Our faith, too, shares this interest in happiness for all people. Like many of you I've found myself up and down the roller coaster of grief, loss, sadness, joy, pleasure, and happiness in these many months since the pandemic began. And trying to figure out what to do with them all. Which is why a recent conversation with our Pastoral Care Leadership Team prompted me to go back to a book first published almost a generation ago.

 

"Going to Pieces Without Falling Apart" was written by the practicing psychiatrist and Buddhist practitioner Mark Epstein. In the introduction he talks about hearing the Dalai Lama talk about happiness on his very first visit to the United States, decades ago. Epstein writes "When I heard him say this, I remember scoffing at the idea. Something about it sounded so simplistic. But after I heard him say it eight or nine more times over the next few years, I started to pay attention to his actual meaning. He was addressing this idea of psychological materialism and the search for happiness through the acquisition of things, experiences, and beliefs. When we seek happiness through accumulation, either outside of ourselves - from other people, relationships, or material goods - or from our own self-development, we are missing the essential point. In either case we are trying to find completion. But according to Buddhism, such a strategy is doomed. Completion comes not from adding another piece to ourselves but from surrendering our ideas of perfection."

 

I think our ideas about healing often fall into this category, too. What if healing isn't about building something up, and is instead about allowing ourselves to be, and be present to what is, instead? It's a challenging thought. That rather than spend our lives seeking after a return to some prior state, rather than trying to acquire our way into health, what if instead we allow our very ideas about self and other to begin to be more permeable? What if healing actually comes from finding a balance between our ability to do and our ability to be?

Our pastoral care teams work hard to both support people in moments of challenge, and to equip people to be prepared to face the issues that are part of life. If you've been looking for a place to dig into at least one spiritual tradition's answers to some of those questions, the team though that perhaps doing a book read might be better this fall than a single workshop. So we've teamed up to explore Epstein's take on going to pieces over four Wednesdays in November and December. We'd love to see you, virtually, of course. Here's a link to the signup. And either way, may you experience happiness, and health, in the days ahead,