Taking CARE

This is an introduction to how we practice at Rooted in Mindfulness. Taking CARE is our way of practice, present in everything we offer, and it is also a program anyone can take part in, beginning with Foundations. It is meant to be practiced rather than thought about, so that we see for ourselves what each word is and what we find there.

Our practice is taking care: of ourselves, of those we love, of the world, and of this moment. It is rooted in silent illumination, an open and settled awareness that meets whatever arrives with care. The eight words describe that one practice from eight sides. They arise together. Sometimes one takes center stage, but they support one another, and the boundaries between them are somewhat artificial: each word calls out one aspect of the moment of our practice. Sometimes we will focus on one or two words, sometimes on the whole. Sometimes one word will be our anchor, and later another. It is a living practice, and it shows up when we embody it.

Each word opens onto the same luminous, wakeful nature, which our tradition calls Buddha nature.

Calm

Calm is an invitation: ease in the body, and from there openness in the heart and a letting go of constriction in the mind. Nothing is forced, and nothing has to be perfect. What cannot be calmed, we calm around, inviting a little more ease. Calm stops the stirring of the pond. It does not wait for the right conditions; it can be invited anywhere, and that is what makes it foundational. We want to meet everything, in all circumstances.

Connect

Connect is this moment as it is, our life at the six senses: the world around us, the body, and the heart and mind with their memories, thoughts, and feelings. This is where to pay attention. It is easy to be lost in a thought and believe we are present; met in contact, the thought is part of this moment. Contact is the anchor; the breath is one way to it. Here we know life and our relationship to it, and here we have choice. Connect is showing up to life as it is, at the only place we can.

Aware

Aware is clarity, the illumination at the heart of our practice. This luminous awareness is always available to us, always illuminating, like the sun shining on the turning Earth: it shines on everything. It becomes obscured when we get caught up in what covers it, attached to the content of our thoughts and feelings. We do not construct this awareness. We show up to it. Everything we know arises within it, and because of it we can recognize what is here. The luminous mind reveals. Together with Attitude, clarity and presence are the heart of our practice.

Attitude

Attitude is how we meet our experience. If Aware is the light of the sun, Attitude is its warmth. We let what is here be as it is, not wanting it to be better, not pushing away what we don’t want, and we meet it kindly, with curiosity, because we want to know ourselves, others, and this life, and to remove what obscures our wakeful nature. This is presence: everything extra quiets, and what is here can be known without our being of it. That is equanimity. It doesn’t mean agreeing with everything or never responding. It is the place we see from, clearly and whole, and even when we are caught in reactivity, that clear knowing can see the reactivity.

Recognize

Recognize is knowing what is here and seeing it honestly: peace as peace, joy as joy, anger as anger, worry as worry, whatever is alive at our senses, within us and around us. Awareness makes this possible, and the attitude of not clinging, not pushing away, and staying curious protects it. Sometimes a simple name helps: this is here, this is happening now. Recognizing does not always release what we see; some states are long-standing, arising whenever their conditions come together. But seen honestly, a state shows more of itself: not me, not permanent, arising within a whole web of conditions. Recognizing gently, with bare knowing, we see the greater context, and come to know our experience more clearly.

Remember

Remember is our reconnection with our greater nature. Caught in the ordinary mind, the noise, we forget our wakeful nature; remembering finds it again.

We also remember what is important: our deeper intentions, our values, the wish to live without causing harm to ourselves, others, or the world, to bring benefit and well-being, and to help create the conditions for everyone to realize their own greater nature. We remember the teachings we have met, however many or few, all of them aimed at unclouding. We remember to come back and abide in the conditions of this moment, and to let our greater intentions meet the intentions of this moment. We reflect on what we recognize and weigh it against what matters; this is how we can choose to grow and protect what is wholesome, and to see through and guard against what is not. This remembering is the other half of mindfulness.

Embody

Embody is making the practice part of who we are. We embody what we care about, what we are cultivating, and what we see through our practice; the practice itself is a form of embodiment, and so is the way we act. We do not only think about these things. Over time, repeating them in heart, mind, and body, in action, they become more of who we are, and the old conditioning that keeps us from seeing is slowly replaced by a way of abiding that cultivates the ground for wakefulness, great wisdom, and great compassion. Great here means not caught in our limited perspective. Any day can be lived with intention, and then the whole day is practice. When we lose the embodiment, we lose the practice.

Engage

Engage is living as best we can with the conditions of our life, including the habits of our ordinary mind. It is caring for ourselves, for those we love, and for the world: understanding, caring, and acting from that place. It lets us meet healthy moments with joy, peace, love, and appreciation, and meet what challenges us in a way that leaves us more awake and freer of harmful patterns.

It is arranging the causes and conditions, inside and out, through our speech, our actions, our lifestyle, and our relationships, so that this present-moment life improves and we can meet it fully. This is great action, great because it arises from the wakeful, liberated mind rather than the reactive one. In time it becomes a natural way of being: less contrived, more authentic and true, awake, free of the ordinary mind’s hold, and unified with our Buddha nature, the wakeful and caring nature already within each of us. And when the action is complete, it returns to stillness, and we begin again from calm.

Learning over time

The words are taught over time, in our sits, classes, practice discussions, and talks, sometimes one at a time, sometimes several, sometimes as one unified practice. They are not steps, and there is no order to learn them in. Wherever we begin, the others are already there.

Insight here comes from lived experience, not from an understanding of the words. Most of the time the practice is our ordinary day: sitting, working, resting, being with people, and taking care as we go.

This page is a first introduction to how we practice, and Why We Practice says what the practice is for. The teachings deepen from there: through Foundations, through ongoing learning and practice together, and through A Handful of Leaves, the wider body of teaching behind each of the eight words. Our Roots tells where it all comes from.