The Wheel of Life: Practicing Loving Kindness

When we tune into the rhythms of our lives, and just notice "what is" rather than "what should be," it can give us great perspective. There is humility in acceptance. So much of out mental capacity is wasted on creating scenarios of "what should be"! Imagine if we simply dropped those constructed stories and sank our awareness into the beauty of what is.

In accepting what is, a kind of magic widow opens in the heart. We are wired for gratitude, for kindness, and gentleness. I've been reading the "Art of Happiness" by the Dalai Lama, and he suggests that the deepest happiness is rooted in loving kindness. When I first started my meditation practices, I thought "loving kindness" was a trait I needed to develop toward others. But further on in my study, I realized that the biggest missing piece was loving kindness toward myself and my own life.

When we turn our awareness to accept "what is" in our lives, we are kind to ourselves and how our lives are unfolding. We stop beating ourselves up for why we have not achieved certain things or developed in certain ways, or whatever the form takes. And the beautiful thing is, that once we stop beating ourselves up with "should," we innately stop beating up others with this lack of acceptance. The whole system relaxes.

In fact, a lot of relationship disjuncture can be cleaned up in a moment. Just taking time to be with -- to really stop and notice and accept what is right before you -- can make all of the difference. We can also take this perspective of the world around us. While we see many things that are not right, it takes a lot of pressure off of the system to accept, simply, things as they are.

On 9/11, a friend invited me to pray and meditate with her and another friend, to direct our attention to helping "hungry ghosts" -- souls who have not accepted their own death and are stuck in an "in between" state -- and send them to the Light of God. We were particularly focused on those annihilated by white people on our soil -- Native Americans, Black Slaves....Only when we had finished, my friend realized the connection to 9/11 and the annihilation of that day.

After our gathering, I revisited an image of a sacred wheel that came to me in meditation, and I wrote down these words. The sacred wheel is the wheel of life itself; the rhythm of our lives in the context of the rhythm of life itself.

The sacred wheel turns itself;
The wheel that spins light in
All directions is the wheel of the
Sacred Heart. There is nothing to do
But listen. When you listen to
The turning of the wheel, you see
That all is as it should be, and all
Is as it will be. The sacred wheel
Is held by the Deity and is turned
By the gentle motion of form
Entering into formlessness, and
Formlessness entering into form.

When willing beings gather
For the sake of listening and being
Used for sacred service, their
Forms are transmuted into light
And are used in ways that are
Incomprehensible to the mind.

The sacred wheel has no beginning
Nor does it have an end. There is
No one inside the circle of the wheel,
Or outside. The wheel itself is a concept
Given for understanding.
The only thing you need to know
Is to surrender to that which is
Always greater. In that surrender,
The miraculous is not
A concept but a lived thing.

...
Accepting what is, we surrender to what is, knowing that the design of our lives is not created by us but by much larger Hands. Opening the heart to this acceptance can be confronting, because it brings up all of our stories that we hold onto so very tightly. "But...I don't like this about myself...." "But...I don't like this about him...."

Loving kindness is a place to start. All it takes is a small act of service to open that window. A prayer, a flower given, a flower planted, a poem written and shared, a hand held, a gaze shared for just moments longer than is habitual. A bath taken, a breath slowed down, a cricket thanked...Serve gently and with awareness, and then watch what happens inside at that moment.