Chaharshanbe Suri Eve

Chaharshanbe Suri, the Festival of Fire, is part of the ten day Zoroastrian festival, Farvardegan, which concludes with Nowruz, the Persian New Year, on March 21. On this last Tuesday evening of the year, Iranians jump over bonfires.

Agenda:

1. Love meditation

2. Read "Mindfulness-Based Emotional Balance Workbook"

3. Make Ajeel

4. Build a fire and JUMP!

1. Love meditation:

Every month after the full moon, in the quiet-energy yin time of the waning moon, I practice a love meditation that progresses from receptivity, to gratitude, to generosity:

Day 2: Practice a love meditation, and end by feeling and expressing gratitude - send a prayer to the universe of thanksgiving for all I have in my life. 

When I remember to feel grateful for my blessings, my days take on a different tone: I have more vigor, optimism, compassion, and peace. By noticing how I am blessed, my impatience decreases and I realize how satisfied and fulfilled I really am.

2. Read "Mindfulness-Based Emotional Balance Workbook":

I'm reading again from the Mindfulness-Based Emotional Balance Workbook, by Margaret Cullen and Gonzalo Brito Pons (2015). I got it after realizing that mindfulness might be the key to gaining the equanimity I crave. This is supposedly an "8-week program for Improved Emotional Regulation and Resilience"; I'm taking it much slower.

Last week I started Part Two: The Program. Chapter 4 is Learning How to Pay Attention One Breath, One Sensation at a Time. I have practiced mindfulness of breath, and a body scan, and an attention field observation: Noticing the quality of breath in everyday life and being present in small ways.

"The capacity to pay attention is crucial for emotional balance, since it gives you the freedom to focus your mind in constructive ways, instead of being tossed around by random internal external stimuli." 

Now I'm beginning Chapter 5: Feelings- Pleasant, Unpleasant, and Neutral. "Feeling tones can be described as the flavors that accompany each moment of experience, whether received from the five senses ... or the mind -- sometimes referred to as the sixth sense since it also perceives mental experiences." 

So, we are talking about the tone of sounds, smells, tastes, as well as thoughts, memories, and plans. The goal is to train myself to pay attention to the feeling tone contained in every experience or memory, and therefore observe the experience rather than identifying with it. "If the mind is trained to observe a thought as a thought, an emotion as an emotion, or a sensation as a sensation, the opportunity arises to observe and experience these ... from a spacious and nonreactive perspective."

3. Make Ajeel:

Tonight children in Iran visit their neighbor's houses in disguise, usually something like a veil covering their entire body. Each kid carries an empty metal bowl and a metal spoon. At the door, they bang the spoons on the bowls and on the door. The neighbor places a treat in each visitor's bowl, usually ajeel. The kids try to remain silent and anonymous throughout the process.

Ajeel is a Persian mixture of dried fruits with roasted nuts and seeds, similar to trail mix. Eating it tonight makes wishes come true! There is no one recipe- you just make it as you like it. Use the list below as a starting place, and add or subtract as you wish.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 c. shelled pistachios
• 1/2 c. roasted almonds
• 1/2 c. roasted cashews
• 1/4 c. roasted chickpeas
• 1/4 c. black or golden raisins
• 1/4 c. dried mulberries
• 1/4 c. dried apricots
• 1/4 c. dried cranberries

In a bowl mix together all the fruit and nuts.

4. Build a fire and JUMP!
Chaharshanbe means red or scarlet, for fire; tonight- the last Tuesday of the year, neighbors in Iran gather to build bonfires. Everyone leaps over the fire, to burn away the bad luck of the old year, and create good luck for the new year.