Short but very powerful

Oh my, look at this:

It's not them, it's you.
It's not there, it's here.
It's not then, it's now.

~ Author Unknown ~

Happiness and peace of mind

You might like to take a look at a little article called simply "The Physical and Mental Benefits of Daily Meditation". Here's one paragraph:

Is there anybody who does not, in some way, seek after happiness? Meditation takes us to the source of happiness, which is to be found in our own peace of mind. If we have no peace of mind and are constantly attacked by negative thoughts, happiness will remain elusive, no matter how successful we are on an outer plane. It is perhaps hard to imagine that happiness can occur from the simple act of being. However, if we can meditate with a still mind, we will discover an unexpected source of happiness within our own self. Meditation shows us that happiness is not dependent on outer circumstances, but on our inner attitude.

Really, our inner attitude is the only thing we can always choose. Everything else is subject to the ordinary (and sometimes not so ordinary) vicissitudes of life.

The path of loveliness

I think you can see why I think these two sayings go together:

Ananda said: "Friendship with what is lovely, association with what is lovely, intimacy with what is lovely--that is half of the holy life."

The Buddha responded: "Don't say that, Ananda. It's the whole not the half of the holy life. One so blessed with what is lovely will develop a right way of being, a thinking that no longer grasps at what is untrue, an aim that is concerned and ready, a contemplation that is unattached and free. Association with what is lovely is the whole of the holy life."

