We've all had peak experiences, times when we were washed with a
sense of clarity, of deep appreciation, of being at one with the
universe. Perhaps you were sitting on a sailboat watching the
sunset, or feeling unconditional love from someone who matters
to you, or being present at the birth of a child, or hearing a
piece of music that touched you deeply. This awareness need not
be serendipitous. We can invite it.
In Everything Belongs, Richard Rohr
suggests that when trapped in "the ways things are" we tend to
wait for the vision of the whole, and we have to allow ourselves
to be drawn into sacred space – to remain on a threshold where
the old world is left behind but we're not sure of the new one
yet. In this realm, where we hold a naïve awareness, everything
belongs: darkness and light coexist, paradox is revealed.
In our everyday world, what we think we know
is a world we've made up. In what Rohr calls the "second
naïveté," that world falls apart and a new one is revealed. In
this return to simple consciousness (what Buddhists refer to as
"beginner's mind"), he writes, "we are finally at home in the
only world that ever existed." How do we do it? "We stand in the
middle, living and fully accepting our reality, neither taking
this new awareness on from the power position nor denying it for
fear of the pain it will bring. We do not think ourselves into
new ways of living. We live ourselves into new ways of
thinking."
Little Buddha is a film about a boy
who it was thought might be the reincarnation of a revered
Tibetan teacher. Why was it appealing to me even though the
acting was reserved and there wasn't much action or character
development? Because it spoke to the
Nine in me, my
attraction to being Buddha-like. People feel safe with my
peaceful nature. But one of my most difficult patterns to
release has been the tendency to avoid conflict, the only path
to real relationship – because who are you dealing with if I
agree with everything you say, if I distract myself from my own
agenda, if I don't set clear boundaries about what’s important
to me?
In Enneagram Spirituality Suzanne
Zuercher writes of active contemplation – as opposed to passive
surrender to the process. Active contemplation is similar to the
Buddhist notion of mindfulness, carrying a posture of awareness,
intention, and readiness throughout our daily lives: awareness
of our habits of attention and how they play out uniquely for
us; intention to invite our unknown and disowned parts to come
forth, and readiness to take specific actions that shift our
focus of attention: doing the things most difficult for us,
staying present without avoiding or denying or projecting blame.
When I remember to be present with naïve awareness, with
beginner's mind – and I get daily opportunities to practice –
I’m more initiating, more focused.
This is how I live myself into new ways of thinking.
