Wednesday life form blogging

Smokey and young friend

Photo by Bill Miller

Slogans to remember

Charlotte Alexandre sent me a list of slogans today. Two I particularly like are these:

The heaviest thing I can carry is a grudge.

One thing I can give and still keep...is my word.

And as many meditation participants have heard me say, the most important spiritual practice of all is to keep your word to yourself. Many people understand that they need to keep their word to other people but think it doesn't matter if they break their word to themselves. Making needed or wanted changes is only possible if we can keep our word to ourselves.

Antidote to fear

Mindfulness definitely helps with understanding:

Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.

-- Madame Marie Curie

Monday meditative picture blogging

"Wisdom"

Artist: Kate McCavitt

Acquiring wisdom

To acquire knowledge, one must study; but to acquire wisdom, one must observe.

-- Marilyn vos Savant

Happy Easter!

Let the resurrection joy lift us from loneliness and weakness and despair to strength and beauty and happiness.

~Floyd W. Tomkins

Holy Saturday

Good Friday

A man who was completely innocent, offered himself as a sacrifice for the good of others, including his enemies, and became the ransom of the world. It was a perfect act.

-- Mahatma Gandhi

Happy Spring!

"Spring Equinox"

Artist: Nina Ulana

Today is the Vernal Equinox. Here's some information about that:

Far from being an arbitrary indicator of the changing seasons, March 20 (March 21 in some years) is significant for astronomical reasons. On March 20, 2008, at precisely 1:48 A.M. EDT (March 20, 05:48 Universal Time), the Sun [crossed] directly over the Earth's equator. This moment is known as the vernal equinox in the Northern Hemisphere. For the Southern Hemisphere, this is the moment of the autumnal equinox.
...
Translated literally, equinox means "equal night." Because the sun is positioned above the equator, day and night are about equal in length all over the world during the equinoxes. A second equinox occurs each year on September 22 or 23; in 2008, it will be on September 22 at 11:44 A.M. EDT (15:44 UT). This date will mark the autumnal equinox in the Northern Hemisphere and the vernal equinox in the Southern (vernal denotes "spring").
...
Modern astronomy aside, people have recognized the vernal equinox for thousands of years. There is no shortage of rituals and traditions surrounding the coming of spring. Many early peoples celebrated for the basic reason that their food supplies would soon be restored. The date is significant in Christianity because Easter always falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox. It is also probably no coincidence that early Egyptians built the Great Sphinx so that it points directly toward the rising Sun on the day of the vernal equinox.

Wednesday life form blogging

Photo by Jeannie Dibble

What IS mindfulness, anyway?

Here's a wonderful description of mindfulness from Beliefnet:

If you're constantly thinking about what you'd rather be doing—getting off work, driving a different car, or eating dessert, your mind is starving for mindfulness. So what? Well, if you're reading an instant message and talking on your cell phone while thinking about things you need to get at the store, you're not doing any of these things fully—and essentially, you're missing out on your own life.

The antidote? Mindfulness. Mindfulness is a quality you can cultivate in any situation—whether you're walking down the street or washing the dishes... In mindfulness meditation you stop the restlessness of your mind by focusing your undivided attention on whatever you're experiencing in the here and now. The simplest version involves simply focusing on your breath. By enhancing your awareness in this way, you calm your mind, experience life more fully, and bring new clarity of thought to any situation that comes your way.

Tuesday meditative picture blogging

Meditative Rose - Salvador Dali

More on the benefits

Just another little summary of the benefits of meditation:

MEDITATION CAN:

• Help heart conditions. Meditation can reduce cholesterol buildup and the risk of heart attack and stroke, reducing the death rate among the elderly. Meditation also lowers blood pressure, creating a 12.5% lower risk of stroke or coronary mortality. Some studies actually showed how heart and artery health improved 69% in meditation test groups.
• Reduce stress and anxiety. Meditation releases tension and creates the will power of consciousness to be in control of one’s life. Meditation can also help improve sleep patterns and post-traumatic stress response as well as decrease psychological distress. It helps increase mental abilities, focus and concentration.
• Reduce chronic pains. Regular meditation can reduce pain symptoms and rheumatoid arthritis symptoms as well as migraine pains.
• Improve life quality. Meditation helps improve people’s life quality, reducing the health care facilities and helps control substance abuse.

