Letting the Beauty We Love Be What We Do
by Janey Curry
“Today, like every other day, we wake up empty
and frightened. Don’t open the door to the study
and begin reading. Take down a musical instrument.
Let the beauty we love be what we do.
There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.” ~Rumi, interpreted by Coleman Barks
With all the uncertainty and change infusing the very air we breathe these days, it might be just the right moment to reconnect with what we most love, and what we long for, and how to align what we love with what we do. Have you felt a pull to share the transformative experiences you have had through mindfulness practice with others? Do you long to take the MBSR course again, and again— studying it, practicing, diving deeper into this way of being that brings you back in touch with what’s best in you? If your answer to either of these questions is ‘yes’, MBSR Teacher Training may be a way for you to “take down a musical instrument” and begin to play.
This path isn’t easy, and it isn’t fast, and it isn’t inexpensive. Yet it does, crucially, in a way that’s mysterious and embodied and non-conceptual, open us to a direct experience of beauty, not limited to, but inclusive of each one of us. As we train in accessing and stabilizing this 1st-person experience of wholeness, we establish the reliable foundation for offering this experience to others.
Deep familiarity with the MBSR curriculum is a part of this foundation, as is intimacy with silence, with movement, with the inner landscape of thoughts and emotions, and the pitfalls of reactivity that ensnare us time and time again. Learning to be sensitive and attuned to trauma, to diversity and inclusion, to language that invites rather than excludes while guiding meditations or leading group inquiry is part and parcel of the path of refinement and skill-building, as much as learning scales is a part of playing a musical instrument. MBSR teacher training develops these core skill sets, including understanding the neuroscience of stress and stress physiology and psychology, group dynamics, experiential education, and the wisdom from contemplative traditions that all underpin the MBSR curriculum.
If we follow this path, we train, and practice, and do our scales, so as to offer mindfulness in the world in accordance with the highest standards of integrity and heart. And then, as Rumi suggests, MBSR becomes a way of taking down the instrument, of singing and dancing with life itself, and seeing that the beauty of what we love and what we do and how we might show up in any moment is not in any sense separate, one from the other, but a way of kneeling and kissing the ground, and an ongoing expression of love.