Ten Minutes a Day

I'm forwarding this message from my long-lost friend, Graham Br . . . ownstein. I hope you all get something out of it, as I did.

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Subject: hey, hey back
To: paul@...
From: gbrownstein@...
Date: Tue, 09 Oct 2001 12:51:36 -0700

Paul,

I'm adding you to my address book and I'm going to forward you an email
that I sent out yesterday that I think is self-explanatory. If you feel
like it, you can comment or forward it along. I'm really looking forward
to seeing you in the next couple months and catching up. Until then, be well.

Love,
Graham

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Ten Minutes a Day

"root out the terrorist networks" . . . "focus on the supply of terrorists"
. . . "bring these terrorists to justice" . . . "attack the root causes of
terror"

What is the meaning of these words? Does "rooting out" or "focusing on the
supply" or "bringing to justice" or "attacking the causes" include truly
going after everybody around the world who has ever sponsored, supported,
supplied, harbored, succored, encouraged, funded, praised or dealt with
"terrorists" or encouraged "terror"? If so, we better be willing to string
up ourselves along with a goodly portion of the rest of humanity.

The world is not a different place today than it was on September 10. We
are "shocked." We are "outraged." We are "horrified." We are "dismayed."
We want "action." Perhaps our shock and our sense of determinism about
the need for certain action are proportional to our longstanding blindness
(myself included; I am saddened by my sorry lack of consciousness prior to
this attack) to the realities of the world we are ALL responsible for
creating.

The world we want to live in is right here and has been all along. The
problem is that most of us are somewhere else most of the time. (I believe
that I am paraphrasing a yogic master on that one.) So we plod along,
focusing much energy and time and money on what we deem to be "necessary"
or "right" in order to solve this problem. Some buy flags. Some go to New
York to try to save lives or lend a hand. Some give money. Some beat up
people who look different. Some pray. Some buy gas masks. Some hold
peace rallies insisting that they must be "right."

And some sit quietly by, feeling ever more isolated from and curious about
the raging storm, pondering how and why it is that everybody feels so
certain about their opinions. And I will be the first to admit my own
shared responsibility in this; I am and have been very opinionated and I
even go to bat nine times out of ten for my opinion being the "right" one
(perhaps on some level I am doing this right now). But I have been doing a
lot of reconsidering of this general approach to life recently. We really
do not need to have an opinion on everything that can be boiled down to "X
is right and Y is wrong."

The only thing I am certain of at this point is that we all need to work
much harder on being okay with being uncertain. The world is a chaotic and
turbulent place. If we lock down or seek rigidity or certainty--even in
ways that are seemingly unimportant--we set ourselves up for being broken
in even more ways and places than we have been these last weeks.

What good does demanding "justice, not vengeance" do if we shout these
words so loudly that we can not hear what anybody else has to say?

What good does "focusing on the supply" of terrorists do if we focus so
hard we become incapable of looking inside ourselves and seeing that we are
all capable of putting terror and violence out into the world?

What good does "rooting out terrorist networks" do if our children do not
get a chance to be born because we contribute to the destruction of humanity?

I do not believe that this situation is something we can solve like a
problem set or a policy debate or a personal argument.

I fear that the only real way out of this mess is for us to grow bigger
than the obstacle we confront so that we are able to absorb the obstacle
and make it part of our selves. And this will have to happen on an
individual level of consciousness for every human on the planet and for
humanity as a collective. The process of "getting there" is one of intense
introspection, research, meditation, prayer and dialogue (in the form of
respectful and non-argumentative group conversations with lots of different
kinds of people). Needless to say, with all of the time being spent
watching the news, arguing with coworkers, buying flags and gas masks,
giving money, beating people up, organizing rallies, etc., etc., most of us
seem to have very little time left to reflect on how we feel about
ourselves and our place in the world and our connections or disconnections
with the rest of humanity.

And before we can even start to be able to reflect on or think about "how
we feel," "what should be done," "what is right," or "what is certain," we
have to give ourselves down time...alone time...personal space.

I would encourage all of you to take at least ten minutes today to do
nothing at all. And by "doing nothing," I don't mean sitting on your couch
with the TV on or reading the latest issue of the newspaper or pondering
the horrors of the world. I really mean do NOTHING. Go sit outside
somewhere where you feel safe and close your eyes. Or sit down in your
living room and stare at the wall. Anything that allows you to just stop.
And then focus ALL of your attention on your breathing . . . slowly in . .
. and slowly out . . . and nothing else. And commit to doing this for at
least ten minutes. If you find yourself "thinking" about anything, don't
worry about it and don't scold yourself for wandering, just calmly let go
of your thoughts and refocus all of your attention on your breath.

And commit to doing this for ten minutes today. And then maybe, after you
are done, think about making the same deal with yourself for tomorrow.

Perhaps when we open our eyes, we will find that the world to which we have
all become so accustomed is merely a very powerful illusion that we have
all dreamt up to give our fears a place to exist.

"Out beyond ideas of right-doing and wrong-doing, there is a field. I will
meet you there."
--Rumi

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