I found it right here.

Irish blessing

Happy St. Patrick's Day!



Deep peace of the running wave to you,
Deep peace of the flowing air to you,
Deep peace of the quiet earth to you,
Deep peace of the shining stars to you,
Deep peace of the gentle night to you,
Moon and stars pour their healing light on you,
Deep peace of Christ,
the light of the world to you
Deep peace of Christ.

Sleep exercise

Here's a simple exercise to help you sleep:

This would be a good exercise to try before bed to get a better sleep:

1. Lie flat on your back with your arms held loosely at your sides and your neck straight and in line with your spine.
2. Begin with your toes. First curl and then uncurl your toes slowly, feeling the tension releasing. Repeat two to three times.
3. You may want to repeat in your head or out loud while doing this, “Toes, relax. Toes, relax.”

Continue this with your entire foot and then your ankle, as you work your way up your body. By the end you should be ready for a deep, restful sleep.

I found it right here.

Friday cat blogging!

The video is entitled "Water Drip Meditation".

Meditation and patience

I've had the same experience as described here. Even though I don't have children of my own, I'm less patient with the people I encounter in my life when I don't meditate than when I do! Really. You can test this:

“One thing I find—and I typically meditate every day—is, if I don’t meditate over a three-day period or week, I start getting shorter with my kids,” Jordan told the Georgia Straight by phone from his Victoria home. “This little voice starts going in my head; it starts out saying, ‘Eric, you have a choice as to what kind of father you want to be. Do you want to be one who is shorter with your kids or one who is more patient?’ It is a choice, and if I meditate, it is easier to be more patient. If I don’t meditate, I am not as patient, and I can just see it in my actions.”

The above is from an article about meditation practitioner Eric Jordan.

Plato and Aristotle

We need to let go of the idea that the most important thing in life is to earn a living:

The ultimate value of life depends upon awareness and the power of contemplation rather than upon mere survival.

-- Aristotle

On stress

I first came across Natalie Goldberg when I read her book Writing Down the Bones which is really on the creative process from a meditative point of view. And I like this observation of hers:

Stress is basically a disconnection from the earth, a forgetting of the breath. Stress is an ignorant state. It believes that everything is an emergency. Nothing is that important. Just lie down.

Or just go sit.

The importance of attention

For lack of attention a thousand forms of loveliness elude us every day.

— Evelyn Underhill

Why gift giving feels good

When you give something you feel good because at that time you feel at one with what you are giving.

— Shunryu Suzuki-roshi quoted in At Home with Dying by Merrill Collett

Location: The Lake District, England

Music: The Lark Ascending by Ralph Vaughan Williams

Letting go

To live in this world
you must be able to do three things:
to love what is mortal,
to hold it
against your bones knowing
your own life depends on it,
and, when the time comes to let it go,
to let it go.

- Mary Oliver

It's today, everybody

Friday cat blogging!

Simon
Photo by Cynthia Burgess

It's not fair!

I'll leave it to my loyal readers to reflect on how this video illustrates meditative principles! :-)

If you can't get the video to play, go to the YouTube page right here.

For the Helsinki Complaints Choir (much better musically than this one!) go to one of my other blogs, Child of Illusion.

Wednesday life form blogging

Photo by Jeannie Dibble

Connections

In the ongoing classes this week, we explored wisdom as the opposite of the mind poison of delusion. Wisdom, in the meditative tradition, is really about seeing things as they are. The main aspect of reality that we need to see clearly is that we do not have independent existence but are rather all connected. Take a look at this passage on connections from Spirituality and Practice:

One definition of spirituality is "the art of making connections." There are certain givens: The one is made up of many. One thing always leads to another. Everything is related to everything else. You practice connections, then, by consciously tracing the links connecting you with other beings. Any point is a good starting place — your family line, your work, your back yard. Watch for the moments when the separations disappear. And don't be shy about naming mystical experiences as such when you experience them.