- From The Buddha Speaks, edited by Anne Bancroft

~~~

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

- St. Paul (Philippians 4:8)

Don't forget about beads

Rosaries are used as a meditative practice in many spiritual traditions:

Use a rosary of meditation beads if you practice a school of meditation that involves the repetition of a mantra. Advance one bead per repetition of your mantra, and continue in reverse when you reach the point you started from if you want to keep going.

Beads not only help us count our prayers or mantras; they also give us something to do with our hands. Personally, I find the use of a rosary (or mala) helps minimize distractions. Here are some sources:

Anglican and Lutheran rosaries

Buddhist malas

Baha'i prayer beads

Orthodox prayer ropes

Goddess rosaries

Catholic rosaries

Worry beads

Finger rosaries (I love these!)

Islamic prayer beads

Friday cat blogging!

Harriet

Photo by Cynthia Burgess

A big fear about meditation

Many people resist meditation because they're afraid of what might "come up". Well, stuff is supposed to come up:

Spiritual progress is like detoxification. Things have to come up in order to be released. Once we have asked to be healed, then our unhealed places are forced to the surface.

--Marianne Williamson

Why would you prefer to have toxic stuff inside you that you don't even know about? Only if we know what's there can we do anything about it. Otherwise, it will rule our lives and we won't even understand why.

Earth, Teach Me

Earth teach me quiet ~
as the grasses are still with new light.

Earth teach me suffering ~
as old stones suffer with memory.

Earth teach me humility ~
as blossoms are humble with beginning.

Earth teach me caring ~
as mothers nurture their young.

Earth teach me courage ~
as the tree that stands alone.

Earth teach me limitation ~
as the ant that crawls on the ground.

Earth teach me freedom ~
as the eagle that soars in the sky.

Earth teach me acceptance ~
as the leaves that die each fall.

Earth teach me renewal ~
as the seed that rises in the spring.

Earth teach me to forget myself ~
as melted snow forgets its life.

Earth teach me to remember kindness ~
as dry fields weep with rain.

- An Ute Prayer

Wednesday life form blogging

Photo by Cynthia Burgess

Learning to shape your mind

I just found a wonderful little article on meditation called "Meditation on your feet" by Stephen Schettini. Here's how it gets started:

The most stubborn misconception conjured up by the word “meditation” is that it’s all about silence and concentration, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Sure, peace and quiet help you look into your mind more clearly, but what are you looking for? The most common answer is balance. Under ideal conditions, mental silence and concentration help a lot, but the nine-to-five frenzy is still waiting out there for us, and it’s even harder to go back to once you get a taste for real downtime.

Beginners often come to meditation in search of control. They want the mind to obey, and its blithe refusal to do so comes as quite a shock. The thing to remember is that it’s not the mind that’s at fault — it’s the expectations. The mind isn’t some sort of command central, but a non-stop stream of consciousness. It will never politely obey your instructions. How many times have you commanded it to stop torturing you with guilt, to crave food less, or to make you think before you speak?

Although the mind isn’t compliant, it’s not hostile either. It can be cultivated like a plant or anything else that grows in familiar but unpredictable patterns. The idea is to gradually nudge your mental patterns into the shape you want. The big question is, what shape?

To answer that question we first have to become familiar with the patterns that are already there, which is where mindfulness comes in. It also enables us to see how those patterns unfold, and what good or harm results. It helps us decide what to cultivate and what to restrain. This all takes time and the ability to turn your mind inwards.

What to cultivate, what to restrain. Important discernments! And meditation will definitely help.

Your life, your duty

Jan posted the following poem at Yearning for God:

Wake up. Day calls you

to your life: your duty.

And to live, nothing more.

Root it out of the glum

night and the darkness

that covered your body

for which light waited

on tiptoe in the dawn.

Stand up, affirm the straight

simple will to be

a pure slender virgin.

Test your body's metal.

Cold, heat? Your blood

will tell against the snow,

or behind the window.

The colour

in your cheeks will tell.

And look at people. Rest

doing no more than adding

your perfection to another

day. Your task

is to carry your life high,

and play with it, hurl it

like a voice to the clouds

so it may retrieve the light

already gone from us.

That is your fate: to live.

Do nothing.

Your work is you, nothing more.

~ Pedro Salinas ~
(My Voice Because of You, translated by Willis Barnstone)

Monday meditative picture blogging

Photo by Cynthia Burgess

The most important of all voyages

How very true this is and how beautifully expressed:

What can we gain by sailing to the moon if we are not able to cross the abyss that separates us from ourselves? This is the most important of all voyages of discovery, and without it, all the rest are not only useless, but disastrous.

-- Thomas Merton

Don't forget candles

I found another meditation blog today. It's called "Meditation is Easy.com". A recent post talks about candles:

Meditation candles are very useful accessories in your meditation activities. If you have a separate meditation room, using candles while meditating can be an excellent idea.

Candles can help give you that great feeling of a little warmth and light in the room while you are meditating. Some specialized candles are perfume based and they will fill the room with a pleasing aroma producing a sense of relaxation and calm... Gazing at the tip of the flame of the candle constantly is also one form of meditation, which helps in increasing concentration.

Even if you can’t have a separate meditation room, using candles while meditating can be very helpful. The light from the candles has a charm in it.

Also the very act of lighting the candles in the first place helps settle the mind and bring it to awareness. When we light a candle we are saying to ourselves, "Now it's time to meditate." Lighting the candle is a little mindfulness ritual.

No fear of not surviving

I know I've made many decisions out of a fear of not surviving. I imagine we all have. So this is a challenging statement by an always bold spiritual teacher:

To find out what you love to do demands a great deal of intelligence; because, if you are afraid of not being able to earn a livelihood, or of not fitting into this rotten society, then you will never find out. But, if you are not frightened, if you refuse to be pushed into the groove of tradition by your parents, by your teachers, by the superficial demands of society, then there is a possibility of discovering what it is you really love to do. So, to discover, there must be no fear of not surviving.

- Krishnamurti

Friday cat blogging!

Simon

Photo by Cynthia Burgess

A very moving blog post

Today I stumbled upon a blog named "Inspirations and Creative Thought". I know I came across this site before but it's been several years. I'm glad to have found it again. Here's a post from June of 2005:

I'm a Muslim because I submit myself to the Lord of the world. also because I testify that "There is no god but One True God, and Mohammad is the last messenger of God."

I'm a Hindu because a hindu is a person who seeks the Truth. And God is the Eternal Truth, the Reality behind everything.

I'm a Christian because I believe in Jesus Christ. I believe in his second coming as the messiah. Jesus is the Spirit from God (Isa ruhullah).

I'm a Jew because I believe in Moses as great Prophet of God who spoke to God (Musa kalimullah).

I'm a Buddhist because I seek enlightenment (Nirvana) of my soul. I pay my respect to Gautama Buddha who is one of the most brilliant personalities who walked on this earth.

I'm a Taoist who believe in Tao, the Ultimate Reality behind everything.

And I have no hesitation to say to all other religion that I belong to them as well. They are all my beloved brother and sisters as One God's creation. We belong to the same family. Our blood is the same, our feelings and emotions are same. We are all seeking the same goal only at different path. And all the atheists are my brothers and sisters as well. They also have a different path to seek the Knowledge.

We are all on a journey, knowingly or unknowingly we are trying to reach to the Ultimate goal.

Some will struggle more, some will less.

Some are on straight path, some are not.

But can we deny our aspirations to Love our Beloved God?

Can we condemn other just because they speak different language and have different culture?

Can we deny their faith just because they call the same God in different name, the same God who is beyond name and form ?

Needless to say, there were commenters to this post who claimed the writer could not be what he says he is.

But I undersand. And I would say the same things - although my reasons would be different from the ones this writer has proclaimed.

One of the reasons there is such conflict in the world is the widespread intolerance of paradox and ambiguity. Black-and-white, all-or-nothing thinking is very immature and very dangerous indeed.

Make friends with your shadow side

