Music Playlist for September 2010
Each week we broadcast six New Dimensions programs four times a day. Click here for this weeks listening schedule.
LISTEN NOW!
We invite you to search our extensive archive of New Dimensions programs:
Choose from the category list below:
|
Looking At Our Habits of Mind
by Justine Willis Toms
I was struck by the words of Tulku
Thondup Rinpoche in a recent New
Dimensions' interview. He said the
only thing we take with us when we
die are our habits of mind. I've
heard this before, in fact, I've been
hearing this teaching from various
masters for over thirty years. Yet,
this time the words had a visceral
impact on my mind and body. I don't
know why this would be, maybe it's that
I'm getting older and feeling my mortality in more immediate
terms. Maybe it was because I've recently been
thinking a lot about the concept of forgiveness and that of
sympathetic joy and how far short of these feelings I so
often fall.
When Rinpoche spoke about the habits of mind, I could
feel the immediacy of the call and that there is no time to
waste because we never know the time of our deaths. Oh,
I know I "should" change my habits because my life
would be better. But somehow I felt more motivated to
really do it when I heard him speak of the time when
there is nothing we can do to alter our lives for the better.
It would be great to show up in our after life saying, "Oh,
I didn't have time to really practice new habits, I intended to,
can't I just slip this habit off and enter my new life after life
with a clean slate?" Yeah, right. As they say, "That and
$2.50 will get you a good cup of coffee” (note revision to
reflect the inflated costs of coffee).
The idea of changing an ingrained habit is truly daunting.
I've failed so many times. I really do want to change the
litany of doubt, regret, mean-feelings, worry, fear, and
upset. So, I asked myself some questions like: How can I
change my negative thoughts into loving, life-enhancing
ones? What is the opposite of fear? Is it love? The emotions
of love and fear are so basic and so huge; it's hard
for me to come up with concrete ways to turn fear into
love. So, I've decided to begin with some other malady
like worry.
I can easily get my brain around worry; I know what it
feels like, I know its content well. I took a moment to
look at what may be across the continuum from worry?
I decided that for me it is gratitude. What if instead of
whirling around with worry, I'm dancing with gratitude?
Okay, great. How do I start to make a new practice in
my life? Here's what I've come up with. First I need to
become aware of the moments when I'm in my worry
mode, those times when my brain is spinning out its tale
of how bad things are, and how they have always been
bad, and how they will most likely continue to be bad.
As soon as I'm conscious that I'm running the worry
channel, I'll switch that channel, just like clicking a TV
remote, to the gratitude channel and ask myself what am
I grateful for in this moment. Change my focus.
For example, I often find myself doing this when I’m in
the car. As soon as I realize I'm spinning out my worry
list, I look around at the landscape as if waking from a
dream. It's a trick of the mind—and it's immediate. I
switch my channel and am grateful for the miracle that
other drivers are paying attention, and we're able to rip
down the road at sixty-five miles an hour and not run
into one another.
|
|