Three quotes on calmness

"The Sea Was Calm That Day"

Artist: Dave Goldman

Robert Louis Stevenson: Quiet minds cannot be perplexed or frightened, but go on in fortune or misfortune at their own private pace, like a clock during a thunderstorm.

A Zen Saying: Sit quietly, doing nothing, spring comes, and the grass grows by itself.

Norman Vincent Peale: Talk peaceful to be peaceful.

Monday meditative picture blogging

Photo by Cynthia Burgess

This I believe

Photo by Cynthia Burgess

Are you familiar with the "This I Believe" series on NPR? Today's essay by Laurie Granieri is entitled "Leaving Work to Watch the Sunset" and I really recommend that you click through and read it, or better yet, listen to the audio. Here's part of what it says:

I believe in leaving work at five o'clock.

In a nation that operates on a staunch Protestant work ethic, this belief could be considered radical. Working only 40 hours a week? I just don't know many people who punch out at five o'clock anymore. It seems downright quaint, like pocket watches and shoe-shines.
...
My dad once told me he was unable to just gaze at a sunset; he had to be doing something as he looked at it — writing, reading, playing chess. You could say he was a success: He was a published author, an accomplished musician, fluent in German and American Sign Language. That's an impressive list, but here's the thing: I want to gaze at sunsets. I don't want to meet a deadline during them or be writing a column at the same time, or glance at them over the top of a book.

I've lived in parts of the world where people don't live to work - they work to live. Long vacations are considered simply civilized and people know how to relax and enjoy life. We need to cultivate that attitude here in the United States.

Two meanings for "present"

From the Spirituality and Practice page on being present:

Being present in the spiritual life always has a double meaning. There's present, as in here, in attendance. And there's present, as in now, a moment of time. What is the spiritual practice of being present? Being here now.

There's much to be said about pondering on this double meaning. Many of us are trapped living in the past or in the future or in a fantasy world. The ability to stay in the moment is the most important antidote going for blame and anxiety.

Friday cat blogging!

Sandy's cat

Photo by Cynthia Burgess

Nothing much

This is from the Spirituality and Practice website and I really, really like it!

Thank God for days filled with nothing much at all. Nothing much is more than enough.

— Steven Z. Leder in The Extraordinary Nature of Ordinary Things

To Practice This Thought: Set aside an hour or two to do nothing much.

This is my favorite way to spend my day off - doing nothing much at all! Cats are really good at this, by the way. We can learn so much from observing them and simply hanging out with them.

That which truly is

Just spend some time thinking about this verse:

Do not be betrayed
by philosophies and enlightenments–
all there is to be
was yours before you began.

-- Stephen Levine

It's from a longer poem called "This awkward speck of dust".

Inner reality

What lies before us and what lies behind us are small matters compared to what lies within us. And when we bring what is within out into the world, miracles happen.

-- Henry David Thoreau

Awareness training

Here's part of a little article by Janie Gunn called "Learn to live in the moment":

[Meditation] is simply a way to train the mind to be still. Time magazine reported that many medical institutions now include meditation as a tool to help prepare patients for surgery. It is proven to calm their minds, lower blood pressure and anxiety as well as speeding recovery.

There are many ways to develop a meditation practice. You can take the above breathing practice and once you establish a smooth breathing rhythm allow your hands to rest on your knees and continue to encourage your mind to follow your breath as it enters and leaves your body. Start with a few minutes a day and build upon that. It has a definite calming effect and enhances the mind’s ability to stay in the moment. Practice daily at about the same time in a quiet area of your home. This trains the body and mind to become still.

When you develop moment to moment awareness your capacity for experiencing your life fully expands. You will listen better. Your work will improve as you focus completely on your tasks at hand. Your relationships will also benefit when you are fully present.

Monday meditative picture blogging

Photo by Cynthia Burgess

Help your brain: meditate!

Here's an excerpt from an article called "Find a new pitch if you want to stay sharp" from the London Times:

An increasing number of studies are revealing that as well as providing a much-needed breather in our busy lives, stress-busting techniques such as yoga, meditation and breathing exercises may also help to rejuvenate the brain. A study this year at the Boston University School of Medicine found that yoga increased the amount of the neurotransmitter GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid) in the brain, low levels of which are linked to depression.

