June 27, 2023
“The dawn of the Great Eastern Sun is based on actual experience. It is not a concept. You realize that you can uplift yourself, that you can appreciate your existence as a human being. Whether you are a gas station attendant or the president of your country doesn’t really matter.” (Trungpa 1984)
Sunrise Vision vs Sunset Mind
At breakfast the other day I asked my friend a question that I gleaned from reading Walt Whitman, who asked his friends: “What has become clear to you since last we met?” It cuts through some of the shallower stuff we can get preoccupied by, and strikes me as a better use of our precious, shared time.
Her answer didn’t surprise me. She expressed disenchantment with her fellow humans, having too often encountered what Trungpa would describe as the setting sun mind: a self-serving attitude that lacks honesty, reliability and/or integrity. In essence, this mindset has its roots in fear, first and foremost of death, and secondly, of pain in its many iterations. Much human behavior stems from attempts to avoid this basic truth: death and suffering are intrinsic to human existence. In other words, you’re going to feel bad, sad, angry, lonely, alienated and frightened etc some of the time.
As I understand it, having sunrise vision means having the courage and willingness to directly acknowledge and embrace what one sees and feels, whereas the sunset mind is fearful and strives to avoid or escape these realities.
This begs the question “How does one cultivate courage?”. If nothing else, one has to exercise one’s power of choice, which is so often lost in the heat of knee-jerk emotional reactions.
Trungpa has this to offer
"We can give in to our fear and anxiety, or we can surrender to this great mystery with courage. When we see people on a roller coaster, we see that there are those with their faces tight with fear and then there are those that smile broadly, with their hands in the air, carried through the ride on a wave of freedom and joy. This powerful image reminds us that often the only control we have is choosing how we are going to respond to the ride.
"There are, of course, constant challenges, but the sense of challenge is quite different from the setting-sun feeling that you are condemned to your world and your problems. Occasionally people are frightened by this vision of the Great Eastern Sun. Not knowing the nature of fear, of course, you cannot go beyond it. But once you know your cowardice, once you know where the stumbling block is, you can climb over it—maybe just three and a half steps.”To help you climb over, I offer a walking meditation that serves to calm and synchronize body and mind.
Choose a spot where you have room to walk without obstacles. Stand in a relaxed but erect posture, with your hands gently cupped, palms up, fingertips touching lightly, and held level with your navel (the navel in shakti yoga is the location of the third chakra, the seat of the emotions). From this position slowly raise your palms up to the center of your chest, approximately level with your physical heart. Slowly describe a circle by moving the hands forward and down to the navel, then scooping them back up to the heart center. Continue this circular motion – arms widening as you reach forward and then narrowing at the navel – while repeating the affirmation: I am functioning from my heart center, I am functioning from my heart center…” as you let your feet choose a meandering route. Do this for a few minutes and then return to your journal.
The scooping motion is symbolic of raising your troubled emotions to the level of love, compassion, patience and understanding that are associated with the spiritual heart center. As you spread your arms in front of you think of expanding your sense of things, dissipating whatever darkness your mind is harboring (the setting sun’s dread and despair) as you come back to the best that you would offer yourself or anyone else.
Take a few minutes to sit quietly absorbing the effects of the practice, then note in your journal any insights or shifts in perspective that arise in this quiet, reflective time. Repeat the practice, if only by saying the affirmation in your mind, whenever you find yourself sinking into the darkness of the setting sun mentality. As the Buddhists say, pain is inevitable; suffering is optional.
You have the power to choose, to move. Even three and a half steps are great progress.
Besides, what have you got to lose?