Fourth Song on IN: Chants of Mindfulness and Compassion – My Grateful Heart

September 16, 2015March 19, 2019Eve Decker2 Comments

My Grateful Heart

The fourth song on the new CD, “IN: Chants of Mindfulness and Compassion”, is called My Grateful Heart. It was written by Laura Fannon, a member of the Threshold Choir (groups of mostly women who sing at the bedsides of the dying).

The words go like this:

My grateful heart, so filled with years of living

Memories flow by me, like petals on a stream

My grateful heart, forgives so many sorrows

Brings peace that lasts forever

Illuminates the dream

Dr. Fred Luskin, founder of the Stanford Forgiveness Project, teaches that authentic forgiveness isn’t possible without gratitude. We need gratitude, and an awareness of the good things in our lives, in order to have the resilience to forgive. Brene Brown, who researches and writes extensively on vulnerability, shame, and resiliency, teaches that gratitude is necessary for joy.

Gratitude – practiced intentionally and consciously – helps lend a fresh perspective to our lives, so that we are not overly caught in the negative.

The Buddha gave a teaching about a loving heart that applies to gratitude. He said, if you put a spoonful of salt into a glass of water, the water will taste salty. But if you put that same spoonful of salt into a lake, you won’t taste the salt.

When our minds to not have the resilience and perspective that gratitude can help to provide, then our suffering can color the whole of our mind, the way the salt flavors the whole glass of water. But that same suffering, in the spacious container provided by an awareness and appreciation of the good things in our lives, becomes more manageable and less overwhelming.

Laura Fannon’s song, written to ease the transition for dying people and their families, reminds us that gratitude “Illuminates the dream”. Looking at life through a lens of gratitude, the difficult things are held in a better perspective, and the good things are more a part of our identity and world view.

So why not try an intentional gratitude practice? I do it, and it’s an important part of my self care. Here are three things I do-

I have a gratitude buddy. My friend Leann and I email each other several times a week (usually), simple lists of things we are grateful for that day
Ten things: I use my ten fingers to come up with ten things I am grateful for. This is especially helpful when I am caught in negative thinking and/or painful emotion. It creates that different lens for seeing my life, “illuminates the dream” – puts more space of fresh water around the salt of life.
Sing “My Grateful Heart” to remind myself of the good things!

Love and peace to you, Eve

CD RELEASE CONCERT AT THE FREIGHT AND SALVAGE!
Saturday September 26, 2015 8PM
www.freightandsalvage.org (Berkeley, CA)
Join Eve Decker, Julie Wolf, Kent Welsh, Ben Decker and other special guests
Celebrating the Release of Eve’s New CD, IN: Chants of Mindfulness and Compassion

Click here to purchase tickets ($21 adv./$23 at door)

With Special Guests!

Jennifer Berezan, Creator of Praises to the World and Song for All Beings!
Vocal Activist Melanie DeMore
Spirit Rock teacher Donald Rothberg
Buddhist teacher and performer Nina Wise
Musician and Activist Betsy Rose
Members of the Threshold Choir (choirs of women who sing at the bedsides of the dying)

“Eve’s songs–the music, the words, and most of all her voice–comfort and embrace.” – Sylvia Boorstein, founding teacher, Spirit Rock Meditation Center

Our life is creation of our mind - Buddha quote on a slate blackboard against red barn wood — Our life is creation of our mind – Buddha quote on a slate blackboard against red barn wood

Third Song on IN: Chants of Mindfulness and Compassion – May We

August 28, 2015March 19, 2019Eve DeckerLeave a comment

Third Chant on IN: Chants of Mindfulness and Compassion - May We

When I began learning the Buddhist lovingkindness phrases, sometime in the early 1990’s, I was initially taught these basic phrases:

May you be safe

May you be happy

May you be healthy

May you be at ease

I learned that we send them to different categories of people. First ourselves, then a benefactor, then a friend, then a neutral person, then a difficult person, then all beings. The idea, in sending these phrases over and over again to these different beings, is that we increase our own capacity to experience and express lovingkindness.