I've been thinking a lot about the shadow side of human nature lately and how it can take over if we do not acknowledge it and find a way to give it skillful and legitimate expression. The poet William Blake understood this:

A Poison Tree

I was angry with my friend;
I told my wrath, my wrath did end.
I was angry with my foe:
I told it not, my wrath did grow.

And I waterd it in fears,
Night & morning with my tears:
And I sunned it with smiles,
And with soft deceitful wiles.

And it grew both day and night,
Till it bore an apple bright.
And my foe beheld it shine,
And he knew that it was mine.

And into my garden stole.
When the night had veiled the pole;
In the morning glad I see,
My foe outstretch'd beneath the tree.

No forcing

Here's an illustration by Steve Gillman I just found that I like very much:

Imagine a wonderful evening with new friends. You prepared dinner, bought a good bottle of wine, and cleaned the house. Now the guests are here, the conversation is great, and you are happy. Can you make this happen? Yes and no.

You can prepare in every way to make it a pleasant event, but in the end, the guests can decline your invitation, or not arrive, or show up late, right? You can’t force them to come, or if you try, you’ll ruin the atmosphere or even the friendship.

That is how meditation is, too. You do what is necessary to prepare for a good experience, but in the end, you can’t force it. Work and discipline help, just like cleaning up and chilling the wine are necessary to prepare for a good dinner party, but there is no forcing the result. When the experience is a good one, enjoy it, but if it doesn’t happen, just prepare again.

So when you want to invite inspiration into your meditation, or into your life, don’t try to push the guest through the door. When you are tempted to do so, turn back to your preparations, and concentrate on that. Just send out the invitations, prepare yourself, and relax.

So let's not judge our meditations or get attached to having a particular experience.

Tuesday meditative picture blogging

Photo by Cynthia Burgess (I think!)

A good thought discipline

We would all do well to cultivate this approach to life:

For me, a lovely day is any day I wake up.

-- Bernie S. Siegel, Prescriptions for Living

This is so true

and so inspiring:

We people of the world need to find ways to get to know one another - for then we will recognize that our likenesses are so much greater than our differences, however great our differences may seem. Every cell, every human being, is of equal importance and has work to do in this world.

- Peace Pilgrim

Compassion into action

Just believing in compassion doesn't get us very far:

Everybody can be great. Because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve. You don't have to know about Plato and Aristotle to serve. You don't have to know Einstein's theory of relativity to serve. You don't have to know the second theory of thermodynamics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.

- Martin Luther King Jr

St. Michael, the Archangel

Today is Michaelmas - or the Feast Day of St. Michael and All Angels.

Michael the Archangel is the patron of the following:

Artists; bakers; bankers; battle; boatmen; cemeteries; coopers; endangered children; dying; Emergency Medical Technicians; fencing; grocers; hatmakers; holy death; knights; mariners; mountaineers; paramedics; paratroopers; police officers; radiologists; sailors; the sick; security forces; soldiers; against storms at sea; swordsmiths; those in need of protection.

Do you fall into any of these categories? You can call on St. Michael or look to him for protection.

And remember, the word "angel" simply means messenger. Maybe it would do us all some good to reflect with gratitude on the various angels who have turned up in our lives over the years.

Friday cat blogging!

Leroy under the desk

Photo by Cynthia Burgess

Why perseverence matters

I've known for some time that there are studies demonstrating the effectiveness of meditation in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. Only today have I learned some important details about how that works:

With an average age of 54, most of the patients were female, white, married, college-educated, middle-class, and all were free of either psychiatric illness or alcohol or drug addiction.

During the trial, all the patients continued to be treated by their regular doctor and to take whatever medication they'd been taking before the study began.

At the start of the study, and two and six months later, all the patients completed questionnaires to assess depressive symptoms and psychological distress. Also, blood measures of inflammation were taken and an assessment of tender and swollen joints was done to evaluate current RA status.

By the two-month mark, both the meditation and the non-meditation groups had shown equal levels of improvement in terms of depression and emotional symptoms.

But by six months, there was a "significant" difference in perceived psychological distress between the two groups -- those practicing mediation reported a 35 percent reduction in psychological distress.

It's so important not to throw in the towel too early! We westerners are so addicted to instant gratification. We need patience from the get-go and a willingness to persevere until the benefits of meditation have time to kick in.

Our lives are our stories

The ways in which we apply what we believe to be spiritual truths, the ways in which we integrate them into our ordinary lives, speak more loudly than our actual words:

Our lives are our stories. Ultimately it is the state of our total being that affects the world. I was impressed by a comment made by someone who was part of a party invited to dialogue with the Dalai Lama. While this person was certainly interested in what His Holiness had to say, he admitted that he mainly wanted to see how the Dalai Lama tied his shoes. That’s what eventually affects us most of all, isn’t it? Not the eloquence of words, nor books and concepts, but the way the truth is being lived in the world.

-- Gloria Karpinski in Barefoot on Holy Ground

Let's all pay attention to how we "tie our shoes!"

Wednesday life form blogging

Photo by Cynthia Burgess

Giving AND receiving

This is so true:

The happy heart gives away the best. To know how to receive is also a most important gift, which cultivates generosity in others and keeps strong the cycle of life.

-- Dhyani Ywahoo in Voices of Our Ancestors

When we refuse to accept a gift or a service graciously, we are devaluing the generosity of others. And that is not a loving or compassionate thing to do at all!

The gift of presence

Another one from Spirituality and Practice:

There is a Jewish tradition that a single visit to someone's sickbed takes away one sixtieth of their illness. The ancient sages understood that just being in the presence of another human being can lift a person up.

— Naomi Levy in To Begin Again

Ah, yes, I know this to be true!

Surgery recovery

Well, as will not surprise you, meditation helps. Take a look at this excerpt from an article entitled "Doctors ignorant of natural therapies":

"Studies have shown that patients who received antioxidants, meditation, music therapy and stress management before surgery had less complications and went home earlier," Dr Braun said. "It's simple - if we have evidence-based complementary medicines and we are truly practising evidence-based medicine, then we need to use complementary medicines."

Well, all I can say is that maybe the complications I had would have been even worse than they were if I were not a meditator! :-)

Equinox

This year the autumnal equinox was today at 9:51 Universal Time:

The Autumnal Equinox signals the end of the summer months and the beginning of winter. At this time of year, days have been shortening since the Summer Solstice some three months earlier, and the Equinox is the point where nights reach the same length as days. After this point, the Sun will shine lower and lower on the horizon until the Winter Solstice in about three months' time.

Summer is over, folks!

No spring, nor summer beauty hath such grace
As I have seen in one autumnal face;

-- John Donne

Oh, this is really, really good

The following is a "Spiritual Practice of the Day" found on the Spirituality and Practice website:

I once saw a cartoon depicting two Buddhist monks seated side by side in a meditation hall. An older monk was muttering something to a younger monk out of the corner of his mouth. The young monk looked dumbfounded. The caption read: "Nothing happens next. This is it."

— Clark Strand in The Wooden Bowl

To Practice This Thought: Be present right now. Don't think about what's going to happen next.

Are you taking care of yourself?

This is important:

Self-care is not selfish or self-indulgent. We cannot nurture others from a dry well. We need to take care of our own needs first, then we can give from our surplus, our abundance.

— Jennifer Louden in The Woman's Comfort Book

Friday cat blogging!

Henry

Photo by Ellie Finlay

Another wonderful Rumi quote!

Rumi understands mystical love and ecstacy!

Hear from the heart wordless mysteries!
Understand what cannot be understood!
In humanity's stone-dark heart there burns a fire
That burns all veils to their root and foundation.
When the veils are burned away, the heart will understand completely...
Ancient Love will unfold ever-fresh forms
In the heart of the Spirit, in the core of the heart.

Practicing gratitude

We need many reminders:

Gratitude for the gift of life is the primary wellspring of all religions, the hallmark of the mystic, the source of all true art....It is a privilege to be alive in this time when we can choose to take part in the self-healing of our world.