Research also indicates that meditation may improve memory, especially in older people. A 2005 study at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston found that regular meditators had thicker prefrontal cortexes than nonmeditators did. This brain area is linked with short-term memory. The researchers suggested that “meditation may offset age-related cortical thinning”.

These are benefits worth meditating for!

Friday cat blogging!

So, so dear! So, so sweet!

Online labyrinth practice

You can "walk" the labyrinth online right here.

Letting go of the ego

All religions speak about death during this life on earth. Death must come before rebirth. But what must die? False confidence in one’s own knowledge, self-love and egoism. Our egoism must be broken. We must realize that we are very complicated machines, and so this process of breaking is bound to be a long and difficult task.

--Gurdjieff

This task is made possible, I believe, through meditation because it is only through mindfulness that we are able to see through the illusions the ego loves to promote.

Sunbeam

Sun Ray Chevron

Artist: Mary Burton

Sunbeam

I pray to the sunbeam from the window -
It is pale, thin, straight.
Since morning I have been silent,
And my heart - is split.
The copper on my washstand
Has turned green,
But the sunbeam plays on it
So charmingly.
How innocent it is, and simple,
In the evening calm,
But to me in this deserted temple
It's like a golden celebration,
And a consolation.

~Anna Akhmatova

Arguing with what is

Here's a marvelous excerpt from Loving What Is: Four Questions That Can Change Your Life by Byron Katie with Stephen Mitchell:

The only time we suffer is when we believe a thought that argues with what is. When the mind is perfectly clear, what is is what we want.

If you want reality to be different than it is, you might as well try to teach a cat to bark. You can try and try, and in the end the cat will look up at you and say, "Meow." Wanting reality to be different than it is is hopeless. You can spend the rest of your life trying to teach a cat to bark.

And yet, if you pay attention, you'll notice that you think thoughts like this dozens of times a day. "People should be kinder." "Children should be well-behaved." "My neighbors should take better care of their lawn." "The line at the grocery store should move faster." "My husband (or wife) should agree with me." "I should be thinner (or prettier or more successful)." These thoughts are ways of wanting reality to be different than it is. If you think that this sounds depressing, you're right. All the stress that we feel is caused by arguing with what is.

About happiness

Happiness

People who postpone happiness are like children who try chasing rainbows in an effort to find the pot of gold at the rainbow's end. It is always receding and the faster they run, the more it eludes them.

-- Ken Keyes

Break in blogging

Hello, friends. I'll be away for the next couple of days. Blogging will resume on Sunday evening!

The sea of silence within us

How do we meditate silently? Just by not talking, just by not using outer words, we are not doing silent meditation. Silent meditation is totally different. When we start meditating in silence, right from the beginning we feel the bottom of a sea within us and without. The life of activity movement and restlessness is on the surface, but deep below, underneath our human life, there is poise and silence. So, either we shall imagine this sea of silence within us or we shall feel that we are nothing but a sea of poise itself.

- Sri Chinmoy

Shut up and listen!

Here's a paragraph from the Meditation Society of Australia site:

People who meditate have been shown to quickly achieve health benefits such as slower heart rates, lower blood pressure, reduced oxygen consumption and lower lactic acid levels. Some have used meditation to help with everything from headaches and respiratory problems to cancer and coping with death. It is seen as a crucial tool in treating many mental illnesses such as depression or schizophrenia while it has also been shown to actually boost functionality of the immune system. Beyond the science, however, one common health benefit in dealing with stress is perhaps the most important, and that is meditation’s ability to help the practitioner to shut up and listen.

I do like this! We talk too much, don't we? Learning that it's okay to be quiet is one of the huge benefits of meditative practice.

Listening and speaking

Simply put, there is nothing, nothing in the world, that can take the place of one person intentionally listening or speaking to another. The act of conscious attending to another person — when one once discovers the taste of it and its significance — can become the center of gravity of the work of love. It is very difficult. Almost nothing in our world supports it or even knows about it.

