Brilliant Things Happen in Calm Minds 😶‍🌫️

 I just realized I didn't give you an update on the meditation class last Sunday. Doh! 

And I know you are probably wondering how I can be a mindfulness and meditation coach when I was dropping all those f-bombs in previous posts. 

Well, I'll tell ya.

People are people. And we ALL are multi-faceted. And before I go down that rabbit hole, I'll get back to the class.

Soooo, I signed up at the local meditation center to expose myself to other meditation teachings. And improve my own meditations. This center is all about the buddhist outlook on life. 

I do realize how fortunate I am to have this resource just 3 blocks from my home. 

I've been stalking this place for years. I was just about to join when the pandemic hit. 🤦‍♀️

Well, I finally took the plunge and signed up for the Foundation Study Program. Did I know much about it? Nope, I just decided to commit.

I show up on Sunday ready for a 2 hour class. I wore comfortable leggings, brought my yoga mat and some water. I truly had no idea what to expect. I didn't know if we were expected to sit on the floor or what but I wanted to be prepared. 

I was greeted by a women named Nina who, I found out in short order, was a volunteer and another Foundation student. 

The resident teacher is Buddhist nun Nan Norden and a lovely person. She started the session with a short meditation session. Then we listened to a reading and she asked us to let what came up, come up for us. The reading spoke about the emptiness. This refers to the tenet that 'all things are empty of intrinsic existence and nature. 

What came up for me was the idea of 'everything and nothing'. Something that came up in my Inner Affirmations journaling a couple weeks before. She said to focus on this. 

For me that meant just remembering that everything comes from nothing and nothing comes from everything. 

I know, it might not make sense to you and it does to me. 

More meditation then a review and lecture (by her) of the next section in The Eight Steps to Happiness, the book they are currently reading. This section is all about conventional and ultimate truths. 

Essentially, everything that exists is either a conventional truth or an ultimate truth, and, since ultimate truth refers just to emptiness, everything except emptiness is a conventional truth. 

Not gonna lie. I think this broke my brain. 🤯

After the lecture, we got into pairs to discuss. Since there were only four of us, that was easy. 

I got paired with Cynthia, the woman I met at the Inman Park Festival. I discovered that she was formerly in the Teaching Study Program and needed to take a break. The Teaching program is the Foundation program on steriods. 

Cynthia took the time to give me all the info and requirements to be in the Foundation Program. I learned that they typically have to approve someone before they can be in the program. Oops. What do I know? I just signed up. 

Well, turns out that there are a LOT of requirements. As in:

• volunteering once a week 
• not missing more than 3 Sundays in a year
• doing a presentation at the end of the quarter
• take an exam at the of the quarter
• some more stuff

I can manage most of this. I mentioned to Cynthia that I travel for work sometimes and frequently that occurs on a Sunday. I certainly don't travel like I used to but I guarantee I'm going to miss more than three Sundays. This is a non-starter. Cynthia tells me that I probably don't need to worry too much about it since she can see that I'm concerned about this. She tells me to think about it and that I have a couple weeks to try out the program before I have to commit. Whew. 

Cynthia and I then go to the topic at hand. I mention that it hurt my brain. AND that I had a different takeaway from the first part of the session. She said that this concept is one of the HARDEST of the buddhist philosophy and I just happen to join at this time.

 Yeah, well, story of my life. 

Then we came back to the main room. Nina and another woman shared their experience with the concept. The other woman seemed to get it initially and then started talking too much. Nun Nan said she needed to keep it simple. The simplier the better since the more you talk the more 💩 gets confusing. 

Then that was it. 

It was nice and I enjoyed it. However, as I sit here, perhaps the General Study Program would work better for me. At least for now. There are no requirements and I can go to any session at the center that I want. 

And now that I've made that decision, my brilliant mind is calm. 🧠