-- Joanna Macy

Wednesday life form blogging

Photo by Cynthia Burgess

Preparing for death

The Meditation Society of Australia has this for its daily meditation today:

The best way to prepare for death is to spend every day of life as though it were the last. Think of the end of worldly honor, wealth and pleasure and ask yourself: And then? And then?

-- St. Philip Romolo Neri

It's the old "you can't take it with you" observation. A good one to remember!

Tuesday meditative picture blogging

Photo by Bill Miller

Getting to know your own mind

I want to show you an excerpt from an article called Mindfulness and Meditation in the Modern World:

As a moment of silence is filled with thoughts of distraction, desire for noise, company, or movement, you begin to discover how your mind works. The hum of a clock elicits a cycle of thoughts and feelings of movement, again you begin to understand how your mind works. Over time and practice, you may gain patience, first a tolerance, then an embrace of a deeper understanding of your self and your relationship to the world. The repetitive pattern of 'discovery' can arise in everything you do, and you may discover that introspection and reflection have created a space between experience and your reactions to them, a space in which you can choose your response. Practicing over and over while sitting, while walking, or doing daily activities are part of learning to be more mindful. Everyday objects can replace the breath in practice. For example, you can eat mindfully, observing the texture, smell, and taste of each bite of food, giving it your full attention. In this way, mindfulness can be integrated into daily life, when talking, walking, listening, or relating to others, the planet, or yourself.

Perhaps mindfulness, meditation, and other mind-body practices (such as yoga and tai chi) are increasing in popularity in the West because they let us experience internal investigation, without it being so verbal in nature. They provide us with an awareness of the chatter within and around us, they provide us with a gift of listening, they provide us with great insight into our very nature. It is a misperception to think that meditation means silencing the mind, silencing thoughts or feelings; it is a process of learning about the mind, full of the complexity it holds.

Mindfulness meditation is about really getting to know yourself. It's not about "making the mind go blank" or any such nonsense. It's about seeing what's really there and getting acquainted with our habitual reactions. Only then can we make different choices than we have habitually done and thereby improve our lives.

Whatever words or sounds you use

Eloquently expressed:

Everybody prays whether [you think] of it as praying or not. The odd silence you fall into when something very beautiful is happening or something very good or very bad. The ah-h-h-h! that sometimes floats up out of you as out of a Fourth of July crowd when the sky-rocket bursts over the water. The stammer of pain at somebody else s pain. The stammer of joy at somebody else's joy. Whatever words or sounds you use for sighing with over your own life. These are all prayers in their way. These are all spoken not just to yourself but to something even more familiar than yourself and even more strange than the world.

-- Frederick Buechner

Gratitude and acceptance

Today I have been particularly mindful of my gratitude for the excellent care I received while I was in the hosplital. I am especially grateful for Rebecca, my day-shift nurse while I was in the Intensive Care Unit. I have also prayed in a focused way for patience today because my recovery is turning out to be slower and more painful than I had bargained for. And so the following quote is particularly appropriate:

Gratitude is the intention to count-your-blessings every day, every minute, while avoiding, whenever possible, the belief that you need or deserve different circumstances.

— Timothy Miller in How To Want What You Have

May we all let go of our attachment for preferences and truly accept things as they are without judgment, without complaint.

Some research on kindness

Time Magazine has a series of short articles called "20 Ways to Get and Stay Happy". Here's one called "Do Something Nice for Someone Else":

Hold a door open for someone at the bank, give someone directions if they look lost or make a point to compliment three people on your way to work. Small or big, directed at friends or strangers, random acts of kindness make the person performing the kind act happier when they're grouped together, according to Sonja Lyubomirsky, an experimental psychologist at UC Riverside. Doing a considerate thing for another person five times in one day made the doer happier than if they had spread out those five acts over one week. Lyubomirsky explains that because we all perform acts of kindness naturally, it seems to please us more when we're more conscious of it. There are social rewards, too, when people respond positively.

Interesting that people are happier when those acts of kindness are grouped together. Let's all form a conscious intention to try it!

Friday cat blogging!

Henry

Photo by Ellie Finlay

The purpose of meditation

In a way, meditation is its own purpose, really. But if we could say there is a specific purpose to meditation beyond itself, that purpose would be happiness:

We tend to seek happiness outside ourselves – where we are, what we possess, who we are with - but meditation helps us to realise that real, lasting happiness is an experience which flows from within and exists independently of our outer circumstances. As our meditation evolves, we become increasingly happier.

I found the above passage in a little article called "The gifts of meditation".

Wonder

It is so easy to take things for granted - indeed to take our own existence for granted. What would happen if we set our intention to appreciate the wonder of it all on a regular basis?

At the back of our brains, so to speak, there was a forgotten blaze or burst of astonishment at our own existence. The object of the artistic and spirited life was to dig for this submerged sunrise of wonder.

— G. K. Chesterton in Chaucer

Cultivating real health

Today I found an article about alternative medicine that mentions meditation. It's called The Real Alternative Medicine and it's by Karen Kisslinger. Here's what she says is the real deal:

*Kale and other greens of the mustard family (this does not include spinach, chard and beets)
*Whole grains, used whole, possibly sprouted, not as flour except occasionally
*Natural Light
*Kindness
*Gentleness
*Cooperation and Inclusiveness
*Clean Air and Water
*Love
*Moderate Exercise
*Gardening or otherwise growing things
*Relaxation
*Meditation
*Patience
*Good Sleep
*Prudent Avoidance of Toxic Purchases..

And here's what she specifically says about meditation and patience:

Meditation done regularly has many positive health benefits. The brain is proving to be more plastic and changeable than was once widely believed. Practicing meditation can really change our experience of everything for the positive. You DO have time because if you relax and meditate, you'll have more energy more consistently...and more time to work with. That's good medicine... Real Alternative #12.

In modern times, developing patience may be one of the most important practices of alternative medicine. It gives depth to all activities, slows us down and helps us be more present, makes us respect ourselves and others more, and goes beneath the surface and appearance of everything. Real Alternative #13

Fortunately, I love kale! Sadly, I don't prepare it nearly often enough. I think I'll make an effort to buy it more often!

Being still

I really like the understanding of "being still" as meaning that there's no compulsiveness:

A thoroughly good relationship with ourselves results in being still, which doesn't mean we don't run and jump and dance about. It means there's no compulsiveness. We don't overwork, overeat, oversmoke, overseduce. In short, we begin to stop causing harm.

— Pema Chödrön in When Things Fall Apart

Monday meditative picture blogging

Photo by Cynthia Burgess

Letting go of results

Interestingly, this is one of the central messages of the Bhagavad Gita:

Do not depend on the hope of results. You may have to face the fact that your work will be apparently worthless and even achieve no result at all, if not perhaps results opposite to what you expect. As you get used to this idea, you start more and more to concentrate not on the results, but on the value, the rightness, the truth of the work itself. You gradually struggle less and less for an idea and more and more for specific people. In the end, it is the reality of personal relationship that saves everything.

-- Thomas Merton

Openness

As one can see when the eyes are open, so one can understand when the heart is open.

-- Hazrat Inayat Khan, The Bowl of Saki

Practicing peace

I found this on the website Spirituality and Practice:

Christian peace activist John Dear met the Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh and came to know him personally while Dear was serving as director of the Fellowship for Reconciliation. He shares a touching personal anecdote about his own hyper-seriousness and then says of Nhat Hanh: "I wish I could be more like him, because in his peace, I find Christ and learn more about Christ. I also wish that more Catholic priests, nuns, Jesuits and activists could practice peace as seriously as he does." Dear closes with an account of a morning walking meditation led by Nhat Hanh and the monks. Two elks stood just 20 yards away and watched the silent procession go by, seeming to savor the intimations of peace coming from thousand-or-so participants.