— Jacob Needleman in A Little Book on Love

Benefits of meditation

The London Times has a little article online about meditation. Here's an excerpt:

Studies suggest that regular meditation for 15 minutes or more a day decreases blood pressure, lowers the heart rate and increases blood flow to the extremities. Recent research also indicates that with long-term practice, meditation may combat cognitive decline and stimulate the growth of brain tissue. It has also been linked to stronger immune responses when fighting infection.

The key to successful and calming meditation is a good breathing technique. Breath-counting is a common technique for those new to meditation and is an ideal routine for beginners.

For breath counting, I recommend assigning a number to each outbreath from one to four and then starting over.

Cultivating the ability to appreciate others

Here's a meditation that perhaps more properly would be called a reflection:

Survival depends on the efforts of other people. Relax your mind, body, and emotions and contemplate on all the ways you are dependent on others.

For example, if no one grew grain and no one brought it to market and no one manufactured it into bread, how would we eat? If no one dug up metal from the earth and no one turned it into steel and no one formed it into parts, how would we have a car to drive? And if no one cleared land and no one paved over it, how would we have a road to drive on? And so on and so on.

With this meditation, one becomes warm toward others where previously coldness, uncaring, or even looking down upon others existed. The meditative tradition holds that compassion and humility are the two most important components of spritiual growth. This meditation generates both.

I found this on the Meditation Station website.

O pure deep love

Artist: Jane Donovan

O LOVE, O pure deep love, be here, be now
Be all; worlds dissolved into your stainless endless radiance,
Frail living leaves burn with you brighter than cold stars:
Make me your servant, your breath, your core.

- Rumi

Monday meditative picture blogging

Mandala

Artist: Gregorio Hernandez

A "basic minute" of meditation

Here's an excerpt from an article on meditation from the London Times:

Martin, 47, a monk-like American who lives in Devon, is teaching me to do a “basic minute” of meditation, the unit of his new teaching method. The aim is to practise the basic minute several times a day until you can dip in to a region of peacefulness and refresh your mind and soul whenever you like. I’m not sure that a busy railway station concourse is the right place to learn, but Martin insists that you can learn anywhere, no matter how noisy. I’m also not absolutely convinced that a minute is long enough to get the full benefit of meditation.

Martin explains that doing a minute’s meditation many times over has a cumulative effect. He describes doing one basic minute as making a single pinprick in a great dark sheet of consciousness, on the other side of which is a bright light. Each pinprick that you make lets through more light. Martin turns a nice metaphor; another of his comes from oil prospecting. He says a minute’s meditation allows you to drill down into a reservoir of peace.

I like the metaphors. I also like the idea of dipping into a region of peacefulness anytime you want.

Seeing the mountain

Artist: Lawren Harris

It would do us all good to ponder this deeply for a long time:

The description is not the described; I can describe the mountain, but the description is not the mountain, and if you are caught up in the description, as most people are, then you will never see the mountain.

-- Krishnamurti

Can we really change the world?

I have just come across a book entitled Seven Words That Can Change the World: A New Understanding of Sacredness by Joseph Simonetta. Here are the seven words:

"Be healthy. Be kind. Respect the environment."

What would happen if all our decisions were based on these three principles? The world really would be changed - and almost overnight, too.

Friday cat blogging!

From Wikimedia Commons

St. Brigid's Day

Making a Brigid's cross is a wonderfully meditative experience. You can learn how to do it right here.

Countering the culture of affluence

Here's an interesting observation and suggestion I found on the Spirituality and Practice website:

The economics of affluence demands that things that were special for us last year must now be taken for granted.

— David Steindl-Rast in The Music of Silence

To Practice This Thought: Act counter to the culture of affluence. Be grateful for something you've had a long, long time.

Mandalas

“33 Hearts Mandala”

You want to know something that's fun? Doing an image search on mandalas and exploring all the amazing images out there.

Then, with all that inspiration, you can create your own. It's a very soothing and energizing spiritual practice.

"Free" meditation

When I'm stuck waiting I use that time to meditate and I call if "free meditation"! Here's an article that encourages people to do just that:

Did you know the average American spends 42-60 minutes a day waiting? We wait for doctor's appointments or meetings. We wait on hold on the telephone and for computer programs to download. We wait in line at grocery stores and banks and we wait in traffic.

