Sweeping Kindness

In meditation, we work with the concept of “craving causes suffering” - suffering refers to the Sanskrit word “dukkha”. Dukkha is normally translated into English as “suffering”.

I sometimes struggle with the word 'suffering'. It brings to mind images of anguish and torment. And while dukkha for some people is agony and torture, I started thinking about a replacement word, easier to work with. Today we used 'frustration'.

I think we all relate to "craving causes frustration"; the frustration of not getting what you want. And the subsequent grasping / holding on which occurs, not being able to let go of our craving. Or getting that which you don’t want! In which case, we move away from that which is undesirable. We all know the dukkha which arises from the ever-changing nature of everything: just when we think we have things happily under control, something changes and suddenly it feels like it's all falling apart! The frustration which arises from our habit of clinging to experiences that must, and do, pass away.

The antidote to this frustration is “Radical Acceptance”. I also like to think of it as "Sweeping Kindness". We practice Sweeping Kindness in conjunction with "Just Sitting" meditation, starting with our own wandering mind, (Just Sitting, Sweeping Kindness. Has a nice, poetic ring to it.) receiving whatever arises with kindness, especially our own mind, when it comes back from wandering! If it wanders, we receive it with kindness. Even if it wanders one hundred times, we receive it with kindness.

We receive whatever is arising, regardless of whether we feel what's happening to be positive or negative in nature. In this way we can observe the nature of the experience and just how we are relating to that experience.

In Zen it's called ‘pointing directly at your own heart’, an old proverb which is a beautiful metaphor for saying 'turn your gaze back upon itself'. Or, as Saint Francis of Assisi said: “What you are looking for… is what is looking”. If you want to experience the truth… look inside your own being. Practicing meditation is nothing other than turning your gaze back upon itself, looking inside your own being.

So we look. At everything. We often try not to look at or get rid of emotions we don’t want to feel. But when we close our hearts and minds to the negative, we are only half-open to life. Allowing ourselves to being open means being open to all emotions, even the uncomfortable ones. Sometimes that means courage; being fearless.

Receiving everything with sweeping kindness, we soon recognize that it doesn’t really matter what is happening. What matters is how we are relating to our experience. If you notice you are feeling frustrated, think about how you are relating to the presence of frustration. If you notice you are anxious, how are you relating to the presence of anxiety? If you are sad, how are you relating to your feeling of sadness? Or anger, jealousy, irritation, resentment, happiness, joy, gratitude? Stop fighting the negative or holding onto the positive of your experience and instead observe the nature of your experience, the nature of your mind.

If a mind state or emotion or mood becomes strong, sit down for a moment, look at it, make a mental note of that mind state, feel it, receive it with sweeping kindness, sit with it. And you will notice how even a strong feeling such as you are sitting with is part of the ‘passing show’ of life. It arises, it is there for a while - and then it passes away.

That's the essence of Mindfulness practice.

Be kind.

:)