Just for today, let's all practice peace. Perhaps you can say with Thich Nhat Hanh, "Present moment, wonderful moment!" as a mantra. Or simply affirm in a deep place within that it is not necessary to be in conflict.

Friday cat blogging!

Mr. Q

Photo by Sally Lloyd

A poem by Rumi

This is a poem by Rumi I just found. I love it for the first line alone:

Be with those who help your being.
Don’t sit with indifferent people, whose breath
comes cold out of their mouths.
Not these visible forms, your work is deeper.

A chunk of dirt thrown in the air breaks to pieces.
If you don’t try to fly,
and so break yourself apart,
you will be broken open by death,
when it’s too late for all you could become.

Leaves get yellow. The tree puts out fresh roots
and makes them green.
Why are you so content with a love that turns you yellow?

Yes, be with those who help your being. And, while you're at it, be someone who helps the "being" of others. This is a wonderful way to live.

Thursday prayer blogging

May I be at peace,
May my heart remain open,
May I awaken to the light of my own true nature,
May I be healed,
May I be a source of healing for all beings.

May you be at peace,
May your heart remain open,
May you awaken to the light of your own true nature,
May you be healed,
May you be a source of healing for all beings.

May there be peace on earth,
May the hearts of all people be open to themselves and to each other,
May all people awaken to the light of their own true natures,
May all creation be blessed and be a blessing to all that is.

--Joan Borysenko, from Pocketful of Miracles

Wednesday life form blogging

Photo by Cynthia Burgess

Choosing one's words

It's been a while since I've shared a Henri Nouwen meditation with you. This morning, Linda Cole sent me the following:

Words are very important. When we say to someone: "You arean ugly, useless, despicable person," we might have ruined the possibility for a relationship with that person for life. Words can continue to do harm for many years.

It is so important to choose our words wisely. When we are boiling with anger and eager to throw bitter words at our opponents, it is better to remain silent. Words spoken in rage will make reconciliation very hard. Choosing life and not death, blessings and not curses often starts by choosing to remain silent or choosing carefully the words that open the way to healing.

This is a very important message. I know I have failed in following these principles more times than I'm happy remembering. If we all learned simply to keep silent in tense situations, we would be less likely to speak in ways that harm others.

Tuesday meditative picture blogging

Photo by Cynthia Burgess

This is one of my favorites of Cynthia's pictures!

The gift of vulnerability

Clyde Glandon sent me this quote from the works of Pema Chödrön some time ago. I like it a lot - have experienced what Ani Pema is talking about. "Groundlessness" is what happens when we let go - whether we like it or not! It is that recognition that guarantees are an illusion. And, yes, it is a place of great potential.

This is where tenderness comes in. When things are shaky and nothing is working, we might realize that we are on the verge of something. We might realize that this is a very vulnerable and tender place, and that tenderness can go either way. We can shut door sand feel resentful or we can touch on that throbbing quality. There is definitely something tender and throbbing about groundlessness.

-- Pema Chödrön, When Things Fall Apart

Happiness and suffering

Okay. We all know this, really. Doesn't hurt to keep saying it again, though!

Happiness and suffering come from your own mind, not from outside. Your own mind is the cause of happiness; your own mind is the cause of suffering. To obtain happiness and pacify suffering, you have to work within your own mind.

-Lama Zopa Rinpoche, The Door To Satisfaction

Sheer devotion

I lost myself. Forgot myself.
I lay my face against the Beloved’s face.
Everything fell away and I left myself behind,
Abandoning my cares
Among the lilies, forgotten.

-- St. John of the Cross

inherent goodness

You do not become good by trying to be good, but by finding the goodness that is already within you, and allowing that goodness to emerge. But it can only emerge if something fundamental changes in your state of consciousness.

--From A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle

If this is repeat, forgive me. I just came across it and can't remember whether I've already blogged it or not!

I really like it a lot. We could all do well to ponder it!

I just just now looked up Eckhart Tolle to give you a link and found this gem:

To meet everything and everyone through stillness instead of mental noise is the greatest gift you can offer to the universe.

Another motivation to be faithful to our meditative practice.

Friday cat blogging!

Bugs

Photo by Paul Rogers

Paul says the following:

Bugs caught either meditating or trying to make food appear in his bowl with magical spell

A great and glorious mystery

What would happen if we made a point, every single day, to remember this?

And the mystery is this - the more you go beyond yourself, the more you will become your true self; the more you lose yourself in loving and serving others, the more you will find yourself; the more you keep company with those who suffer, the more you will be healed.

-- The Bishop of London (in his address this morning for the 10th Anniversary Memorial Service for Diana, Princess of Wales.

Don't rely just on inspiration

JOHANNES BRAHMS

I'm lying in bed now propped up against some pillows with my computer on my lap listening to Brahms (The 3rd Symphony to be precise) who said this:

Without craftsmanship, inspiration is a mere reed shaken in the wind.

It strikes me that there is a certain craftsmanship to meditation and that cultivating not only gives us greater benefits than not but that we also end up more motivation because of the sheer joy involved.

Many years ago, I went through a period in which my life seemed utterly shattered and I just didn't know how I would go on. Brahms saved me, really. I have never been able to hear (or perform) Brahms without spontaneously praying. So listening to this music today is a sweet and beautiful act of gratitude.

Some flowers that came yesterday

All the flowers and cards and emails and other messages that have been sent to me have caused me much joy. And to those who have simply quietly held me in your thought and prayers, you have brought me much joy as well. Thank you all so very much!

When "bad" things happen

I found this today while looking for something about the benefits, the redemptive aspects, of illness. I like this one:

Whenever evil befalls us, we ought to ask ourselves, after the first suffering, how we can turn it into good. So shall we take occasion, from one bitter root, to raise perhaps many flowers.

-- Leigh Hunt (1784 - 1859) English author & editor

I can happily say that many flowers are springing from the difficulties of the past week or so!

Finally home and on the mend

Clyde Glandon sent me the following quotes that I think are marvelous:

*The good road and the road of difficulties you have made me cross; and where they cross the place is holy.
--Black Elk

*We are all indelibly, unspeakably one.
-- Jonathan Daniels (Episcopal seminarian, murdered in Selma, Alabama, 1965)

*Our true self is made up of non-self elements.
-- Thich Nhat Hanh

Dear Readers,

I know many of you have been worried about me. I'm sorry I wasn't able to let you know that I've been hospitalized for the past week. I went in Wednesday evening and had an emergency appendectomy on Thursday. That surgery went fine. It was the aftermath that was the problem. They couldn't get me to breathe on my own and my lungs filled with fluid so I had to be on life support for three days. Then when I finally could breathe, I was very, very weak. As I write I've just been home a couple of hours.

It has been an illuminating experience. I realize, once more and with great clarity, that we are not in control. I have a renewed appreciation of impermanence and, most of all, I am filled with gratitude - both for my life and the willingness to die, for the incredibly wonderful care I have received, for the good thoughts and prayers of so many who were concerned about me, for those who visited or wrote. Prayer and meditation have been my life line, of course. Mainly I prayed for everyone who is also suffering and I meditated on the transitoriness of life. You really appreciate transitoriness when you're completely helpless!

As soon as I feel better I'll be up and running again on the blogs.

Blessings to all,
Ellie

"Now I adore my life"

Here's a poem worth pondering:

Once More, the Round

What's greater, Pebble or Pond?
What can be known? The Unknown.
My true self runs toward a Hill
More! O More! visible.

Now I adore my life
With the Bird, the abiding Leaf,
With the Fish, the questing Snail,
And the Eye altering All;
And I dance with William Blake
For love, for Love's sake;

And everything comes to One,
As we dance on, dance on, dance on.

~Theodore Roethke

Serving one's vision

Carolyn Loomis sent me this today:

When I dare to be powerful -- to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.

-- Audre Lorde

Monday meditative picture blogging

Photo by Cynthia Burgess

Two from Gandhi

Oh, I like both of these:

"Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever."
~~~
"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated."

