Remembering Abundance
One reliably excellent act of love and friendship, perhaps the greatest, is to pay full attention. -- William Sebrans
Last evening, after tidying up and taking out the trash, I stood in my kitchen looking and listening. The light was soft and slowly fading. I heard the sweet sound of birds serenading the whole neighborhood with their evensong. In the background, the ball game on TV. A breeze from the fan swept across my face, cooling my whole body. My belly was full, my feet were steady on the ground.
My heart opened into a bright, warm center in my chest, and I felt grateful. I realized that I have everything I need. “What more does a person need than this?” I thought.
Abundance. Acceptance. Gratitude. We often talk about these qualities as something to cultivate, but the truth is, they are natural states of being. We don’t have to work hard to access them. It’s more like we need to remember them. What we practice or wish to cultivate is embodied present moment attention. When we bring full attention to any moment of our lives, it’s an act of love. We are saying that we care about this life that has been entrusted to us, and we want to know it intimately.
How did I manage to be attentive enough last night? One thing that helped was that I paused between activities. Remembering to pause and not rush mindlessly from one activity to another can be a powerful practice. In the gap I created, I was able to hear the birds and the ballgame, which gave me a lovely all-over feeling of “aaahh…summertime.” That felt good, so I stayed aware for a few more minutes, basking in appreciation. Social scientists have dubbed this Savoring, and there is some evidence that the practice of savoring positive experiences rewires neural pathways and leads to deeper satisfaction and peace of mind.
The opposite of this is known as Scarcity Mentality. This shows up in our thinking and is continuously reinforced by the culture at large. This is the persistent belief that there is not enough time, money, talent, intelligence, etc. Not enough. Less than. This kind of thinking is typically so ubiquitous that we aren’t aware of it, even as it colors our day-to-day living. Scarcity Mentality creates a barrier to abundance and a free flow of material and emotional energy in our lives. It’s that fearful voice in your head, the tightwad who says, “I got mine” and “if you get some, I get less.” In truth, this is a completely unnatural way to be.
Humans are plagued by greed, it's true. But Nature is nothing if not abundant, and since human beings are part of Nature, it turns out we also have a natural capacity to be generous. When we act generously, we counteract the effects of anxious contraction in the body-heart-mind, holding on for dear life to whatever we think we own and must keep. If you’re afraid of loss, give generously.
One of the most powerful ways to be generous is to give full attention to something or someone. Everything and everyone I love the most flourishes when I give it/them my heartfelt, clear-minded attention. Teaching and practicing the Alexander Technique invites this kind of attention, and in fact I can only give a good lesson when I’m attending in a spacious, generous way. Practicing and guiding Insight meditation can also only happen when the intention is to be attentive to whatever arises moment to moment.
When we remember to pause and sense, we are more likely to notice spontaneous urges to give freely -- of attention, material goods, or information and even wisdom. Joseph Goldstein says that several years ago he set an intention to follow through as soon as possible, any time he felt an urge to be generous or giving. For him, this is a way of not postponing joy. “There is happiness in planning the generous act, happiness in the actual giving, and happiness in reflecting later on your generosity,” he says.
Recognizing abundance feels good. Attending fully to someone (including yourself) feels good. Savoring pleasant moments feels good. Generous giving feels good.
Experiment with pausing whenever you can remember to, and simply connect to your senses. What do you feel in your body? What are you seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting? Can you appreciate this abundant world of which you are an essential part?
How does it feel to engage in this “one reliably excellent act of love and friendship?”
—————————
Related articles:
Joseph’s quote comes from Pocket Paramis: Generosity, in Tricycle.