Enso Morning: Daily Meditation Gifts

Kristine

Introduction

The Morning Blessing Letters in Enso Morning were written first as my own morning meditation. For over six months of weekdays I would get up early in the morning and meditate, sometimes after a walk outside, building on over thirty-five years of morning sitting meditation. A rhythm had evolved over the years whereby I would first tune in to the fact that I was alive and felt welcomed by the spirit of the new day, something larger than myself that was not only aware of my existence sitting there on the cushion, but indeed glad to have me sitting there and present for the opening of the day together. This extraordinary bonding – sometimes against all odds because I felt lonely or insignificant or useless – grounded me in the present moment. A natural next step was to do… nothing. But to stay precisely there in the moment that had become still and sacred. Silence naturally ensued. I felt encouraged to just stay there in the stillness, so I did. The silence became a blessing, then a gift came.

Morning Blessing Letters became my thesis to complete the Doctor of Ministry program at Matthew Fox’s University of Creation Spirituality. As soon as I finished a Morning Blessing Letter in the morning, I emailed it to a list of colleagues and friends. Every letter was written in a carefully designed form to wake up, encourage and support health-care workers and chaplains in their daily work with patients and caregivers. I also distributed them by hand to hospitals and agencies, and to counselors and other individuals in care-giving settings. I enjoyed walking up to the nurses’ stations at Maine Medical Center, where staff members were surrounded by white paper – in the midst of their urgent responsibilities – and leaving them a Morning Blessing Letter printed on pink paper. I delighted in slipping a Morning Blessing Letter under the door at an agency or dropping one off at a friend’s counseling office to offer as a surprise gift with which to begin their morning.

In more concise terms, each Morning Blessing Letter in Enso Morning has seven focusing paragraphs:

1 Welcome

2 Silent meditation

3 Affirmation of physical self

4 Affirmation of emotional self

5 Affirmation of spiritual self

6 Blessing for the day

7 Gift for the day

Intention for Use

It is my hope that you read the Morning Blessing Letters in Enso Morning to stimulate and deepen your own spiritual and meditation practice. I encourage you to use each paragraph to center yourself in the morning, to give loving attention to each part of yourself as an intentional and practical way to nurture your whole being at the beginning of the day.

Open the book at random and trust that the appropriate and meaningful letter will appear in your hands. Or, when you have a specific longing or particular need, use the Table of Contents to consciously select the Gift named on the left side of the page, and open to that letter indicated by the page number on the right side of the page.

Occasionally a letter might seem ‘off’, as if it were not meant for you. You may not live in New England, and experience the marked differences in spring, summer, fall and winter. The season, the topic, the place, the setting – even the gift – might seem foreign or irrelevant. Yet we all have ‘seasons of the soul’. This is the time to recall that what is perceived as ‘outer’ also can be true inside, that perceived separation is but an illusion, and that everything is a metaphor, that is, it refers to something real inside your being, for you are indeed one with all.

Sometimes you may find that a specific gift is just what you wanted or imagined and hoped for and, lo and behold, here it is. Other times you may be puzzled, and not understand your particular gift. Remember, many of life’s gifts are unbidden, unseen, unexpected, only to unfold their richness and meaning with time.

The Morning Blessing Letters in Enso Morning center, support and awaken readers to begin their day awakened and encouraged to be themselves, joined with like-minded souls. I encourage you to share these letters with friends, family and colleagues.

The three concluding letters give gifts inspired by the ancient mantra Sat, Chit, Ananda. These Sanskrit words can be translated Existence, Consciousness, Bliss. Used in daily morning meditation, these precious words offer us energetic encouragement to abide in the essence of life. Blended together, these words form Saccidananda, the name of the Hindu-Christian Ashram in South India where Bede Griffiths lived and taught. In 2015 I made a month-long pilgrimage to Saccidananda – also called Shantivanam – for meditation and prayer. I use Sat, Chit, Ananda as a mantra for my daily meditations, both in India and back at home, wherever I am.

Zen Enso Circles

The Enso circles that decorate this book are an ancient art form blending art and religion. While these circles are thought of as Buddhist, in fact they have origins in several wisdom traditions, including Hindu, Buddhist and Taoist, making them interfaith in character. For example, in the Hindu tradition a circle represents the wheel of samsara, the cycle of life and death.

Circles are found in many natural forms and remind us of completeness, of beginning and ending all in one form. The image of a circle represents the wholeness of the universe available in the present, and the wholeness of the life and death cycle. Circles also suggest and give expression to serenity and completeness, again, the whole. Where is the beginning, where the end? Are they not indeed part of a continuum? Enso circles are expressions of spirit that transcend both technique and the written word.

