Been a minute since we’ve been on the blog, with so much happening since Halloween it’s been a bit spooky. I started this piece weeks ago, but then had a final, terrible tussle with my family of origin that pulled me away from the leaps and bounds experienced during my teacher Shinzen’s final virtual retreat in November, which was off the charts. Speaking of charts, there are two pictures gracing this post. One is the world’s greatest meditation teacher giving a hopeful underling some well-deserved grief during our session together while on retreat. Shin said I looked like Darth Vader, which I found apropos. The other photograph is of Shinzen and Unified Mindfulness’s Happiness Chart. Who even knew a Happiness Chart existed? Not even I, until now. That’s the depth and width of Shinzen’s teaching. Find Relief. Elevate Fulfillment. Understand Yourself. Act Skillfully. Build Relationships. And, one day, finally, leave your materialistic, deceptive, disrespectful family of origin behind. Amen.

We’ll be spending more precious time with Shinzen in Tucson soon, and hope to pass on a full, positive report. In the meantime, regarding Zen Hacks, one of the exercises we engaged in on retreat was what I jokingly call What’s My State? It’s a new game show with Shinzen as host. Here’s how it works: parsing the moment by moment feeling of sensation and action, it’s always helpful to have more than one laser beam angle on a topic. So we sliced the pleasantness or unpleasantness of each moment into four logical possibilities, with relatively better detection and resolution clarity than we do in general, daily life. Ask yourself this: is this moment pleasant, unpleasant, of mixed valiance (both) or neutral? It’s not uncommon for neutral to turn pleasant, because we feel relative relief from anger, fear, sadness impatience, embarrassment, disgust, interest, joy and physical discomforts of a gazillion possible origins, as well as terminal states.

You can potentially experience neutral sensations by way of contrast to the unpleasant. And the sought-after taste of purification that signals dropping into equanimity creates reward flavors, as well as a healing loop that works against other loops, loops where the physical or emotional pain is so bad you fight against it, or the fantasy is so compelling you continue it. If you get a little bored or caught up in memory, fantasy, or planning, just gently return to “Whats My State”. You’ll experience insights related to cause and effect, especially when the channels are open and there’s “No Self” fighting against the hierarchy of processing. Pleasantness or unpleasantness more mindfully perceived reveals a universal connector to everything, This is how we clean up the past, construct a more reasonable future, and finally lose the terrible tug of our materialistic, deceptive, disrespectful families of origin. Almost free my good people, with much more soon from the hardpan of the Sonoran. Until then, Merry Christmas and HNY!