Gathas and Blessings
Sometimes short poems or sayings are used in meditation retreats or as part of a daily mindfulness practice to remind us of what we already know but so easily forget or take for granted. These poems or sayings are called gathas in the Buddhist tradition. There are gathas for waking in the morning, for saying over a meal, for having tea, for remembering to appreciate this inbreath and this outbreath, for almost every occasion in everyday life, all so that we can stay in touch with what is real and not lose ourselves in thought.
If they are repeated mindlessly, by rote and habit, these verses are virtually of no value. But if they are held, like precious birds, and invited to visit, and used judiciously, they can have enormous power. They are very simple, just reminders, but they have a wonderful directional energy. They heal and they soothe. They also point to what we need to remember. Our children learned this little gatha in school:
The sun is in my heart
It warms me with its power
And wakens life and love
In bird
And flower.
The whole class recited it aloud at the beginning of each day in kindergarten and the first few grades of elementary school. The words were accompanied by a series of arm movements that painted a flowing picture: making a sweeping circle over the head for the sun; the hands then tracing lines from over the head back to the heart, palms open to the sky; arms extending out with warmth; the hands then being brought back to the chest, closed around each other, and, finally, opening with the life of bird and beast, and completing the movement as the fingers and palms form the petaled cup of a flower.
We very much liked that the children were visiting this little gatha of the heart on a regular basis. We thought it good food for their minds and bodies and as important, if not more so, as anything else they might be learning. It felt like the daily repetition of this verse was protecting and nurturing something precious in them, and reminding them each day of the power and the preciousness of life and of the central empowering energy of the heart, which we call love. A little morning meditation for the class, to call the heart to awaken and remind the children of interconnectedness… sun, heart, life, power, bird, beast, flower, children, love, all one inseparable whole.
We learned many such gathas from our children. They said one before lunch in school that became our way of moving from the busyness of the day to a moment of silent connection as we sat down to dinner as a family, holding hands around the table:
Earth who gives to us this food,
Sun who makes it ripe and good,
By you we live,
Our loving thanks
To you we give.
Then we would keep silent for a moment or two, look at each other around the circle, look at our food and at the whole table set for dinner, and then say, “Blessings on our meal and blessings on our family.” If guests were present, we might say, “Blessings on our guests.”
We never said any blessings or grace in our families when we were growing up, and we sometimes felt uncomfortable when we ran into situations in which saying grace was the rule of the house. But as we got older, we both understood more and more the importance of intentionally and mindfully blessing what is wholesome and good in life so that it doesn’t go unnoticed and uncelebrated.
Perhaps that is why we found these gathas of awareness and gratitude so congenial when our children brought them home and taught them to us. They were mindfulness blessings. They seemed so inclusive, so appreciative, so embracing. We like to think that during all the years we spoke these little verses and took the time to linger in the feelings they evoked, they were watering seeds within our hearts that continue to flower in our family and in the children, wherever they go. It is good to know that the sun is in your heart.
And these gathas may have also planted seeds in the children for loving what is behind the veil of appearance, what great poets know and celebrate so uncannily with words.…