It occurred to me while sweeping, I think we really should. I was sweeping the front entryway, which is mostly a pleasant activity for me. It usually makes me think of my meditation teacher's grandmother who would sweep the entry to their family home in India every morning while gently singing her mantram. How nice, I would always think, to start the day preparing to receive whatever might come your way. But every day? I don't think I do any cleaning activity EVERY day. And you know, sweeping sometimes hurts my back, and this time it got me thinking about pet peeves. People who don't finish the job, that's a major pet peeve of mine. The guys had been sawing wood out front and made a mess of sawdust. They swept up the sawdust but stopped there. How could they do that? The whole front obviously needed sweeping, it wouldn't have taken that much longer, they swept a clean spot in the middle of a mess and walked away. Then I noticed how really hard sweeping had become. Easwaran's granny really was 8,000 miles away, my back was hurting, and I just kept thinking of that pet peeve of mine, how it makes me so angry when somebody doesn't finish the job. Then I got it--pet peeves are just an excuse to be angry, dang! I hate pet peeves. I stopped. I took 10 deep three-part yoga breaths and began again sweeping and humming the mantram in my mind without pain in my back. The positive vibrations attracted Joey the cat, he has no pet peeves, he just appreciates a job well done. MK
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Don'tcha hate pet peeves?
It occurred to me while sweeping, I think we really should. I was sweeping the front entryway, which is mostly a pleasant activity for me. It usually makes me think of my meditation teacher's grandmother who would sweep the entry to their family home in India every morning while gently singing her mantram. How nice, I would always think, to start the day preparing to receive whatever might come your way. But every day? I don't think I do any cleaning activity EVERY day. And you know, sweeping sometimes hurts my back, and this time it got me thinking about pet peeves. People who don't finish the job, that's a major pet peeve of mine. The guys had been sawing wood out front and made a mess of sawdust. They swept up the sawdust but stopped there. How could they do that? The whole front obviously needed sweeping, it wouldn't have taken that much longer, they swept a clean spot in the middle of a mess and walked away. Then I noticed how really hard sweeping had become. Easwaran's granny really was 8,000 miles away, my back was hurting, and I just kept thinking of that pet peeve of mine, how it makes me so angry when somebody doesn't finish the job. Then I got it--pet peeves are just an excuse to be angry, dang! I hate pet peeves. I stopped. I took 10 deep three-part yoga breaths and began again sweeping and humming the mantram in my mind without pain in my back. The positive vibrations attracted Joey the cat, he has no pet peeves, he just appreciates a job well done. MK
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I have been working with tonglen lately. Anger had been at the center of it. I did not realize how often anger is in the middle of it. In little ways, like a pet peeve, there it is. I have been breathing in the situation, the person, or whatever, and feeling the anger, then dropping the person and feeling the anger, the dark, raw feeling and then breathing out release, peace, expansive, big and the anger is gone. Breath, some many uses!
ReplyDeleteHow do you like Joey the yoga cat? That pose was amazing...completely relaxed...
ReplyDeleteI heard Andrew Weil interviewed once, and he said the one thing he would do differently if he could is start working with the breath much more and much earlier than he did. He feels it is the single thing that can make the biggest difference.
ReplyDeleteOh, I don't know about Tonglen, but I love Buddhism, I'll be googling until we can chat about it. BTW did you see that Amy mentioned Easwaran and recommended one of his books in her most recent newsletter? Just another of so many serendipitous events on the path.
ReplyDeleteYour comment is so correct. I really think so much of what we put ourselves through is because we're afraid to feel our feelings. I really want to know more about Tonglen. Your comment is really resonating with me.
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