; honest, impeccable, hopeful
- The Survivor; resilient, persistent, tough
Can I accept them as part of me?
Where do I feel these wee selves in my body? What feelings pop up – are the feelings good, bad, middling? What’s the story? Am I Judging? – Duh; How am I judging? Are they real?
“Is this who I really am?”
No … I’m the observer; watching. Keep on watching – non-judgmentally, unattached – with love.
♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥
“The most fundamental aggression to ourselves, the most fundamental harm we can do to ourselves, is to remain ignorant by not having the courage and the respect to look at ourselves honestly and gently.” ― Pema Chödrön, When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times