You have noticed that everything an Indian does is in a circle, and that is because the power of the world always works in circles, and everything tries to be round… The sky is round, and I have heard that the earth is round like a ball, and so are all the stars. The wind, in its greatest power, whirls. Birds make their nests in circles, for theirs is the same religion as ours… Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing, and always come back again to where they were. The life of a man is a circle from childhood to childhood, and so it is in everything where power moves.

—Black Elk

Painting Enso is a spiritual practice, sometimes done daily for decades. Traditionally the artist spends time in meditation, then paints the circle in one breath with a single stroke of the brush. A meditation concludes the painting.

The brush is dipped into the shining liquid. With one breath, one continuous stroke, it arcs upward. Like the subtle moment when inhalation becomes exhalation, there’s an imperceptible pause at the pinnacle, and then the brush turns downward, slowly approaching where it began.

—Sherry Chayat

The artist, following meditation, in an act of courage, willingly confronts the emptiness of the blank paper, just as s/he has experienced the emptiness – the space – of meditation: nothingness. The instant the brush touches the paper, out of nothing comes something. This creation brings the possibility of beauty, as well as the inevitability of loss and consequent grief, for everything changes. The blank paper is no longer empty, and this is a loss. The circle itself, even as whole and solid as it appears, will change with age and time.

Detailed instructions for painting Enso circles may be found in Chapter 12, Essence: Art of my book Essence: The Emotional Path to Spirit.

I have used the painting of Enso circles to train volunteer grief facilitators and interfaith chaplaincy students, in university counselor education and to teach meditation to grade school students. Following a period of meditation, they practice drawing circles, continuing to maintain silence. Then I give everyone a special paper to use for their final painting. Still in silence, they paint their last circles. Afterwards, in the Gestalt manner, I ask each person to describe his or her spiritual life as a circle, that is, to speak as his or her circle. I hear comments such as, I start out strong, then become gentle and quiet at the end; I look hard and smooth on the outside but I am rough and jagged on the inside; I have a thin skin but lots of room inside; I am as strong and protected and nobody can see inside; Though I look weak and thin, I am connected to myself with a certain fragile beauty.

[Reference: Enso: Zen Circle of Enlightenment by Audrey Yoshiko Seo; Weatherhill, Boston and London, 2007.]

Like countless days past and days future, here is this day, this day of all days is here now. You did not have to do anything to create this day, it is here for you simply because you are alive. It is here bringing you space and time, a place to live, a place to be.

In the coming of this day let there be the great silence that already is, just like the day itself. How full the silence of this day, even as minor sounds intrude. The silence, the background of eternal silence is always there, here. Allow the silence to expand…

Place yourself in the silence, a physical being in the vast silence. Notice who and what you are: flesh and bones, bones and flesh. Find yourself: your feet, your legs, your middle, your chest, your arms, your head. Find and feel who you are physically and awaken.

Within this self find your feelings and bring consciousness to your feelings. No matter which of the many, only one at a time can come forth. So let it come up, this feeling, and out into the universe, then another, and so on.

Now there is space, room for what’s underneath. Now your core, your essence has room, so give it permission to emerge. Your spirit is not separate at all. Be your spirit.

May you continue this day to be your whole self. Wherever you go this day, bring your whole being.

Your gift today is wholeness.

Welcome to the day that waits. No need to do anything. The day is here. It brings itself to you. Here you are, this day is yours with both its familiar habits and its extraordinary unknowns.

As the day waits, let silence reign, the silence of anticipation, then bring the silence home to the present, this very second. Second after second of silence. Let the thought intrusions come and go and you can return to the silence, over and over again…

Scan your body, bring the energy of awareness to each other part, first what you can see, the outside, and then the deeper, down to every cell. From your feet up your legs, calves, thighs, waist, chest, arms and head. Awaken with the vibration of awareness.

Next see what’s there emotionally. There and here, present. What is it that you feel? Here it is. Let it grow as it wants, let it express, a word or sound coming out your skin and out your mouth.

Feel the space you create, the openness. Cleaner, clearer space for your spirit to breathe. Who you really are in this moment, and who you have always been forever. And who you will always be. That you is here now.

Be this timeless person alive in this second in this world and this world’s day. May you only be who you have always been this day, nothing more, nothing less.

Your gift today is your uniqueness.

Blessings and welcome to this day today. It is yours. The day has its own life just as you have your own life. It is another paradox: the day does not need you, yet there is no day without you.