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November 2005In this Issue: |
I hope all of you are enjoying the fall inward toward winter. I find that the full colors and the final starkness of autumn, prompts a letting go. With me, it’s always about limiting patterns of thinking and feeling. I am reminded during our New England seasonal changes that I am not my thoughts and feelings; I am more, so much more. A teacher of mine, Eknath Easwaran once said that, “a human being is an immense spiritual force barely contained in a physical form.” Each of us know this experience, however brief; we’ve had moments of knowing, maybe whole afternoons, perhaps days. Yesterday, I marveled in the blustery sunshine of a blessed day, flying a kite with my son Beau. (He doesn’t so much fly the kite, as run with it, like the wind.) Many moments of union, complete Presence arose, as I watched Beau fly through the falling leaves, kite in hand. Perhaps, love is attention, pure attention. This holiday season, I offer a reminder, that our character is not defined by our feelings and thoughts and intentions, it is defined and refined solely by our actions, by what we do with our attention, and thus, our energy and our actions. Blessings of peace and passionate purpose as you celebrate with family and friends. Warmly, Sean Casey Leclaire If you'd like to share this issue with a friend, they can view the newsletter online at http://www.seanleclaire.com/ezine/. If you'd prefer not to receive future issues of Be The Change, click the Unsubscribe link at the bottom of this message. ROAD RAGEIt’s Friday afternoon, rush hour traffic, driving west on Route 2 to pick up my son Beau from daycare. I’m listening to an Eckhart Tolle’s Power of Now tape. His message is about “holding space” when your partner has moved into their pain body. I don’t know about you, but when I’m afraid, or someone is attacking me, my initial response can sometimes still be anger. It served me well in my youth, growing up in a rugged neighborhood. And, it’s a tough habit to let go of, but I’ve made some solid progress. I cut to the inside lane. Tires screech. From the corner of my eye, I glimpse a fast-moving reddish car, swerve, barely missing my bumper. Instinctively, I speed up. My first thought, what’s the guy doing? The car dodges two other cars circling the rotary, makes a move past a Poland Springs water truck, that Mario Andretti would have been proud of, and charges beside my passenger side window. I jerk my head to the right. A middle-aged man, fair-size, who’s definitely in touch with his pain body, begins screaming profanities at me. The guy is popping up and down like popcorn. He’s beyond flaring the bird finger, his right arm and fist waving at me. “I made a MIS…” “YOU piece of shit! YOU F…! Cock…!” “TAKE!” I yell to no avail. We circle the rotary back to the spot where I cut him off. I’m thinking: why don’t I jam on my brakes, get out, and pound this loud-mouthed moron. Next thought: YOU are a life coach, you teach inner peace. Thoughts come fast in this type of situation. Next thought: I’m glad I haven’t put that bumper sticker on my car yet: TEACH PEACE! The guy is on me like a linebacker. He can’t hear that I am trying to apologize. He’s enraged. I’m becoming angry. We’re circling the rotary outside West Concord, beside a prison. I like to think it was the years of meditation practice, or the Svaroopa yoga, or the body-centered breaks or the ongoing sutra study or the healing experience of writing a book called Hug an Angry Man… or the suffering that anger has caused my self and others in my life, or that I am clear, absolutely clear that violence of any kind is not the way to peace. It may have been all of that, but more than anything: it was the prison walls. I wasn’t afraid of the maddened driver. Who was still screaming through his window like I’d just murdered his first born son! Now, I wasn’t yelling back, but I was caught for a minute or so, in that old testosterone game. As we circled each other around the rotary for the third time, my attention caught the prison walls situated on the southeast corner, a stark reminder of where unconsciousness behavior can lead—thick, drab, gray cement, twenty-five feet high, twenty-four-seven. Definitely not a place for my son’s dad! I settled back into my body and breathed. Slowed my car to almost a halt, and let the guy going ballistic, get right beside my window, tucked my chin in, relaxed my shoulders, placed my head on top of my spine, then beamed him a smile and my best bald-headed Buddha-face and blasted him with a Namaste hand gesture of peace and a full volume, fully expressed: OOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMmmmmm! Our eyes met. His mind seemed to settle. The blood in his face began to flow back into his body. No more language. His head shook from side-to-side. He gazed at me in disbelief, stunned. I disarmed him. He burst into laughter. Through my rear view mirror, it looked like he was chuckling as he took the next exit off the rotary. I headed west to my son. OM !BODY-CENTERED BREAKS (BCBs)The Body-Centered Break is a body-focused inquiry and awareness meditation lasting only two minutes and done whenever and wherever you are in your day. Benefits as described by coaching clients include: calmness of mind, overall sense of well-being, sharpened mental focus, reduced anxiety, increased ability of autonomous nervous system to recover rapidly from stress, and an increased capacity for learning. CLICK here for an audio-guided BCB at any time you feel the need to slow down and center into yourself. Enjoy the Benefits NOW! HeadRest Radiate QuietMind SteamValve SHARED WISDOM “Worry is the interest we pay on fear.” “One day, you’re gonna here the pop, kid, and that’ll be the day you finally take your head out of your ass!” POEMTHE TRAP Desire fires INQUIRYWhat thought can I let go of today? WONDERINGWhy is it that the right thing to do and the hard thing to do are often the same thing?EVENTS AND WORKSHOPSFacing Dragons, Finding Our Hearts Living Life on Purpose |
© 2005 Sean Casey Leclaire, all rights reserved. |