The Don't Wait - Meditate(TM) pledge invites people to convert waiting time into meditating time. If each and every one of us did this one, SIMPLE thing we would all have a regular meditation practice and experience the beneficial results!

People from all across the globe (U.S., Canada, England, Iran, Australia, Ethiopia, China, Bangladesh, Jamaica, India, France, Germany, Egypt and more ...) have signed the Don't Wait - Meditate(TM) pledge and agreed to convert their waiting time into meditating time. And holistic centers across the U.S. are even coming on board by converting their waiting rooms into meditating rooms!

You can read more about it right here.

Monday meditative picture blogging

Photo by Cynthia Burgess

Transformation

Fr. Clyde Glandon sent me the following:

When we look deeply into ourselves, we see both flowers and garbage. Each of us has anger, hatred, depression, racial discrimination, and many other kinds of garbage in us, but there is no need for us to be afraid. In the way that a gardener knows how to transform compost into flowers, we can learn the art of transforming anger, depression, and racial discrimination into love and understanding. This is the work of meditation.

-- Thich Nhat Hanh from Touching Peace

True happiness

If you want happiness for an hour, take a nap. If you want happiness for a day, go fishing. If you want happiness for a year, inherit a fortune. If you want happiness for a lifetime, help somebody.

-- Chinese proverb

Being a complete person

There is an Indian proverb or axiom that says that everyone is a house with four rooms, a physical, a mental, an emotional, and a spiritual. Most of us tend to live in one room most of the time but, unless we go into every room every day, even if only to keep it aired, we are not a complete person.

— Rumer Godden in A House with Four Rooms

Friday cat blogging!

Simon

Photo by Cynthia Burgess

Compassion and unconditional love

Garden of Eden

If we make our goal to live a life of compassion and unconditional love, then the world will indeed become a garden where all kinds of flowers can bloom and grow.

-- Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

Careful watching

This is a very intriguing thought:

To stay in one place and watch the seasons come and go is tantamount to constant travel; one is traveling with the earth.

- Marguerite Yourcenar

Wednesday life form blogging

Photo by Jeannie Dibble

Generous joy

Here's a simple quote about something known as mudita - or sympathetic joy.

One of the sanest, surest, and most generous joys of life comes from being happy over the good fortune of others.

-- Archibald Rutledge

It is the opposite of schadenfreude which is pleasure over the misfortune of others - a great evil, indeed.

Tuesday meditative picture blogging

Photo by Cynthia Burgess

The path of compassion

Sometimes we are so accustomed to living in the house of intolerance and blame that we no longer even question it. We believe that, because we carry ancient traditions of resistance and impatience within ourselves, they will be with us until we die. The path of compassion asks us to overturn our habits, beliefs, opinions, and prejudices, to understand that our hearts can be transformed in every moment we are willing to be still, receptive and aware.

--Christina Feldman

Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it.

Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it.

Hatred darkens life; love illuminates it.

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Meditation and the nature of cats

Photo by Cynthia Burgess

I've just found a new meditation blog that you might like to explore. It's called Sayuri. I found this wonderful passage in the archives:

...I was living in a little hut, about six feet by seven feet. It had a canvas flap instead of a door. I was sitting on my bed meditating, and a cat wandered in and plopped down on my lap. I took the cat and tossed it out the door. Ten seconds later it was back in my lap. We got into a sort of dance, this cat and I. I would toss it out, and it would come back. I tossed it out because I was trying to meditate, to get enlightened. But the cat kept returning. I was getting more and more irritated, more and more annoyed with the persistence of the cat. Finally, after about a half-hour of this coming in and tossing out, I had to surrender. There was nothing else to do. There was no way to block off the door. I sat there, the cat came back in, and it got on my lap. But I did not do anything. I just let go. Thirty seconds later the cat got up and walked out. So you see, our teachers come in many forms.

--Joseph Goldstein

When I was studying meditation in Cape Town, the resident monk shared his life with two cats who had the run of the meditation hall. I learned early on not to react when either of them wanted to sit in my lap or rub up against me. No human can win a contest with a cat who's determined!! And, of course, now I have three of my own. Cats love meditation energy, by the way.

