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Concentration

Concentration is such an important part of both Druid and Zen practice.  Some people have the natural ability to concentrate for long periods of time, others are always being distracted by any number of stimuli, from their own thoughts to external sounds and sights.  In order to get anything done simply, efficiently and will full awareness, we need to develop our concentration.  Meditation goes a long way in helping us to begin the process of learning to concentrate.

There are few times in our easy lives today where if we don’t concentrate, Very Bad Things will happen.  Even times such as driving a car can be done without full concentration – though that is also the cause of most accidents.  How many situations can you think of in your life where, if you don’t concentrate, you will die?

In the natural world, concentration is what keeps most things alive.  The fox, intent on the pheasant, excludes all other distractions to hunt the bird down and fill his belly. He might otherwise starve if he does not have this level of concentration.  The hawk, looking for the starling, the cat and mouse, the deer who is always alert to her environment for her own safety and protection – all of these creatures live with heightened levels of concentration and awareness.  As a Druid, I look to nature for inspiration and examples on how I too can live my life in full awareness.

A lot of people don’t think that you require high levels of concentration for the smaller tasks.  Washing dishes is a great example.  It’s something that most of us have had to do at some point in our lives, and it is a chore.  Looking up the word chore, I came across two definitions;  1 – a small routine task, especially  a domestic one, and 2 – an unpleasant task.  How different are those two definitions?

The first simply states what a chore is. The second makes a judgement call on it.  In order to concentrate, we have to leave judgement calls out of our tasks, otherwise we risk becoming embroiled in our thoughts, getting them all tangled up again and losing our focus on the task at hand.  While I went to the office kitchen to wash my mug today, I found I couldn’t wash my mug, as the sink was full of other people’s mugs.  We have, like many other offices around the world, signs everywhere asking people to wash up after themselves, with varying degrees of humour.  My first reaction was annoyance that other people were such pigs – then I caught myself. I was making a judgement call.  What would happen if I simply got on and washed up all the mugs, along with my own? What if I adopted the principles of Zen and non-attachment?

The answer was a very pleasant experience.  Taking all the mugs out and refilling the tub with warm, soapy water, I honed my concentration in and picked up a mug, putting it into the water and washing it thoroughly. I paid special attention to the task, and it was so much more enjoyable.  The feeling of the warm water on my hands was lovely – it was like having a mini-bath for my hands to relax in in the middle of the day.  I then caught myself again, as I found I was attaching to how lovely the experience was.  I should simply experience it and not make judgement calls, otherwise I could get lost in my thoughts and lose concentration.

So I kept at it.  I still enjoyed the warm water and the time away from my desk, and the end result was a clean kitchen with my own mug nice and washed up as well.  It was a much better experience than the usual “Sigh. Looks like I’ve got to do this. Again.”  With each mug, there was no thought on how awful other people are, leaving their dirty work for others.  Lipstick on one mug – no thought or judgement on that, simply something to wash.  When I did find myself wandering in my thoughts, I brought myself back, and noticed that the bowl I had just “cleaned” was, in fact, still dirty.  Concentrate, concentrate, concentrate.

When we let go of the concept of “menial” tasks, everything becomes special and worthy of concentration.  Taking it even further, listening to your child, driving your car, writing your book, making love, stroking the cat – all of these gain more significance because you have devoted your concentration to them, and by doing so, establishing a better relationship with the world around you.

Druidry is all about relationship.  It’s hard to have a relationship with someone who isn’t paying attention to you, who is ignoring you or thinking about other things when you are engaging with them.  So we should try and devote our levels of concentration to every task that we can think of, in order to make all relationships special.  Our lives will become more fulfilled, and dare I say it – even rewarding (though rewards are NOT the goals in life, living is the goal to life).

Taking concentration to even the “smallest” of tasks means that we will be better equipped when we attempt the “larger” ones, such as Druid ritual.  However we may celebrate, the main point behind Druid ritual is intention.  If we lose concentration, our intention can easily become lost, or twisted, our relationship faltering.  Intention is described as “an act or instance of determining mentally upon some action or result” (from an online dictionary).  Our mental faculties must be honed in order for the action or result to be successful, or meaningful in some way.  We can determine mentally upon some action, but unless we apply concentration, that result may not be what we would wish for.

With ritual, whether we are celebrating the seasons, or healing a friend, honouring an accomplishment or singing back to the land, it is our intention combined with our concentration that makes what we are doing both special, and not so special.  This may sound like a contradiction – well, it is and it isn’t!

If we apply high levels of concentration to everything we do, we make everything “special” in some way. If we carry this all the way to Druid ritual, we find that ritual is both something special and nothing special at all – it is a time that we set aside for a certain purpose, devoting ourselves to the moment, which can seem special, yet by carrying our intention through all that we do in our lives, ritual becomes a part of our lives that is as important as, say, washing the dishes.  The mundane becomes sacred, and we see the awen in everything.

 

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Welcome, Autumn

Autumn – thanks be to all the gods that it is here.  I don’t usually write very personal posts, but at this time of year a little introspection seems appropriate.

After a physically and emotionally exhausting summer, the cool autumn days are a welcome relief.  Time to step out of the burning light and into the gentler, calmer times.  Having worked hard all summer, it is now time to reap the rewards, in the hopes of a successful harvest.  With the autumn equinox on the 22nd, that special time of balance, where everything hovers with hushed breath as the season turns towards the dark half of the year – it is these changing times that are the most powerful for me.  I stand, on the edge, waiting to either jump, topple over or be pushed into change…

It is a time for coming back to “place” – which for me is home, my environment.  Having spent the summer going all over this country and others, visiting friends and family, going to events, festivals, etc, the return to home where I can simply sit and enjoy the walls around me, or my garden and the beech tree outside, or the heathland and deer, the rocky shingle beach on the east coast – these things become all the more important.  I now have time.  I can see it stretching out lazily in front of me – not to be taken for granted, but to be enjoyed in silence, time to heal, to return.  After a couple of health scares, a physically demanding summer and emotional turmoil, autumn reaches out a hand and urges me to lie on the cool grass and watch as the leaves fall gently around me, a fresh north wind breeze upon my skin as the clouds drift with dignity in a bright blue sky.