--M.K. Gandhi

Suffering and impermanence

Here's a very thoughtful reflection on suffering (or pain) and growth:

Suffering, I was beginning to think, was essential to a good life, and as inextricable from such a life as bliss. It's a great enhancer. It might last a minute, or a month, but eventually it subsides, and when it does, something else takes its place, and maybe that thing is a greater space. For happiness. Each time I encountered suffering, I believe that I grew, and further defined my capacities--not just my physical ones, but my interior ones as well, for contentment, friendship, or any other human experience.

-- Lance Armstong

Sheer beauty

Today as I was driving home for lunch I heard the Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis by Ralph Vaughan Williams on the radio. I have loved it since I was a teenager. Here is a very nice performance by a youth orchestra:



Listen to it as a meditation. That is, listen just to listen - not to analyze or evaluate or to assign meaning. Just let the music be itself. You will be all the richer for it.

Friday cat blogging!

Harriet on top of the hall tree

Photo by Ellie Finlay

There's something to be said for this!

Bow meditation

I was taught to do prostrations both as a preparation for sitting meditation and as a meditation in its own right. We were not bowing down to any anything exterior. Rather we were lowering our ego in deference to our own fundamentally enlightened state - our truest nature, if you will. Here's a short piece I found today on bow meditation:

Bowing is one of the most humble and spiritual acts a human can perform. It is an action that simultaneously signifies acceptance and a deep understanding of and feeling toward its object.