Thoughts that arise are just like cats. If we try to get rid of them, they persist. If we accept them without judgment, they may stick around for a while but eventually they will just wander on off.

If you haven't seen it, please do!

Friday cat blogging!

Simon

Photo by Cynthia Burgess

He's got a RIGHT to sing the blues!

Oh my! I found this wonderful quote on Gratefulness.org and I absolutely love it:

I merely took the energy it takes to pout and wrote some blues.

-- Duke Ellington

The meditative tradition teaches us that nothing is wasted and that includes any feelings that we may have. This observation about pouting is one really good example!

All you really need to know

Artist: Sven Geier

Very clear, very succinct:

Realize deeply that the present moment is all you ever have.

- Eckhart Tolle

Wednesday life form blogging

Photo by Jeannie Dibble

Slogans to live by

Here are two slogans that have come my way recently:

"Be yourself. Because everyone else is already taken!"

"You can't run and hide when the problem's inside."

I think you can see how these are connected.

Cultivating a sense of unity

"Unity"

Artist: Monica Stewart

Probably one of the most important principles that I have learned from the 12-Step approach to spirituality is the discipline of looking for similarities rather than differences when I encounter other people. Instead of saying, "How is my story different from this person's story?" we are taught to say, "How is my story like this person's story?" It is a powerful spiritual practice. It is a way of cultivating empathy and also of learning from everyone we meet.

The Spirituality and Practice website recommends the following exercise:

Use the phrase "just like me" to signify your unity with others. Whenever you find yourself making an assessment of another person, whether you are saying something critical or something complimentary, right after you think or say it, add the statement "just like me." For example, "My partner is so stubborn, just like me." "My friend is so generous with her time, just like me." "She holds too many grudges, just like me." "He is so creative, just like me."

What an effective way of training ourselves to let go of judgment!

Monday meditative picture blogging

This is the Cat's Eye Nebula as seen by the Hubble Telescope.

Marilyn Bedford sent me the picture.

An enlightened airline

My goodness. Look at what I just found:

Flyers onboard Virgin Atlantic flights can now take advantage of a new inflight meditation facility.

As a result of the popularity of its inflight audio meditation service, the carrier has now launched an offering that utilises audio and visual effects to provide a 30-minute meditation experience for passengers.

The Total Relaxation facility could help to lower blood pressure and boost the immune system as a result of minimising anxiety and stress, the airline said.

"Long-haul flights can be challenging for some travellers, especially if sleep proves difficult," commented Richard Latham of Meditainment.com, the provider of the service, adding: "By watching the Total Relaxation movie, passengers enter a state of pure bliss."

Virgin Atlantic's overall inflight entertainment offering includes the use of individual seatback screens showing films and television programmes and providing a range of music options, as well as the Skymap service, which shows passengers exactly where the plane is and provides facts about the flight.

Mind you, the kind of meditation I recommend is not about blissing out. Still, this airline is trying to promote the spiritual well-being of passengers and I think it's a wonderful idea.

As an aside, the most enjoyable flight I ever took across the pond was on Virgin Atlantic. The flight attendants gave the impression that they themselves were just having a marvelous time and could not imagine wanting to be anywhere else.

About mantra

Mantras are simple phrases that keep our heart, will, and mind attuned to that which is life-giving and eternal. They can be quietly spoken out loud during prayer time or repeated internally. Once they become established in our awareness, they can even become a steady background rhythm to all we do. They give us clarity, and they also allow for a quality of questioning that awakens dormant depths in us.

-- Patricia Carlson

Reflection music

If you're all wound up, this will help you settle.

A place for meditation

One of the most important meditation principles is that of creating conditions conducive to practice. Here's some advice from the Meditation Society of Australia:

It is best to create a permanent meditation place. Your meditation place may be anything from a quiet room in the house, a table or a corner of your study desk, to even the shade of your favourite tree in the backyard. It doesn't matter where it is, just as long as you are able to find peace of mind there and access it regularly.

