Slogan #26

Don't ponder others.

Don’t ponder others’ weak points, becoming arrogant about your own accomplishments.

Famed National Geographic photographer Jimmy Chin titled this photo “Meditation Station.” Given my fear of heights, I KNOW that I would not be pondering others if I happened to be sitting on the side of the Bhagarathi Parbat III mountain in India. In fact, I would be breathing in the wonder of our natural world. I would be feeling gloriously alive and present. I would definitely be staying in my own lane. So when I’m stuck in comparing mode, I close my eyes and imagine that I’m sitting on this mountain. Or I might spend 30 minutes in a sensory deprivation tank. Or I read this poem by Mary Oliver before I sit.

Wild Geese

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

My thoughts often mislead me but these strategies anchor me to the present moment and to my commitment to my ongoing healing and transformation. I’m able to recognize that everyone is “just like me” and that we are all doing our best. Slogan #26 is an investigation of empathetic joy and of seeing the world through someone else’s eyes in order to celebrate their happiness and prosperity.

Make today’s practice all about dissolving barriers between yourself and others.