I look forward to buying a fresh supply of firewood for the winter this weekend, to enjoy long, dark evenings in with my husband and cats, or in the simple pleasure of my own company in the silence that the coming winter brings.  I look forward to spending more time with my husband, whom I’ve barely seen this summer – I look forward to falling in love with him all over again.  Baking apple crisp and bread, muffins and cookies, having time to make proper home-cooked meals, brewing my own port and mead.  Getting to know my garden again.

Welcome autumn.  It is time to rest now.  Time to close my eyes, and dream it all up again.

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Excerpt from new book, Zen Druidry

We are not “away with the faeries” in meditation – we are truly and more aware of what is going on around us than most people at that moment.  We are also aware of our own bodies – any tightness, any pains, where we are relaxed and where we are tense. We can adjust our bodies, again without attachment, releasing tension and the moving on to full awareness of everything. 

 

This first phase of meditation is exceedingly important.  Once we have attained a modicum of discipline, we can then open ourselves up to what is going on around us without instantly jumping into thoughts about everything we see, hear or smell.  We have already modified our behavioural patterns into something much simpler, much more integrated with the world around us. 

 

The next phase is to allow the thoughts that arise, releasing the focus on our breath and our environment.  We do not become absorbed in these thoughts, however.  We let them bubble up, notice them, and then without paying any more attention to them let them go.  This is the key – like an angry child with a temper tantrum, the more attention we give to our thoughts, the louder they will become, until they have completely absorbed us into their own little world.  We must realise that their little world doesn’t even exist – we must learn to stop living inside our heads.

 

Some of the thoughts that arise might be full of emotion, leading us to joyous recollections or into the pits of despair.  Again, we must simply see the thoughts that arise in these first stages of meditation, and later find the space to deal with them should they need to be dealt with.  The idea of mindfulness is not to push aside the feelings, not to suppress them in any way. You truly have to feel them – and with such feelings like rage, it can be difficult. But it is possible to feel these emotions without acting upon them. It’s why I haven’t murdered anyone – and I hope I never will! Because we live in honorable relationship to the world, we know that to act on certain feelings is morally unethical. We can still feel them, acknowledge them – hell, we’re only monkeys with car keys after all. We honor the feelings of our own human nature, dance with them, surrender into their flow for a time, but never ever submit, for to do could quite possibly mean our death, or the death and harm of others.

A little something to smile about…

A little something to smile about...

I’ve been so busy lately with belly dancing, that I haven’t posted for a while – so here’s a little something from our photo shoot that we did a while back, to make you smile!

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An Enlightened Druid?

Many people ask – what is enlightenment?  Oh for an easily explained answer.  The Buddha, when choosing his successor, simply held up a flower and one of his disciples was enlightened and smiled – he then became the successor.  There are many stories in Zen philosophy and spirituality about enlightenment, but none of these stories actually tell you just what it is. And nor should they – it is something to be experienced, not read or talked about.

Outiside of Japan, most Zen practioners experience enlightenment gradually, as opposed to the full smack upside the head that satori can create.  It is through meditaiton, and being completely aware that you gradually gain enlightenment.  As the ego starts to fall away, the so-called “real” self emerges.

To allow the ego to fall away, one technique is to use the “Don’t Know” mind.

“Everybody says, “I” — “I want this, I am like that…” But nobody understands this “I.” Before you were born, where did your I come from? When you die, where will your I go? If you sincerely ask, “What am I?” sooner or later you will run into a wall where all thinking is cut off. We call this “Don’t know.” Zen is keeping this “Don’t know” mind always and everywhere. When walking, standing, sitting, lying down, speaking, being silent, moving, being still. At all times, in all places, without interruption – what is this?” – taken from http://zen.buddhism.org/about-zen.html

It’s a hard thing to admit that we don’t really know anything.  And yet, any true scientiest will tell you that it is impossible to know 100% about anything – there is always margin for error.  When we embrace the fact that we don’t really know anything, whole worlds open up for us.  We can examine ourselves more deeply, and then ponder even on the notion of self if we were to take it one step further.  Enlightenment is said to strike when we realise that there is no self – that we are all part of everything else. In Zen, the term “oneness” is often used, but I don’t like the monopoly that this word invokes – instead I think of it as a “wholeness”.

When we are completely in the moment, when our chattering minds are stilled, when our sense of self falls away and there is only the now, we become enlightened.  In this state, many great things can happen – the perfect haiku is written, the archer and the target become one and the bullseye is hit without thought, the music simply flows, the painting emerges.

This reminds me of a similar term in Druidry, which is awen.  Many people now believe the Welsh word’s translation to be something akin to “flowing spirit” or “flowing inspiration”.  Is this any different to the Eastern version of enlightenment?  As Druids, we gain awen from the world around us, which inspires us to create or to be still, to act or to remain passive, to be in complete and total relationship with the world around us.  Not so different to satori, is it?  Again, to be in a perfect relationship with the world around us, we must learn not to separate the I from the It – instead viewing the world as a whole rather than as separate.  In this way, the inspiration or flowing spirit can flow freely down all channels directly into our soul and out into the wider web of the universe.

So, am I enlightened?

Don’t know.