Ideally on a little table, place a cloth and other inspirational objects - such as a leaf from an amazing forest, a beautiful crystal, a crucifix or other sacred object, or a picture of a spiritual figure. If you cannot have a permanent meditation place, it is just as effective to create this space anew with every meditation. Just have the components (e.g. cloth, inspirational object, candle, incense) in a bundle, ready to go. Put simply, this place is an entrance to your heart - think of it as a shrine to your soul. Whatever inspires you spiritually is perfect.

I'm fortunate enough to have a small room in my house dedicated to meditation. But just a little corner will do. Of course, if you live in a city with a meditation center you can always go there to practice. The important thing is to find or create a place. Then make use of it!

More on seeing clearly through mindfulness

Pink Tulip

Artist: Georgia O'Keeffe

I have picked flowers where I found them -- Have picked up sea shells and rocks and pieces of wood where there were sea shells and rocks and pieces of wood that I like. When I found the beautiful white bones in the desert I picked them up and took them home too.

I have used these things to say what is to me the wideness and wonder of the world as I live in it.

-- Georgia O'Keeffe

Mindfulness makes this possible

House wren

AIMLESS LOVE

This morning as I walked along the lakeshore,
I fell in love with a wren
and later in the day with a mouse
the cat had dropped under the dining room table.

In the shadows of an autumn evening,
I fell for a seamstress
still at her machine in the tailor’s window,
and later for a bowl of broth,
steam rising like smoke from a naval battle.

This is the best kind of love, I thought,
without recompense, without gifts,
or unkind words, without suspicion,
or silence on the telephone.

The love of the chestnut,
the jazz cap and one hand on the wheel.

No lust, no slam of the door –
the love of the miniature orange tree,
the clean white shirt, the hot evening shower,
the highway that cuts across Florida.

No waiting, no huffiness, or rancor –
just a twinge every now and then

for the wren who had built her nest
on a low branch overhanging the water
and for the dead mouse,
still dressed in its light brown suit.

But my heart is always propped up
in a field on its tripod,
ready for the next arrow.

After I carried the mouse by the tail
to a pile of leaves in the woods,
I found myself standing at the bathroom sink
gazing down affectionately at the soap,

so patient and soluble,
so at home in its pale green soap dish.
I could feel myself falling again
as I felt its turning in my wet hands
and caught the scent of lavender and stone.

- Billy Collins

Do you see how profoundly meditative the experience of the poet is? What he describes is all about accepting things just as they are without judgment and with great appreciation. It is about noticing exactly what is in the now.

Meditation and work productivity

Today I came across an article about how some companies are encouraging employees to meditate. It's called "Meditation in the workplace". Here's part of what it says:

Contrary to popular opinion, mind training is about far more than simply sitting crossed-legged on a cushion. There are numerous techniques that can be used in a very direct and practical way for raising awareness and the quality of communication at work. A well-structured programme of mind training will always include the three key elements of vision, insight and action.

Vision relates to the way in which we view the world around us. Essentially this is our attitude to life, to work and our perception of others. Clearly, when addressed successfully, this has dramatic implications for the workplace.

Insight relates to the practice of meditation itself and the wisdom generated through such practice. This allows us to work with increased clarity in any given situation and to respond in a skilful and compassionate way.

Action relates very specifically to the way in which we implement and integrate our refined vision and new-found wisdom into our everyday work. It is four years since Business Week first heralded the arrival of meditation in the workplace. Early pioneers included Apple, Yahoo! and Google, along with more traditional organisations such as Deutsche Bank and McKinsey. Needless to say, many organisations have since followed suit.

This growing trend is perhaps not surprising given the extensive scientific research published by the likes of the National Institute of Health and Harvard Medical School. The findings consistently demonstrate a decrease in the production of chemicals associated with stress, anxiety, depression and insomnia. At the same time they show an increased ability to relax, heightened levels of concentration and the alleviation of the many aches and pains that plague employees everywhere.
...
Individuals who meditate tend to experience higher levels of sustained happiness and wellbeing in their lives. The result of this is an increased level of job satisfaction, improved morale and a greater willingness to contribute and communicate with fellow employees.

It's really all about happiness. And I want to make it clear that I mean true happiness - not superficial gratification of desires. There is a difference, you know.