From Suffering to Peace: The True Promise of Mindfulness
Part of my morning practice is to read a passage from a book such as A Year with Rilke or A Year with Rumi. Among my other favourites are Mark Nepo’s The Book of Awakening and Richard Wagamese’s Embers: One Obibway’s Meditations. It’s my own form of mindfulness practice to begin the day as are the various elements in the Writing Life women’s writing circles I lead. We begin with the ringing of the Tibetan ting sha and take three deep breaths: one to let go, one to stay here and one to surrender to what’s next. Although I learned Thich Nhat Hanh’s three breaths with the third breath as surrendering to what’s next, it could be a surrender to “what is” so that through letting go, we let be.
I read a poem following the three breaths and we do a “checking in.” We follow some guidelines so that all the intentions create a sacred container for the vulnerability of writing and sharing.
Lately, I’ve been reading From Suffering to Peace: The True Promise of Mindfulness by Mark Coleman (New World Library, 2019). I appreciate that Mark has included poetry throughout the book including references to the poetry of William Blake, Jack Gilbert, Naomi Shihab Nye, Anna Akhmatova, Audre Lorde, Rilke, Hafiz and Kabir.
Simply put, Mark says, mindfulness is “clear awareness. Knowing what’s happening as it’s happening. Present moment attention.” And a longer definition: “A non-reactive awareness of our mental, emotional, physical and environmental experience with an attitude of curiosity and care that develops insight and understanding.”
Mark Coleman has taught mindfulness meditation retreats and trainings worldwide for twenty years. He is the founder of the Mindfulness Training Institute and Awake in the Wild programs. Mark […]