Wednesday life form blogging

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Inner values

Entirely sensible:

Developing inner values is much like physical exercise. The more we train our abilities, the stronger they become.

-- The Dalai Lama

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Monday Meditation Picture Blogging

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Something about boundaries

A friend of the Center who runs a recovery email list sent out the following today:

Boundaries define our comfort zone. They can be physical or emotional. We enforce them to protect our bodies and our emotions as well. In recovery we learn to enforce our boundaries by standing up for our rights against all manner of actions by others that are inappropriate in either physical or emotional space. Physically, this could range from firm rejection of physical or sexual abuse to not permitting touching of our shoulder, leg, or other body part. Emotionally, the range might cover our need to protect ourselves from efforts to brainwash us into doing something wrong to just not letting others tease us or not responding to requests for our personal information. I have the right to indicate my unwillingness to tolerate comments that are gross or offensive and the right to insist that my personal space not be invaded. For best health, I will ensure that my boundaries are neither too rigid to allow contact with others with whom it is appropriate to open up to nor too loose to allow me to get run over. I will also respect the boundaries of others.

Establishing and maintaining healthy boundaries is definitely part of a good meditative practice.
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Friday Cat Blogging!

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Something about our lifestyle

This is really seomthing to think about:

The cause of all our personal problems and nearly all the problems of the world can be summed up in a single sentence: Human life is very deep, and our modern dominant lifestyle is not.

- Bo Lozoff

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Wednesday life form blogging

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"Actively do nothing"

I'm reposting here what I think is a very profound meditation instruction:

Take a seat ...and just sit. .... Relax. Don't try to do anything at all. Don't try to make anything come, don't try to make anything go leave. Let everything do its own work, chart its own course. As you sit, just sit with the world, with whatever is there, all of the arisings and passings away in your mind, body, and environment. As you notice sights and sounds, thoughts and feelings, memories and anticipations, relax into them. Relax your mind and body. Actively do nothing. Make no efforts. Just sit, just be, at least for now
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The mentality is this. There is nowhere that you need to go, nothing that you need to achieve, no one that you need to be....

- Jundo Cohen

This is a very powerful antidote to the all too frequent obsession with "getting it right" in meditation.
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Monday Meditative Picture of the Day

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The down side of multi-tasking

In an article about how to be happier, I found this:

Do one thing at a time. Edward Suarez, Ph.D., associate professor of medical psychology at Duke, found that people who multitask are more likely to have high blood pressure. Take that finding to heart. Instead of talking on the phone while you fold laundry or clean the kitchen, sit down in a comfortable chair and turn your entire attention over to the conversation. Instead of checking e-mail as you work on other projects, turn off your e-mail function until you finish the report you’re writing. This is similar to the concept of mindfulness.

You can read the rest of it right here.

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Sunday art blogging

Artist: Seitei (Shotei) Watanabe 1851-1918
Image from Wikimedia Commons
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Something that makes SO much sense

This little snippet by Waye Muller:

"Once people feel nourished and refreshed, they cannot help but be kind; just so, the world aches for the generosity of a well-rested people."

So, let's give ourselves that nourishment and refreshment and stop telling ourselves that we don't have time to meditate...
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Wednesday life form blogging

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Being willing to stop sometimes

Who would have thought that something a Supreme Court justice had said would be so pertinent to meditative practice?

"When a man feels that he cannot leave his work, it is a sure sign of an impending collapse."

-- Louis Brandeis

I so very much agree.

If you find yourself getting obsessive-compulsive about your work, do consider that to be an alarm bell, okay?

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Anxiety?

First aid for any experience of agitation and anxiety:

Try breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth for five minutes with their eyes closed.

Wednesday life form blogging

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Impermanence

Late last Sunday afternoon, I happened to overhear the tail end of the Middle Path group led by David Beach. He was quoting George Harrison:

Daylight is good at arriving at the right time

Its not always going to be this grey

All things must pass
All things must pass away
All things must pass
None of lifes strings can last
So, I must be on my way
And face another day

It's worth remembering, people. Yes, it is.

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