June 1, 2022 – When Things Fall Apart, Pema Chodron

Exhaling  Space

“The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and, making her stand before all of them,they said to him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” They said this to test him, so that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” And once again he bent down and wrote on the ground.” John 8:3-8

One of the ways to practice patience is to do tonglen*. When we want to make a sudden move, when we start to speed through life, when we feel we must have resolution, when someone yells at us and we feel insulted, we want to yell back or get even. We want to put out our poison. Instead, we can connect with basic human restlessness, basic human aggression, by practicing tonglen* for all beings. Then we can send out a sense of space, which further slows things down. Sitting there, standing there, we can allow the space for the usual habitual thing not to happen. Our words and actions might be quite different because we allowed ourselves time to touch and taste and see the situation first.” Chodron, Pema. When Things Fall Apart (Shambhala Classics) (pp. 135-136).

* Tonglen is a Tibetan Buddhist meditation practice that is known as “giving and taking or sending and receiving.” On the inhale, you take in the pain and suffering of yourself and others and on the exhale you give space, compassion and healing to yourself and others.

Exhaling  Space

Life comes at us pretty fast. One day we are feeling pretty secure about where we are in life, and then someone walks into an elementary school somewhere in our country and kills 19 ten-year-old students – and all the wheels fall off our sense of security and sanity. Who are we?

I have been thinking about our country and our society a lot lately. We began immigrating into this country in the early 1600’s. As such we are about 400 years (give or take) into the establishment of this country. The Mayan culture lasted about 650 years before they disappeared. The Aztecs lasted about 200 years and the Incans lasted about 130 years before their demise. How much longer will we be able to exist without tearing ourselves apart?

One of the reasons we are struggling, at least in my opinion, is that we can no longer listen to the others in our lives – and by others I mean those who do not look, act, think, and love like us. We are so quick to react if we believe our egos have been bruised. If someone takes our parking space, we ram our cars into their car rather than consider their day and their struggles in that moment. If someone cuts us off on the highway we pull out a gun and threaten them or worse shoot them without taking a breath and considering their emotional state.  

Next time you feel your blood pressure rising after someone has “wronged” you, take the time to exhale some space before sharing your anger. You may just slow down your anger enough to allow the love of Christ to be your voice.

Let us pray,

Lord Jesus, because life is fast, so too is our reaction when we are angry. Help me today to stop, drop and pray before I stomp on another soul. Amen.

Pastor Dave