Later I learned that there are longer phrases, and variations on the phrases, and we students were invited to create phrases that allowed us the most personal resonance. After attending two eight day lovingkindness retreats, in which we were saying the phrases for 12-16 hours a day, I honed the phrases to become something I really meant, and longed for. They were (and still are):

May you be safe and protected from inner and outer harm (inner harm being any unkindness delivered by our own minds)

May you be truly happy and deeply peaceful

May you be healthy and strong, and physically at ease

May you take care of yourself, and live with well being

Having claimed these as my lovingkindness phrases, I practiced with them for years.

Recently, I was scheduled to teach at East Bay Meditation Center. As per my normal teaching style, I was planning to bring my guitar and intersperse my dharma talk with dharma-themed songs. My partner Diane had suggested that I write a song about lovingkindness (I had already co-written a song on this theme for my CD ‘Commentaries on Perfections of the Heart’, but it is lengthy and involves a lot of verses; I wanted something with repeating phrases that people could learn relatively quickly). The thought came to my mind – why not add music to my existing phrases? So I sat down with my guitar, and May We was born. I shared this musical version of the lovinkindness phrases with my class at East Bay Meditation Center that night, and have been sharing it with all my classes since then.

Click here to purchase tickets ($21 adv./$23 at door)

With Special Guests!
Vocal Activist Melanie DeMore
Spirit Rock teacher Donald Rothberg
Buddhist teacher and performer Nina Wise
Musician and Activist Betsy Rose
Members of the Threshold Choir (choirs of women who sing at the bedsides of the dying)

“Eve's songs--the music, the words, and most of all her voice--comfort and embrace.” – Sylvia Boorstein, founding teacher, Spirit Rock Meditation Center

“T O T A L L Y B E A U T I F U L ! ! ! The songs are gorgeous!!!” – Larry Yang, founding teacher, East Bay Meditation Center

"An original musical transmission of the dharma. Deeply moving and transformative. And blessed with Eve's emotionally transparent voice and exquisite musicians. This is music that heals. I know I will be listening to it daily!" - Jennifer Berezan, singer/songwriter and activist

Second Song on IN: Chants of Mindfulness and Compassion – I Have Arrived

August 25, 2015August 26, 2015Eve DeckerLeave a comment

Second Chant on “IN: Chants of Mindfulness and Compassion” – I Have Arrived

“I have arrived. I am home. In the here and in the now. I am solid, I am free. In the ultimate I dwell” – Thich Nhat Hanh

This teaching from Thich Nhat Hanh, put to music by a friend of mine, Betsy Rose (www. Betsyrosemusic.org), speaks to what wonderful thing can and does happen when we take the time to learn and practice mindfulness. Mindfulness is the practice of directing the mind away from thought and into investigating and appreciating the present moment.

You do not have to be stuck forever in the negative thinking your mind churns out. When it is slamming you with criticism and shame, it is probably doing what it learned to do long ago in order to understand and manage your pain (when we are kids and no one is contextualizing our pain we assume it’s our own fault). No, you do not have to be loyal to the habits of your mind and thank goodness, there are practices that can loosen the grip of long standing mental habit. They include practices in mindfulness, compassion, lovingkindness, and gratitude.

For example, let’s say I am in a moment of intense anxiety about money. Or it could be about relationships, or job, or family…name a vortex du jour. Most of us know what it feels like to be enveloped in a hell of ruminative thought, spurred on by painful emotion like anxiety, anger, fear, or sadness.

So, in the example, I am lost in thought and worry about money. If I am fortunate enough to remember to try mindfulness, I can choose to let the thought be for a few moments and investigate the present moment. What is happening now?

Maybe there is some mixture of pleasant, neutral, and unpleasant things about the present moment. Pleasant: There is a cool breeze. My dog is next to me. I don’t have to go into work this afternoon. Neutral: I am physically safe right now. I am fed. I am breathing. Unpleasant: My back hurts. There is a feeling of contraction in my chest. I am pervaded by a sense of worry.

