Dr. Bob's Blog

Waking up to the miseries of the world and our essential predicament alarms us; overwhelms us.

So, refuge in literal sleep, daydreaming or even a good nap seems like a smart idea. But prepare, the focus hereafter will depart from lessons in sleep hygiene and embrace the symbolic nature of wakefulness and sleep.

The spiritual aspirant, intent on waking up, encounters the sparkles of dew on a spider-woven web, the rising western sun, and the shrieks of playful abandon from a nearby playground (our joy for their joy). Add to that, front-page war horrors, political disruption, and the insidious upset of neighborhood gossip. Life is a mixed bag.

Besides literal sleep, we might seek refuge in consumption. We swallow the wrong food and drink, and too much of both. We resort to Black Friday pastimes year round, with a consumerism that is normalized, but is really just another way to doze off into materiality.  Of course, the dopamine rush of these departures from the spirit yield only temporary relief, and soon we are chewing again on addictive Nabisco concoctions, and credit-carding on Amazon. These are the sacraments of modernity, our communions and our confirmations; our body-blood and our identity.

Perhaps the most complicated of these forces are the technologies that bring us blog posts (like this one), our favorite Kindle Anthology, online gambling and a deluge of social media. Technologies are a mixed bag too.

Technologists smarter than us have surpassed even the Nabisco food chemists as purveyors of addiction. Algorithms tease and trap our brains and fingers into doom scrolls as we chase the highs of our passion and the lows of our fear and outrage. Scientists explain that this unwitting social experiment alters (not for the better) brain functioning, especially in children, teens and young adults. Disturbingly, we are sacrificing our youth without much protest from their elders who are too busy on their own smart phones. And, in a story for another day, the misuse of artificial intelligence is poised to propel this unwholesome enterprise fast forward.

Some blessed folks are waking up to our dilemma, clutching what basic goodness they can, and taking action to lessen the suffering. But awakening to a nightmare is not easy, and even they might forget about those webs of dew and childhood enchantments. Even they might be led onto the tempting exits described herein.

So where is the Refuge that refreshes the quest to live an inspired life and help out others along the way? We might seek out books and teachers and podcasts and influencers of all sorts-there are plenty to choose from! Or we may decide to think about our path a little differently. Instead of looking out there, we might consider looking inside. Myth and legend tell compelling stories of those with the courage to look within; past all the baggage and self-deception. We could go all the way in through sight, and sound, and what is felt like pressures and temperatures and movement…all the way in, to this very breath, and the next and the next.

These are the breaths that support us all; that support both writer and reader in this exact instant of a shared idea. And within and all around our simple respirations, we can discover the present moment. Now.

We are delivered to our body through awareness of breath, and begin to discover that it is this very body; these very senses that are the path to our present moment. We watch carefully. The present moment at once is a millisecond… and all eternity. Disorienting! There is awe, sometimes tinged with tiny frights, as we encounter bare attention. Crutches and barriers we once hung tight to start to dissolve, somehow unneeded.

Consciousness expands in the present moment. At once, we are the vast ocean, and a tumbling wave, and the gentlest sea-bubbles upon the sand all whispering, “pop”.

At once, as we breathe in, we become our very first breath, that unremembered newborn cough cry of glad-to-be-here, now. At once, we are the outbreath, the last breath we will ever expel, still glad and still present. In and out.  Feeling fully the whiff and waft, we come to understand the mantra: life, death, life, death, life…

This is our eternal present moment and the only Refuge we shall ever need.