The other night I was honoured with an invitation to a Buddhist meditation led by an ex-pat, Rio Helmi, an amazing international photographer – www.riohelmi.com.
He’s a “civilian” rather than a lama, who has set up an amazing sangha space in his Ubud home. Polished floors, gold fabrics, fresh floral arrangements, sacraed images – simple preaentation, all towards setting the stage for Buddha’s presence to be felt.
I’m more of a Buddhist sympathizer than an actual follower, but I fully appreciate there are many similarities between yoga concepts and those of Buddhism.
Rio mentioned one of them, the suffering that occurs as a result of behaving as though we are separate beings instead of all part of the web of life. This belief of separateness leads to clinging, and the rest is history, as far as the sorry, greedy state of the human condition.
Rio told a lovely story about one of his teachers. The point of it was to encouage us to cultivate an attitude of contributing to the happiness of all sentient beings with our every thought, word and deed.
Speaking of deeds, I’ve almost completed a month of gift-giving. I took on the goal of gifting someone or something each and everyday, which I did along with my friend Michael Hollingworth.
As a result, I’ve become much more aware of all the gifts I receive every day.
This month of gifting has been an acknowledement of all our interconnectedness and an opportunity to practice spreading happiness. I recommend it to you.