Week 4

Eva, my neighbor (too briefly!)


The spontaneous joy of a child's laughter is one of life's great gifts, though perhaps I should be more expansive and say that of all spontaneous and joyous laughter.  In any case, an incidence of such makes a central appearance in a New York Times bestseller by Ann Voskamp called One Thousand Gifts:  A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are (2010), which I'll share with you today in class.

Good Afternoon, Class.  Hope all is well.

Today we will finish the Stanford class lecture on the biological and psychological elements of Depression that we started last week and discuss the papers you wrote on Keys to Wellbeing, including the subjects of awe, humility, and community, and review some of the topics as the AspenIdeas 2018event.  One piece I located at psychology today addresses the power of awe as a counter to the highly mechanistic aspects of culture today:  https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/awakening-awe/201802/interview-the-spirituality-awe

The connections we make to the larger world, to that of nature in particular and our role in it, assume great importance in the writings of many addressing health and wellbeing today, from food writers like Michael Pollan, whose book Cooked (2013) recounts his adventures in learning how to  barbecue and bake and ferment and distill, time-hallowed skills that many no longer have because so much of what we eat on a daily comes packaged in part or entirely by corporations intent on making us dependent consumers of their products. He is not particularly good at cooking, but he feels more connected:  "The sites of our everyday engagement with nature–our kitchens, gardens, houses, cars–matter to the fate of the world in a way they never have before (22). Here is an older piece in which (1) he boils down dietary wisdom to a handful of practical rules, and (2) he critiques national agricultural policy:

1. https://michaelpollan.com/articles-archive/six-rules-for-eating-wisely/
2. https://michaelpollan.com/articles-archive/you-are-what-you-grow/

The following excerpt comes from a Vietnamese Buddhist monk whose work has gone mainstream. It addresses how certain mindfulness practices can transform the way we eat:


Contemplating our food for a few seconds before eating and eating in mindfulness can bring us much happiness.  In our practice centers, we use the Five Contemplations as a way of reminding ourselves where our food comes from and its purpose.

      The first contemplation is being aware that our food comes directly from the earth and the sky.   It is a gift of the earth and the sky, and also of the people who prepared it.  The second contemplation is about being worthy of the food we eat.  The way to be worthy of our food is to eat mindfully—to be aware of its presence and thankful for having it.  We cannot allow ourselves to get lost in our worries, fears, or anger over the past or the future.  We are there for the food because the food is there for us; it is only fair.  Eat in mindfulness, and you will be worthy of the earth and the sky.

     The third contemplation is about becoming aware of our negative tendencies and not allowing them to carry us away.  We need to learn how to eat in moderation, to eat the right amount of food.  The bowl that is used by a monk or a nun is referred to as the "instrument of appropriate measure."  It is very important not to overeat.  If you eat slowly and chew very carefully, you will get plenty of of nutrition.  The right amount of food is the amount that helps us to stay healthy.

     The fourth contemplation is about the quality of our food.  We are determined to ingest only food that has no toxins for our body and our consciousness, food that keeps us healthy and nourishes our compassion.  This is mindful eating.  The Buddha said that if you eat in such a way that compassion is destroyed in you, it is like eating the flesh of your children.  So practice eating in such a way that you can keep compassion alive in you.

    The fifth contemplation is being aware that we receive food in order to realize something.  Our lives should have meaning and that meaning is to help people suffer less, and help them to touch the joys of life.  When we have compassion in our hearts and know that we are able to help a person suffer less, life begins to have more meaning.  This is very important food for us and can bring us a lot of joy.  A single person is capable of helping may living beings.  And it is something we can do anywhere.

                                        —Thich Nhat Hanh, Happiness

Index to Online Writing Lab at UW-Madison:  https://writing.wisc.edu/Handbook/index.html
Quoting and Paraphrasing:  https://writing.wisc.edu/Handbook/QuotingSources.html
Thesis and Purpose Statements:  https://writing.wisc.edu/Handbook/thesis/Thesis_or_Purpose.html
Research Focus:  https://writing.wisc.edu/Handbook/PlanResearchPaper.html#discovering

  

-----------------------Poetry

From “CLEARANCES,” IN MEMORIAM M.K.H.       Seamus Heaney (1939-2013)

When all the others were away at Mass

I was all hers as we peeled potatoes.

They broke the silence, let fall one by one

Like solder weeping off the soldering iron:

Cold comforts set between us, things to share

Gleaming in a bucket of clean water.

And again let fall.  Little pleasant splashes

From each other’s work would bring us to our senses.

So while the parish priest at her bedside

Went hammer and tongs at the prayers for the dying

And some were responding and crying

I remembered her head bent towards my head,

Her breath in mine, our fluent knives–

Never closer the whole rest of our lives.

They call all experience of the senses mystic, when the experience

      is considered.
So an apple becomes mystic when I taste in it
the summer and the snows, the wild welter of the earth
and the insistence of the sun.

All of which things I can surely taste in a good apple....

-- D.H. Lawrence, "Mystic"

Eye Mask           Denise Levertov (1923-1997)

In this dark I rest,

unready for the light which dawns

day after day,

eager to be shared.

Black silk, shelter me.

I need

more of the night before I open

eyes and heart

to illumination.  I must still

grow in the dark like a root

not ready, not ready at all.

Witness

Sometimes the mountain

is hidden from me in veils

of cloud, sometimes

I am hidden from the mountain

in veils of inattention, apathy, fatigue,

when I forget or refuse to go

down to the shore or a few yards

up the road, on a clear day,

to reconfirm

that witnessing presence.

The Birds Have Vanished                                  Li Po (701-762)

The birds have vanished into the sky,

And now the last cloud drains away.

We sit together, the mountain and me,

until only the mountain remains.

                                by e.e. cummings

                        n

                        OthI

                        n

                        g can

                        s

                        urPas

                        s

                        the m

                        y

                        SteR

                        Y

                        of

                        s

                        tilLnes

                        s

Homework:  TBA