Rewiring Our Connections with Inter-Meditation: On Lama Sury

1. Rewiring Our Connections with Inter-Meditation: On Lama Surya Das’ Make Me One with Everything Buddhist meditations to awaken from the illusion of separation There was a moment after my first cancer surgery when I experienced something extraordinary. I was sitting in a chair near a window in my hospital room that had a view of the East River. Sunshine was streaming in, and in front of me was a tray with cups of hot tea and red Jell-O. The sunshine was hitting the Jell-O in such a way that the dessert itself and the light around it looked to me like crushed red rubies. I was in a lot of pain, but as I ate the first spoonful of Jell-O, something in me relaxed, and I felt very calm. The other patient in my room was sleeping after having had a difficult night, and I remember feeling so happy that she was able to rest and breathe gently now.

2. As I ate Jell-O and drank tea, my heart opened to her and to the sunshine and to the river below flowing peacefully on this sunny morning. I thought of the patients on my floor, doing their daily walking required after surgery and then to all those on other floors of this hospital. Some were giving birth and some were in the active stages of dying. Some were here working as doctors, nurses, orderlies, and then there were volunteers who came to cheer the patients up. There were even therapy dogs—who made bedside visits to the patients, and I found myself looking forward to the sweet yellow lab who made his rounds each morning. I found myself breathing in everybody’s situation—their suffering, healing, dying, working, struggling, laughing and crying, and breathing out to everyone the energy of the sunshine, the ruby light and sweet taste of the Jell-O. I also breathed out to everyone my own sudden happiness in that moment that seemed to open to infinity, and imagined all this happiness of sunshine and Jell-O and something more reaching everyone in the hospital and the world outside too with the energy of a warm embrace. I kept breathing in and out in a state of wonder. I felt connected in that moment in a way that seemed indescribable.

3. Now having read Lama Surya Das’s wonderful new book, “Make Me One with Everything: Buddhist Meditations to Awaken From the Illusion of Separation,”

4. I have come to see that what I experienced that morning was something Surya calls inter-meditation, where meditation transcends the solitary and transforms into a sublime action of infinite connection. American-born Surya Das, one of the most highly trained lamas in the Tibetan Dzogchen tradition and a popular teacher internationally known for his humor and warmth has made inter-meditation the main subject of Make Me One With Everything, and his book is a wonderful guide for learning to meditate for and with others as a practice of connecting with the larger world. “If you’ve ever felt ‘at one’ with something—your beloved or your child, a wooded trail, a favorite song—then you’ve experienced inter-meditation…” says Surya in the introduction to the book. Make Me One With Everything offers the reader a collection of useful meditations based on centuries of Tibetan practice including the meditation practice of tonglenand the study of the 59 Lojong aphorisms from the 7-point training in awakening the mind (bodhichitta) as taught by AtishaDipankara in the 11th century—and these practices in Surya’s book are made accessible to all.

5. In teaching us how to inter-meditate, Surya touches upon the most vital situations in our life including our personal relationships, sexuality, anger, conflict resolution, illness and job loss, death and dying, and problems specific to our digital age and notices that neuroscience has a lot to say about inter-meditation: The Neuroscience of Inseparability You don’t have to take my word for it; read the news. I love reading about the latest developments that move inter-meditation and spirituality out of the temple and into the university, the research laboratory, or the library. For more information visit here - http://www.rewireme.com/wellness/rewiring-connections-inter-meditation-lama-surya-das-make-one-everything-buddhist-meditations-awaken-illusion-separation/