Dr. Matt’s Newsletter December 14th - the "Boring" mindfulness edition
Supporting healthy social interactions and diversity of health choices
Today’s newsletter features mindfulness practice in Christian monastic traditions and a research study finding they have longer life expectancy than the rest of us. This despite them waking at 3 am daily to begin a full day of work and prayer! They emphasize that daily activities are not “boring” but are actually the essence of life, something we all struggle with, myself included.
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Below are some interesting items I like to share each week and please feel free to send me ideas of your own for the newsletter. Today’s newsletter sections include:
Inspirational quotes from Trappist monk Thomas Merton
Music of the week – Ambient music for contemplation – old and new
Health and community building – Join us for the George Washington Parkway 5 k and 10 mile runs on April 23rd – yes even running can be done fully in the present moment.
Research of the week – Longer life expectancy in contemplative monks, mindfulness practice in Christian monastic traditions, and the end of human suffering.
In previous newsletters I have introduced mindfulness from a few different perspectives: a woman who had a near death experience that brought her to appreciate each present moment (November 2nd), talks from Jon Kabat-Zinn (October 19th) and Eckhart Tolle (November 23rd), and some quotes from Sufi master Inayat Khan (November 16th). But what about the monasteries right in our own backyards?
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Yours truly, one moment at a time.
Matt Irwin
Inspirational quotes from Trappist monk Thomas Merton
Finally I am coming to the conclusion that my highest ambition is to be what I already am.
Our minds are like crows. They pick up everything that glitters, no matter how uncomfortable our nests get with all that metal in them. 😊
- Thomas Merton -
Music of the week - Ambient music for contemplation: old and new
This section is up first so you can create the right “ambiance” while you read. These pieces also serve well for practicing mindful sitting, mindful exercising, and perhaps while you perform “boring” daily activities of life 😊. The two older pieces are specifically designed for spiritual practice, and the modern one comes from the same essential source.
1 - Music for dance and union with the present: El Hadra by Klaus Wiese
This extended piece is dedicated to Sufi mysticism, which was also highlighted in my newsletter on November 16 along with research into Morphic Resonance and “Dogs that know when their owners are coming home.” It is 52 minutes long, enough time to read the newsletter in its entirety, with plenty left over for making and baking a delicious blueberry pie.
2 - Martin Stürtzer: Event Horizon.
My son shared this with me: part of a modern genre of music known as “Ambient Music”. It has a peaceful rhythmic vibe similar to the mystic dance music of El Hadra.
3 - Bulgarian Eastern Orthodox Hymns: Megaloschemos II
If you thought the first two were “boring”, try this set of hymns, which take boredom to a newly deep level. They seem to pull one into the spirituality of the present moment. However, they can also be good background music while washing the dishes :-).
Health and community building – Join us for the George Washington Parkway 5 k and 10 mile runs on April 23rd – yes even running can be done fully in the present moment.
Our group of runners is growing steadily: seven and counting! The simple plan, as outlined in previous newsletters, is to have a pre-race and post-race picture, and a fresh fruit banquet at the end, weather permitting. A couple of our runners are expected to finish quickly, but they have promised to leave at least some fruit for the rest of us. Please send me an email when you decide to join in.
Here is a link where you can register and learn more about it.
https://www.parkwayclassic.com/raceinfo
Research of the Week - Mindfulness in Christian monastic traditions: Cistercians, Benedictines, and Trappists and longer life expectancy
My daughter gave me a book about four years ago which describes how we humans can end our suffering. I have been reading it rather slowly, about one page a week, for the past four years. You see, putting it in practice is rather challenging, to say the least, and may be more than a life-long journey. Perhaps this is why contemplative monks engage in these practices for an entire lifetime. And perhaps this engaged activity is why research has shown that they live longer than the rest of us (De Gouw et al 1995).
The book my daughter gave me is called “Falling into Grace: Insights on the End of Suffering” and its basic concept is simple: although the present moment may contain painful experiences, frightening experiences, and other very unpleasant experiences, it is not necessary to suffer when experiencing them. The deep tendency we humans have is to try to avoid these experiences, to hide them away, to deny them, and to do anything we can to make them disappear. Yet they are an intrinsic part of daily human experience and cannot actually be avoided, which sets up a perfect hamster wheel of suffering. It demands a lot to sit with them and experience them fully, but this is the very first step towards the end of suffering.
