A Navigation of Trust and Love, Personification Added

Sometime after I have closed the lights and prepare to sleep, my cat arrives. Gigi is her name.

She steps onto my ankle at the bottom of the bed and pauses while she gets her balance.

She slowly walks up my calf, takes a left at my knee and proceeds up my thigh.

There she carefully steps onto my hip and again pauses to gain traction.

She slowly climbs each rib-step arriving at my shoulder and pausing for clarity.

She then steps at an angle past my chin, cheek, and ear, onto the pillow, finally arriving at the "dog/cat go-round in circles eventually settling down to lie down routine."

After she arrives at the optimal position to be able to curl up, while purring she braces her hind legs against my chest to push herself into place, with her head cupped in my half-asleep waiting left hand while my right hand supports her hind legs. Now  she is ready for sleep.

Of course, by then I am fully awake but I relish each movement, each moment of her navigated journey towards snuggling in with me which I take as a sign of human/animal communication and exchange of trust and love.

The Unknowing Yogi

These thoughts spoke to me.

"The rejuvenating effects of sleep are due to man's temporary unawareness of body and breathing. The sleeping man becomes a yogi; each night he unconsciously performs the yogic rite of releasing himself from bodily identification, and of merging the life force with healing currents in the main brain region and in the six sub-dynamos (chakras)  of his spinal centers. Unknowingly, the sleeper is thus recharged by the cosmic energy that sustains all life."

Autobiography of a Yogi. Paramahansa Yoganhanada. 1945. Page 268.



"Gross man seldom or never realizes that his body is a kingdom, governed by Emperor Soul on the Throne of the Cranium, with subsidiary Regents in the six spinal centers or spheres of consciousness (Chakras.) This theocracy extends over a throng of obedient subjects; twenty-seven thousand billion in cells (endowed with sure if seemingly automatic intelligence by which they perform all duties and bodily growths, transformations, and dissolutions) and fifty million substratal thoughts, emotions,and variations of alternating phases in man's consciousness in an average life of sixty years.

"An apparent insurrection in the human body or mind against Emperor Soul, manifesting as disease or irrationality, is due to no disloyalty among the humble subjects, but stems from past or present misuse by man of his individuality or free will -- given to him simultaneously with a soul, and revocable never.

"Identifying himself with a shallow ego, man takes for granted that it is he who thinks, wills, feels, digests meals, and keeps himself alive, never admitting through reflection (only a little would suffice) that in his ordinary life he is naught but a puppet of past actions (karma) and of past Nature or environment (thoughts and experiences. )

Autobiography of a Yogi. Paramahansa Yoganhanada. 1945. Page 272.

So the two lessons are work at removing yourself from the conceited thoughts that it is you alone who is in charge of yourself. Rather, the question is "Who are you?" Ego vs true self?

Lessons in Buddhist Practice

This lesson deals with a Breathing Practice that can be done when you are trying to fall asleep and you just lie there replaying the day or tomorrow or aches & pains or fears and frustrations, etc.

When we begin to train we see that we’ve been pretty ignorant about what we’re doing. First we see that we are rarely able to rest into the present moment.*

Second, we see that  we have fabricated all kinds of strategies to avoid staying present, particularly when we’re afraid that whatever’s happening will hurt.*

Third, we also see our strong belief that if only we could do everything right, we’d be able to find safe, comfortable, and secure place to spend the rest of our lives.*

There is no one right way. There is no safe, comfortable, and secure place to find. It already lives within each one of us. 

What we need to do is: 1) quiet the voices so we can hear ourselves and 2) accept that nothing is forever, what is forever is how we deal with each situation at the moment it is happening and then move on to the next moment.

By working on our Breathing Practice, we can begin to change the excuses, the fears, the back stories we tell ourselves as truth.

When you lie down to sleep for the night or to take a short nap, you can do this practice. But you must begin to do it. Eventually it will be available to you as a Practice whenever you need it. In the beginning it might be easier to do nothing and lie there unable to sleep or nap.

By focusing on our breath (and everybody breaths you know) we can begin to quite our inner voices, which are not necessarily the truth, just things we have over time, for some reason accepted as truth. (More on this in another lesson.)

To fall asleep at night, once finished with your getting ready to go to bed, have gotten into bed, and have turned off the lights; first focus on your breath. Do this four or five or six times, counting with each “in.”

As you focus on your breath begin a “body scan.” Start with the top of your head and as you breath deeply in and out, name each part of your body. Head, scalp, forehead, ears, ear lobes, nose, nostrils, cheeks, chin, mouth, tongue, roof of the mouth, sides of the mouth, bottom of the mouth, teeth, neck etc. To further focus divide up those areas you can into left and right: left nostril, right nostril.

Deep breath in: Head. Deep breath out: Head.

Deep breath in: Forehead. Deep breath out: Forehead.

Etc as you work your way down your body.

Once this seems easy enough for you, as you focus on each part, add taking a deep breath in through the nose and let it go out through the mouth. 

Once this seems easy enough for you, (maybe over a few days even,) as you name each part add being aware of how that part feels. Neutral feeling, numb feeling, painful feeling. Add no back story, just notice the feeling and move on to the next part.

You have now added several “layers” of quieting those voices: breathing in and out, naming the parts of your body from top to bottom, changing the breath ways (nose vs mouth.)

Finally, the wonderful thing about Buddhist Practice is that it is very forgiving. If your mind wanders just gently bring it back to the Practice, if your forget where you on in your Body Scan just start over, if you have difficulty breathing through your mouth or nose just choose the one that is comfortable for you, if you prefer begin with your toes and work your way up.

Even if you try this for a few minutes and give up, you are a few minutes closer to being able to call up the Breathing Practice to help you fall asleep. Also, many of the lessons learned here can be applied to other types of Practice at other times of the day to be used for other reasons like stress or pain reduction. (More on this in a different lesson.)

* Taken from: The Places That Scare You: A Guide to Fearlessness in Difficult Times. Pema Chödrön. P 35. 2002.

Bed

Sometimes I cannot wait to go to bed thinking about getting up early to have my cup of coffee.