Ilchi Lee calls bow meditation "sincerity meditation," because we awaken to the nature of sincerity in the process of bowing. This meditation involves motions through which we become one with the universe.

Choose the number of bows you wish to perform. Bow meditation is also a good meridian exercise. During the meditation, your lower back will be strengthened and your lower abdomen will become warm.

I was also taught that this is a good purification meditation. It's also good for shifting very deeply ingrained habitual tendencies.

The quiet that's already there

I found this in The Times of India. Very true:

Meditation is not a way of making your mind quiet. It's a way of entering into the quiet that's already there - buried under the 50,000 thoughts the average person thinks every day.

--Deepak Chopra

Our Lady

In honor of St. Mary the Virgin whose feast day is today.

Photo by Cynthia Burgess

The words of two great teachers

Compassion is the keen awareness of the interdependence of all things.

--Thomas Merton

The whole purpose of religion is to facilitate love and compassion, patience, tolerance, humility, forgiveness.

--H.H. the Dalai Lama

Lost in a daisy

Photo by Cynthia Burgess

Cynthia also sent me this:

"One can get just as much exultation in losing oneself in a little thing as in a big thing. It is nice to think how one can be recklessly lost in a daisy!"

-- Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Monday meditative picture blogging

This has been making the rounds by email. I have received it from several people.

Some quotes on emptiness

Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God, did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped but emptied himself...
- early Christian hymn quoted by St. Paul in Philippians

Why are you unhappy?
Because 99.9%
Of everything you think
And everything you do
Is for yourself
And there isn't one.
- Wei Wu Wei
(Open Secret)

The good seems to us as a nothingness, since there is no thing that is good. But this nothingness is not unreal. Compared with it, everything in existence is unreal.
- Simone Weil

A spiritual seeker went to visit a monk to ask for advice. The monk received him and, after the two chatted for a bit, served tea. He poured the seeker's cup full and then kept on pouring, causing it to overflow. The visitor watched this and finally exclaimed, "It is too full. No more will go in!"

"Like this cup," said the monk, "you also are too full. How can I teach you until you first empty your cup?"
- traditional monastic story

It's the nothing that makes us something; it's what we miss that hits the mark.
- 7-Up jingle

It is no longer I who lives but Christ who lives in me.
- St. Paul

"Your best self"

Here's a comment about meditation that comes from a blog called "Peace of Mind":

Meditation is more than than just a manner to experience better in the moment. It is a transformational nerve pathway to your best self. Transformation is not a inactive activity. Even a caterpillar may look on the outside to be resting in its cocoon, but, in fact, there are many alterations beneath the surface to go a beautiful butterfly.

There's more that goes on in meditation than what the uninitiated observer sees.

Here's a great meditation

Yes, I've done this one a lot. I definitely recommend it:

Many people claim they don’t have time to meditate or that they do not have the ability to specify a specific time every day to devote to meditation. If you are one of these people, I would invite you to have your pets BE your meditation.

For example, many times when I am sitting at my computer in my home/office, my cat Vinnie will come up to me and meow and want attention. He is a wonderful meditation timer. Now, I stop what I’m doing, if only for a minute or so, and sit on the floor with him and BE with him.

My petting of my cat becomes my meditation.

Pets live fully in the moment, and you can join them in the NOW if you choose too! So next time you think you don’t have time to meditate. Sit down with your pet and BE with your pet. Make that your meditation. You will gain so much from it, and of course your pet will too!

Very true.

Friday cat blogging!

Harriet

Photo by Cynthia Burgess

What makes us happy?

Rhonda Steiner sent me the following video. Take a look:




Psychologist Dan Gilbert challenges the idea that we'll be miserable if we don't get what we want. Our "psychological immune system" lets us feel real, enduring happiness, he says, even when things don't go as planned. He calls this kind of happiness "synthetic happiness," and he says it's "every bit as real and enduring as the kind of happiness you stumble upon when you get exactly what you were aiming for."

Interrupting habitual tendency

Someone once said, "If you keep on doing what you're doing, you'll get more of what you've got." How true. Take a look at this excerpt from today's meditation on DailyOM:

Whether our intention is to change ourselves or some element of the world around us, we cannot simply wish for transformation or hope that our lives will be altered through circumstance. If our patterns of thought and behavior remain unchanged, our lives will continue to unfold much as they have previously. Patterns in which fruitless efforts prevail can be overcome with self examination and courage. It is our bravery that allows us to question the choices we have made thus far and to channel our effort into innovation. Asking questions and making small adjustments to your thought processes and behaviors will help you discover what works, so you can leave that which does not work behind you.

"Small adjustments" are the important words here. Don't try to make dramatic changes all at once. That can be overwhelming. Just make little changes and be sure to give yourself credit for each one. That will make it much more likely that you will be able to maintain the change you start out making.

Spirituality and children

The Spirituality and Practice website has a list of eight ways to nuture the spirituality of children. Here are three of them:

• Give thanks before you eat, not just for the food, but also for everything that contributed to your having this meal--the earth, the rain, the sun, the farmer, the store, the cook, even the cooking equipment. Gratitude is an essential spiritual practice.

• When watching television or a video, choose a favorite or interesting character and “step into the story” to see how you would act in his or her place. This exercise uses imagination and supports compassion for others and hospitality toward the media.

• Experiment with silence by lying on the ground for 15 minutes without saying anything. Pay attention to what you are thinking about. Then notice the reports of your senses of sight and smell. This is the practice of wonder.

I think the third practice I've listed here - the one about silence - is the most important. Children are bombarded with noise pollution most of their day. I'm so grateful for the large periods of silence that I experienced as a child. I'm sure that at least partly accounts for why I have continued to have an interest in the spiritual life.