With investigation into the present moment, a few things are happening.

I am changing the focus of thought, thus freeing myself from the intensity of the negative thought.
I am opening to the possibility of perceiving some GOOD in my life, right now – not only the pleasant things (breeze, dog, no afternoon work), but the apparently neutral things (safety, food, breath) can be appreciated.
The unpleasant things in the moment (physical discomfort, worry) can be put in perspective, AND I now have an option of addressing them directly (get on my back roller, do some writing, google sources of possible help for financial concerns) rather than spinning myself deeper into anxiety.

This moment, here, the one you are in right now, may be much less unpleasant when you actually inhabit it, by bringing attention to it (that’s mindfulness). And that is Thich Nhat Hanh’s teaching: this moment is your home. Not the thoughts in your head. Here. This ever changing moment. Within this moment you actually dwell, this is where life is really happening.

You have arrived. You are home. And here in this moment, there is the solidity of your presence- you are part of the world, part of the universe, your breath and heft and heat BELONG here among us. You can feel that directly with mindfulness. Here, in the ultimate ever changing now, among the rest of us, you dwell.

Welcome.

Eve Decker

Click here to purchase tickets ($21 adv./$23 at door)

“Eve’s songs–the music, the words, and most of all her voice–comfort and embrace.” – Sylvia Boorstein, founding teacher, Spirit Rock Meditation Center

“T O T A L L Y B E A U T I F U L ! ! ! The songs are gorgeous!!!” – Larry Yang, founding teacher, East Bay Meditation Center

“An original musical transmission of the dharma. Deeply moving and transformative. And blessed with Eve’s emotionally transparent voice and exquisite musicians. This is music that heals. I know I will be listening to it daily!” – Jennifer Berezan, singer/songwriter and activist

Our life is creation of our mind - Buddha quote on a slate blackboard against red barn wood

First song on the Chant CD: Pali Metta (Lovingkindness)

August 12, 2015August 13, 2015Eve Decker4 Comments

First song on IN: Chants of Mindfulness and Compassion: Pali Metta Chant

This chant is written in Pali, the language that was spoken in north India at the time the Buddha was alive. Pali is not spoken by regular folks anymore, but the language has been kept alive by Buddhist monastics.

Sabe Sata Sukhi Hontu translates to “May all beings be happy”. Buddhists have been chanting this simple phrase for more than 2,500 years.

To me, this chant is a wonderful, wonderful practice in intention. It sets a direction for our hearts and for our actions. Sensing into and growing a longing that all beings know happiness, it gives perspective to our experiences and our choices – if I wish for all beings to be happy, what would I do now? What would I say? How would I act?

It is really important to remember that “all beings” includes ourselves! We too are part of this enormous group! It is so important that we don’t forget ourselves, and our own well being. If we do, sacrificing our own needs in order to try to serve others, we become codependent and are on a track for burn out and resentment. We have a powerful responsibility for self care – when we are taking good care of ourselves, others don’t have to worry about us as much! And our well being gives us a deep source of strength and resilience for assisting and inspiring others. So, keep yourself in mind as you wish for all beings to be happy!

From this wish, sabe sata sukhi hontu, many beautiful actions can be born. We begin to see that we need resources for ourselves and to offer others in the walking towards this intention. When we learn and practice mindfulness, training the mind to investigate deeply the present moment, we have developed a powerful ally for calming down and offering clarity and kindness to ourselves and those around us. When we develop lovingkindness, compassion, and gratitude, we increase our capacity to love.

Motivated by the heart’s longing that all beings everywhere be happy, we begin our journey. Patience is a given on this path. Yet we continue moving forward.

Eve Decker

Click here to purchase tickets ($21 adv./$23 at door)

“Eve’s songs–the music, the words, and most of all her voice–comfort and embrace.” – Sylvia Boorstein, founding teacher, Spirit Rock Meditation Center

“T O T A L L Y B E A U T I F U L ! ! ! The songs are gorgeous!!!” – Larry Yang, founding teacher, East Bay Meditation Center