Day 3 - Stopping, Calming - The upsetter (2010)

Who has not encountered at least once (and sometimes more than once) situations that make us very upset. So many upsetters we wish we have avoided meeting along the way, suddenly are rolled upon us like a wave of lanslides after a thunderstorm.

So I chose to meditate on the upset feeling and the upsetters, in order to heal my own wounds...
The buddhist path of healing is four fold: stopping, calming, resting and healing. And I need to heal my wounds in order to focus in my life to give it a new fresh start, new insights, to take the right decision and not act under the rage and revolting feelings.

Let's talk about the first two paths, stopping and calming. Inspired on the book "the heart of the Buddha's teaching" by Thich Natch Hanh (1998), and the  song "the Upsetter" by Jack Johnson (2010),
my meditation today is to stop and calm the upsetters.

Stopping our thinking, our habit energies, our strong emotions. How can we stop the state of despair, fear, anger and revolt? According to these inspirations, is through mindful breathing, mindful walking, mindful smiling, and deep looking in order to undertsand. And I had a chance today, after my upsetting meeting with my boss, my husband and I drove to the place where he had to work, and then I sit at a cafe, and stopped for few hours and calmed my thoughts. While I was there, writing notes for today's meditation, a street vendor approached me selling a dust pan made of recycled large paint tins, and I mindfully smiled at him, and talked to him about his recycling work, and he showed me his material and convinced me kindly to buy it, so it would be the first he had sold in the day. I was already breathing very mindfully, and stopping made me realize that our situation are hard, but even though we were there smiling to and at each other because we were engaged in promoting happiness and relieving our suffering in the present moment.
"When we are mindful, touching deeply the present moment, the fruits are always understanding, acceptance, love and desire to relieve suffering and bring joy."

 then after we stop, we shall calm our emotions. The art of breathing in and out, as the repeating line in "the upsetter" song said, can make us solid as a oak tree and flexible like a bamboo tree during stormy conditions. There are five stages of calming our body, heart and mind according to Buddhist's teachings:
1. recognitions. I know that upset feelings are in me.
2. acceptance: do not deny it, accept the presence of upsetters.
3. embrancing: we hold mindfully our upsetters in our two arms, and can calm our anger and revolting feelings and thoughts by breathing in and out.
4. Looking deeply: when we are calm we can understand in a deep level what has brought this supsetting feeling to be.
5. Insight: undertanding the causes and conditions that have brought about our upset feelings, we can have clear insights into the causes of our suffering, and with insight, we know best what to do and what not to do to change the situation.

 I am in the path of beauty... thank you upsetters...
namaste
mahalo



The Upsetter"

Some will say
This place is wrong
These hands are fast
This face is long

Stop upsetting yourself
Upsetting your thoughts
Upsetting this world
That you’re standing on

These plans are torn
These feet are cold
This shield is worn
This peace was stolen

Stop upsetting yourself
Upsetting your thoughts
Upsetting this world
That you’re standing on

These problems they breathe
Their fire is real
The coins that they keep
You cannot steal
Even when you’re asleep
They’ll be here still
Breathing out or in

Some will say this place is gone
These roads are steep and much too long
These plans are cheap my feet are cold
Cut the knot these coins are golden
Some will say this place is gone
These roads are steep and much too long
These plans are cheap my feet are cold
Cut the knot these coins are golden

Stop upsetting yourself
Upsetting your thoughts
Upsetting this world
That you’re standing on

These problems they breathe
Their fire is real
The coins that they keep
You cannot steal
Even when you’re asleep
They’ll be here still
Breathing out or in