This track includes ten minutes of meditation practice; if that feels like a lot to you, maybe start at the beginning!
Turn on the TV, get comfy, and play this track after you’ve watched the episode: The Real You (Season Two, Episode Fifteen).
P.S. If you’re curious, here you can find out why I started this project.
Recording Transcript (Meditation Begins at 4:52)
Welcome back, adventurer! And might I say, “your heroic brain is fascinating in a scientific way.”
Therefore, I would like to cordially invite you to a very cool science conference. By which I mean that we are gonna get four dimensional and move on to the fourth pillar of our meditation basics: care!
If you’ve been following along from the beginning we started with Concentration, moved to Clarity, then to Equanimity (and these are inspired by Shinzen Young’s method of Unified Mindfulness, because he is something of my meditation grandpappy) and now we’ll finish the season with a dedicated exploration of a fourth pillar of Care. This pillar of care was added to Shinzen’s method by (my friend and meditation comrade) Jeff Warren.
This episode has a lot to say about care and entanglement. Finn cares about what PB thinks of him. He cares about it so much that he pursues scientific knowledge to impress her in hopes of making her like him (even if he maybe takes it too far). Princess Bubblegum cares about the science conference being a success. Jake cares about not being bored at the library. The classroom worms care about McSquirmy’s attendance because “truancy hurts us all!” And I care about laughing my ass off at this wonderful show.
The world is a rich place full of care. Underneath all our motivations, the reason we do anything at all, is because we care about something. We may disagree about what is worthy of our care (and therefore our time and attention), but all of us are out here doing things because we care about things.
It’s worth noting that traditional Buddhist teachings emphasize non-attachment as a central part of ending the cycle of suffering. And Buddhist wisdom lies underneath many of the “mindfulness” practices we see sweeping the world, whether they name it, agree with its precepts, or not. The tradition suggests that the way to break the cycle of suffering is to notice the emptiness beneath your cravings, to become unattached, welcoming of anything you experience, including pain and misfortune, and to remember that suffering also changes in time, that it is an illusion, “as fragile as my own perception of reality,” and that by shifting the frame to remember this, we can touch enlightenment - that is, things become lighter, and easier to deal with, easier to endure.
And perspective does matter. Remembering the scale of our lives can be humbling; it can really change us. It is good to remember that we are not the center of the universe, that “we are born to die” and that “everything small is just a small version of something big!” When we see the world through a different lens, the way we care about things can change.
I’m not suggesting that attachment and care are the same; I think there are plenty of ways to be a Buddhist committed to non-attachment without becoming uncaring. To me, care seems to be an energy that gives equanimity its warmth; it’s the difference between an acceptance that is cold, detached, and resigned, and an acceptance that is welcoming, permissive, open, and expansive. It’s the difference between a response of “ugh whatever fine” and one that says, “okay, I got this, there is room for this too.”
Care helps us connect with our sense of purpose, our values. Which means that sometimes care hurts really bad. It hurts to care. When you see, oh I don’t know, a black hole bubble threatening to suck up the whole science conference, then you reconnect with the “real you,” realign your priorities, and take action to protect people. Because you care.
But sometimes the balance is a little wiggy. If I’m being honest, sometimes it’s hard for me to tell the difference between words (or feelings) like attachment and it’s synonyms like dissatisfaction, yearning, wanting, connection, commitment, devotion, imagination, or care.
And as far as I’m concerned, that’s okay! I’m not a committed Buddhist, I’m not attached to that label, even as I am deeply indebted to what meditation practice has given me. For now, let’s just blow some little spit bubbles on a pink tray and see what sticks.
“Buddy, just breathe into me.”