There are positive and joyful present moments, of course, that we do not want to let go of. Why do you think so many people become addicted to substances that seem to prolong these types of experiences, or that temporarily deaden the pain of the unpleasant ones? Unfortunately, chasing positive emotions is the flip side of avoiding negative ones. The more we try to control them, the more power they gain over us.
Conversely, when experienced fully and accepted as they are, with mindful present-moment awareness, even very painful ones quickly lose strength, and we realize grasping at pleasant ones is like grasping at smoke and mirrors. In the Wizard of Oz, you may recall that when the wizard was finally seen for who he really was, Dorothy and her friends realized that he had no magic powers at all. He was a simple man with a strong sense of the theatrical, just like our ego-minds.
Mindful practice is a deep part of many Christian traditions, as well as in many Eastern ones. Cistercians, Benedictines, and Trappists have a daily structure centered around mindful action and prayer. Thomas Merton, a prolific writer quoted above, was perhaps the most well-known contemplative monk who worked to illuminate this common ground between Western and Eastern mystical traditions. A video documentary linked below has this quote from one of the monks about the value of simple activities: “There is a depth of meaning everything that we do, including going to a soccer game, meeting the babysitter on time, and trying to cope with human needs. Everything we do has meaning. More so than is on the surface.”
In my Hospice work I have had the blessing of being part of the care team for two special people: a monk in a Benedictine Abbey in Washington DC and a nun in a Poor Clares convent south of Alexandria. I learned that brother monks and sister nuns form a caring family. They are also very similar to the rest of us, with an added dash of spiritual practice and with daily human struggles.
Our two hospice patients received some of the best care of any people we have had in hospice. I like to joke with our Benedictine monk, who is still with us, “when I approach my final weeks to months, I am going to sign up right away to be a member of your monastery”. With the poor Claire nuns, I had a slightly different take: “I am going to start recommending to our female hospice patients that they should join the Poor Clares as soon as possible” :-)
I wish I could tell you that these spiritual havens avoided the social isolation protocols of covid-19, but from what I can tell the majority of them adopted social distancing and masks, just as did the communities around them. They also usually adopted the belief system that the vaccine protects people from testing positive including often requiring vaccines of residents and visitors. The research section in my November 9th newsletter regarding covid vaccines might surprise them, but what can I say, no one is perfect, least of all myself 😊.
How can we learn to enjoy and fully experience each present moment? This teaching is shared by all religions, especially if you look in the right places. When people think of mindfulness or meditation they think of Buddhist teachers, Hindu teachers, and Eastern religions, but let’s not forget our own Western traditions. Decades ago I did a mindfulness retreat at Holy Cross Abbey, a Trappist monastery in Berryville Virginia, and the Benedictine Abbey in DC and Poor Ckares convent south of Alexandria are literally right in our own backyards.
Below are some links with information about the Cistercian Trappist order, including a link to the website of Holy Cross Abbey in Berryville.
1) The link below is to a one hour documentary about Trappist monastic life. In the beginning it makes it seem like monks never see their families, but the second link shows this is untrue. Today they welcome families to visit and even have guest houses designed for family members. Families usually develop friendly relations with their loved one’s monastic brothers.
2) Below is a link to a description of the importance of healthy family relations for the monks. A Trappist monk’s family might visit and stay in a family guest house several times a year.
https://www.trappists.org/2018/02/14/can-trappists-maintain-contact-with-their-families/
3) Here is a link to the website of Holy Cross Abbey in Berryville, Virginia about an hour west of Washington DC. They make various products such as jams, honey, fruit breads, and sell them in a gift shop at the Abbey. Unfortunately, they adopted many of the social isolation and social distancing protocols implemented in the past two years, but hopefully they have come to see the light more recently. I have learned that websites are often very slow to catch up with the reality on the ground.
https://www.virginiatrappists.org/
Many people complain that practicing being in the present moment is “boring”. However, since the present moment is the only one we ever have, this is like saying that “life is boring”. Life includes many boring tasks, such as washing dishes, performing job-related duties, and writing newsletters, none of which are actually boring at all 😊.
References
Adyashanti (2011). Falling into Grace: Insights on the End of Suffering. Sounds True, Inc. Boulder CO.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9808992-falling-into-grace
De Gouw et al (1995, April 15). Decreased mortality among contemplative monks in The Netherlands. American Journal of Epidemiology. 141(8):771-5.
doi: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.aje.a117500
Great article Matt! Love the music recommendations, esp the Bulgarian hymn. You can hear the influence of this music in the composer Arvo Part. Ive been to the Trappist monastery in Berryville years ago and this makes me want to go back when the time is right. Thanks for "boring" me this morning. :)