| Do you sometimes sit at home on gloomy, | | | | patterned 'contracted' thinking. When we're asked |
| overcast days and ponder vacantly the security | | | | what we think of this or that, we'll often answer |
| of being in a warm, cosy, sheltered home, | | | | according to the 'island' of thought we're presently |
| protected by walls and a roof from the | | | | on. No wonder we are often confused afterwards |
| elements? There's some feeling of indwelling | | | | as to what we really think. We attribute this to |
| sanctuary our inner child experiences as we | | | | mood, and partially, this is correct. If we were |
| watch the effects of the wind blowing and the | | | | asked our view and instead reserved our thinking, |
| rain falling. We're caught up in it; it's mesmerising | | | | and pondered more deeply about it, we'd come |
| and rather cool. Then there are songs that take | | | | up with different thoughts and responses--the |
| us right there... | | | | groove of thought might consider a broader |
| The Seekers' Malvina Reynolds tells of her song | | | | perspective. We might even venture into our |
| 'Morningtown Ride,' and the fact that it's a song of | | | | fearful, emotional responses and question why. |
| safety for children: | | | | Welwood continues, "The full presence of our |
| "Once in a while I have something in particular to | | | | being is healing in and of itself."[4] And he |
| say [to children]--well, let's take a song like | | | | continues, "We all need to heal our separation |
| 'Morningtown Ride.' I remember how it was when | | | | from reality and our struggle with it. The whole |
| I was little. I know youngsters hate to go to bed | | | | world is in need of that."[5] Genuine compassion |
| at night because it seems like, as far as they're | | | | on ourselves comes as an indirect result of |
| concerned, it is the end of the world. Going to | | | | knowing and tackling the truth. The truth can set |
| sleep means you are going to be cut off from | | | | us free.[6] This is summarised as the 'beginner's |
| everything, and I wanted to help them understand | | | | mind,' a willingness to meet things freshly. We |
| that they were heading somewhere, when they | | | | must resist being experts in the experience of life. |
| got into bed, that they were heading for morning. | | | | We're experts of nothing but our own flawed |
| And strangely enough, this song became a | | | | perceptions, half the time, and that's okay. |
| grown-up hit all over the world. It really amazed | | | | When we approach unconditional presence and |
| me..."[1] | | | | "fully acknowledge, allow, and open to our |
| "Morningtown Ride" worked out to be a lullaby for | | | | immediate experience just as it is, without |
| all ages. When you listen to it you get that cosy | | | | agenda, judgment, or manipulation of any kind... |
| sense deep within you; it's deep, rich in fantasy, | | | | we are at one with our experience, without the |
| even inspirational. It takes us on the journey to | | | | subject/object barrier... this is an innate capacity |
| ourselves. It ameliorates all our fears. It connects | | | | of our being, yet we usually have to learn to |
| us and it involves us, intimately, with the workings | | | | cultivate it at first, because the habitual tendency |
| of our soul, and with those things we don't like | | | | of EGO always involves grasping and rejecting, |
| (like going to bed all night, for a child), making | | | | which reinforce separation and counteract |
| them somehow okay. | | | | authentic presence."[7] |
| And this brings us to the wonderful safety of | | | | Balthasar Gracian said, "To be master of oneself |
| unconditional presence. This concept is "the | | | | one should know oneself." Being unconditionally |
| capacity to meet experience fully and directly, | | | | present is seeing as we're designed to see; no |
| without filtering it through any conceptual or | | | | filtering just pure truth. |
| strategic agenda."[2] It's meeting life head on--on | | | | Copyright © 2008, S. J. Wickham. All Rights |
| reality's terms. Though it's not that simple is it? | | | | Reserved Worldwide. |
| Our lives, if we're normal, are based upon some | | | | ENDNOTES: |
| level of 'contraction.' We've learned since childhood, | | | | [1] A quote from Malvina taken from a radio |
| says Dr. John Welwood, how to deny or avoid | | | | interview given at the 1977 Pied Piper Music |
| certain things in life as a form of self-protection. | | | | Festival. The entire interview and workshop notes |
| We've developed stories that reinforce our | | | | appear in Patty Zeitlin's book A Song Is a |
| realities providing us comfort and security; stories | | | | Rainbow: Music, Movement and Rhythm |
| that 'contract' our thinking and perception. The | | | | Instruments in the Nursery School and |
| stories compound a false perception and we're | | | | Kindergarten: Scott, Foresman, 1982. Source: |
| sort of closed minded toward ourselves and our | | | | [2] John Welwood, Toward a Psychology of |
| view of things. "Although we swim in this sea of | | | | Awakening: Buddhism, Psychotherapy, and the |
| pure awareness [which is how things actually are, | | | | Path of Personal and Spiritual Transformation |
| a.k.a. unconditional presence], our busy mind is | | | | (Boston, Massachusetts: Shamhala, 2000), p. 116. |
| constantly hopping from island to island, from | | | | [3] John Welwood, Ibid., p. 143. |
| thought to thought, jumping over and through | | | | [4] John Welwood, Ibid., p. 145. |
| awareness, which is its ground, without ever | | | | [5] John Welwood, Ibid., p. 146. |
| coming to rest there."[3] | | | | [6] The Gospel according to John 8:32. |
| We essentially need to unlearn our default | | | | [7] John Welwood, Ibid., p. 307. |