5 meditation mistakes

I found an article this morning called "Top 5 Mistakes in Establishing a Daily Meditation Practice". Here they are:

1. Procrastinate Starting Your Daily Meditation Practice
2. Don’t Prepare Your Meditation Environment
3. Don’t Set a Definite Time for Your Daily Meditation
4. Think Meditation is Too Hard & Give-up
5. Look for Immediate Results

Each one of these mistakes is explained in the article so click through to read more.

Then the writer closes with the following:

So today, setup your environment, decide on a time, don’t worry about success or failure and JUST BEGIN YOUR DAILY MEDITATION PRACTICE. There is nothing in life more important that this.

Remember the Nike slogan: Just do it!

Monday meditative picture blogging

Photo by my friend, Walter Calahan

A whole world of meaning

Clyde Glandon sent me this excerpt from the writings of Thomas Merton:

The rain surrounded the whole cabin with its enormous virginal myth, a whole world of meaning, of secrecy, of silence, or rumor. Think of it: all that speech pouring down, selling nothing, judging nobody, drenching the thick mulch of dead leaves, soaking the trees, filling the gullies and crannies of the wood with water, washing out the places where men have stripped the hillside. What a thing it is to sit absolutely alone, in the forest at night, cherished by this wonderful, unintelligible, perfectly innocent speech, the most comforting speech in the world, the talk that rain makes by itself all over the ridges, and the talk of the watercourses everywhere in the hollows!

Nobody started it, nobody is going to stop it. It will talk as long as it wants, this rain. As long as it talks I am going to listen.

"...a whole world of meaning." Isn't that wonderful? If we can tear ourselves away from our radios and televisions and iPods, this kind of deep listening will be possible.

Mindfulness and stress

Take a look at a little article called "Mindfulness program reduces stress" . Here's part of what it says:

William Mies of Arnold has a new way to reduce stress and it doesn't involve screaming or banging pots and pans.

Called mindfulness-based stress reduction, the program uses breathing, yoga and meditation to help participants learn to handle stress.
...
During the meetings, Mr. Mies encourages group members to discuss things that triggers stress in their lives. Often, the sessions get personal with participants revealing painful memories.

"Many people think they can get rid of the pain and suffering by getting out of it; you have to go through it," Mr. Mies said. "The way to joy and freedom is to go through it.

"Stress is not what happens to you; stress is the way we deal with what happens to us."

Meditation teaches us how to deal skillfully with what happens to us. Not instantly, of course. It takes time and practice. But the benefits are real.

Meditative reading

Here's a wonderful piece by one of my favorite poets, Wallace Stevens:

The House Was Quiet and the World Was Calm

The house was quiet and the world was calm.
The reader became the book; and summer night

Was like the conscious being of the book.
The house was quiet and the world was calm.

The words were spoken as if there was no book,
Except that the reader leaned above the page,

Wanted to lean, wanted much to be
The scholar to whom his book is true, to whom

The summer night is like a perfection of thought.
The house was quiet because it had to be.

The quiet was part of the meaning, part of the mind:
The access of perfection to the page.

And the world was calm. The truth in a calm world,
In which there is no other meaning, itself

Is calm, itself is summer and night, itself
Is the reader leaning late and reading there.

Friday cat blogging!

Harriet

Photo by Cynthia Burgess

Immortality

What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us. What we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal.

-- Albert Pine

Ditch these myths

This afternoon I decided to clean off the coffee table in my office and I found a photocopy someone had given me of a Family Circle article on meditation. I thought I'd type out the content of one of the sidebars for you:

Ditch these myths:

Meditaion is religious. It can be part of some people's faith practice, but you don't have to buld an altar, dress in robes, burn incense or light candles to meditate.

You must sit in a special position. Although many people like to sit cross-legged or on a cushion with their knees lower than their hips, there's no need to if it's uncomfortable.

You have to make your mind blank. The human brain is always spewing out thoughts. But when you meditate you don't follow them or grab onto them; you clamly let them drift in, then out again.

You need a mantra. While some people choose to repeat a single syllable, word or phrase to themselves, it's just as effective to focus on your breath. [And I would add that other supports such as sound or a visualization can be used as well.]

You go into a trance. On the contrary, you become more focused and aware.

Don't be misled by inaccurate information about meditation!

Wednesday life form blogging

Photo from the Free Gallery at exZOOberance

Mini-meditations

I found a little article today entitled "2 Minute Meditations". Here's a sample:

1. Go to the nearest window and look up at the sky. Simply gaze at the vastness of the heavens above us. No matter how far the eye gazes, the sky is still there. Visualize the task you have at hand held up against this immense sky. Realize how small it really is in comparison, and take a moment to reorganize your perspective.

2. Keep a photograph of your loved ones on your desk, in your wallet, or clipped to your sunvisor of your car. When caught in a situation where you feel you are about to lose your temper with another person, take a minute to glance at that photograph. Imagine the words you are about to say being said to someone you love dearly. Remember that no matter how rude or unintelligent the person you are dealing with may seem to you, they, too, have people who love them. Try to treat them as you would have those you love be treated.

3. If you do not have a photograph when you feel yourself losing your cool, take a moment to remember the last time you had a REALLY bad day - and how you treated others on that day. It is a basic psychological principle that we tend to attribute angry words we say based on our feelings at the time (which are always changing), but we tend to judge other's anger or foolishness as a basic trait of their character. Remember that every one of us is human, and that the person you are dealing with may be having a day that is even worse than yours. Instead of making it worse, try to make their day better by treating them with civility and respect. Chances are, doing this will make your day improve as well.

There are two more suggestions for brief meditations that will help us center during the day. Do click through and read the whole article!