Monday meditative picture blogging

Photo from Wikimedia Commons

Something to think about

I agree with this:

The spiritual path - is simply the journey of living our lives. Everyone is on a spiritual path; most people just don't know it.

--Marianne Williamson

Sunday art blogging

"Child with his mother and ducklings"

Margret Hofheinz-Döring/Galerie Brigitte Mauch Göppingen

Image from Wikimedia Commons

The importance of a quiet mind

Center participant Krena White sent me this quote and I like it very much:

Only in quiet waters things mirror themselves undistorted. Only in a quiet mind is adequate perception of the world.

-- Hans Margolius

Mindful communication

Any medical people out there? Take a look:

Training in mindfulness meditation and communication can alleviate the psychological stress and burnout experienced by many physicians, U.S. researchers say.

Dr. Michael S. Krasner, an associate professor of clinical medicine at the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York who was the study leader, says the training can also expand a physician's capacity to relate to patients and enhance patient-centered care.

Mindful communication utilizes the techniques of meditation to help people maintain an open and non-judgmental outlook as they tackle everyday tasks, Krasner explains.

"From the patient's perspective, we hear all too often of dissatisfaction in the quality of presence from their physician," Krasner said in a statement. "From the practitioner's perspective, the opportunity for deeper connection is all too often missed in the stressful, complex and chaotic reality of medical practice."

Of course, the same principles apply to all of us who work with people in any way.

It's from a little article entitled "Meditation training lessens doctor burnout".

Optimism

"Sitting watching sunset"

Photo from Wikimedia Commons

I found a little article called How to Be an Incurable Optimist over on eHow. Here's part of what it says:

One way to become more optimistic is to meditate. Recently I was in a Women's Spirituality Group. No matter what topic we chose we always ended up talking about "Living In the Moment". That seems to be the main message that buddhist traditions teach and the purpose of meditation. According to Eckhart Tolle, you can't be unhappy if you are truly living in the moment.

I'm certainly not going to disagree with that!

Our natural state of mind

I often tell beginning meditation students that they don't have to let their thoughts and feelings take them hostage. Here is that principle very eloquently expressed:

Meditation is based on the premise that the natural state of the mind is calm and clear. It provides a way to train our mind to settle into this state. Our first reason for meditating might be that we want some freedom from our agitated mind. We want to discover the basic goodness of our natural mind.

To do this requires us first to slow down and experience our mind as it is. In the process, we get to know how our mind works. We see that wherever the mind is abiding--in anger, in desire, in jealousy, or in peace--that is where we also are abiding. We begin to see that we have a choice in the matter: we do not have to act at the whim of every thought. We can abide peacefully. Meditation is a way to slow down and see how our mind works.

I found this at the The Shambhala Meditation Center of Chicago website.
~~~

Wednesday life form blogging

Photo by Cynthia Burgess

Autumnal equinox

Photo from Wikimedia Commons

Something especially for today:

Does the sun rise due east and set due west at the equinox?

Yes, it does. And that’s true no matter where you live on Earth, because we all see the same sky. No matter where you are on Earth, you have a due east and due west point on your horizon. That point marks the intersection of your horizon with the celestial equator – the imaginary line above the true equator of the Earth.

At the equinoxes, the sun appears overhead at noon as seen from Earth’s equator, as the illustration at the top of this post shows. That illustration shows the sun’s location on the celestial equator, every hour, on the day of the equinox.

That’s why the sun rises due east and sets due west for all of us. The sun is on the celestial equator, and the celestial equator intersects all of our horizons at points due east and due west. This fact makes the day of an equinox a good day for finding due east and due west from your yard or other favorite site for watching the sky. Just go outside around sunset or sunrise and notice the location of the sun on the horizon with respect to familiar landmarks.

If you do this, you’ll be able to use those landmarks to find those cardinal directions in the weeks and months ahead, long after Earth has moved on in its orbit around the sun, carrying the sunrise and sunset points southward.

From a site called Earth Sky: A Clear Voice for Science.

Stormy skies

We had a ferocious storm here in Tulsa yesterday and right before it hit the skies looked very wild and ominous. A Center participant said that the day reminded him of this painting so I thought I'd share it with you:

"View of Toledo"

Artist: El Greco

Image from Wikimedia Commons

Monday meditative picture blogging

Photo by Cynthia Burgess

Simple, to the point

I like this paragraph:

Anyone can meditate; there is no special belief or lifestyle required. Daily meditation is recommended and the time can vary from five minutes to an hour or more. While meditation has been a spiritual practice for centuries, today it is increasingly used in medical settings. At its simplest level, meditation is forced downtime, and that alone is good for you. But meditation has been shown to help make chronic pain such as headache and back pain more manageable. It is helpful for anxiety and panic, sleep problems, gastrointestinal distress, fatigue, job or family stress and skin disorders.

And here's another:

Whether meditation becomes a spiritual pursuit or not is a totally personal call. But if we quiet ourselves, and pay close mindful attention, then what opens up to us in the rest of our lives is always a surprise. When mind and body are synchronized, there is a balance that calls upon the universal wisdom. There you find moments of inner peace, you feel content and happy. And these are snippets of what life is about.

I found both in a little article called "Meditative Strength".

Sunday art blogging

Artist: Roselyne Clerget

Image from Wikimedia Commons

Meditation and music

Many people ask me if it's all right if they meditate "to music" and I consistently recommend against it. Most people mean by this that they want some sort of background music so that they can avoid the silence and this would not be a good plan at all!

However, I have just come across a fascinating article by Evelyn Cash about actually using music as a meditative support (or object).

Here's how it works:

I found myself able to watch my mind as I listened to the music. Certain tracks would bring up certain emotions or thoughts and I could use my meditation as a way to observe this process and watch how my mind reacted to the stimulus. In many ways, this is no different from sitting with slight knee pain or with a dog barking outside. The pain or the barking may irritate you but the point of meditation is to watch that irritation and see that it isn't you and will eventually pass away. I found that music had much the same effect. A track that I recognized would come on and I could watch my reaction to it and note: "recognition," another track might come on that I didn't like and I could just note: "aversion" then watch how my mood or even my body reacted. So the music became less of a distraction and more of a tool and an object of meditation.

I would recommend this only for experienced meditators. But it really is an intriguing notion isn't it?

I also would recommend that you read the entire article quoted above. It's not very long and it gives a focused description of how the author views this exercise.
~~~

How to grow your brain

Okay. I've told you this before but it won't hurt to remind you. Here's part of a little article on the subject I just found:

Meditation helps increase gray matter. A research team from University of California, Los Angeles scanned the brains of people who meditate and found that certain regions in the brains of long-term meditators were larger than in a similar control group.

Meditators showed significantly larger volumes of the hippocampus and areas within the orbito-frontal cortex, the thalamus and the inferior temporal gyrus - all known for regulating emotions.

There are many benefits to consistent meditative practice and a bigger brain is certainly one of them!

Jewish meditation and the labyrinth

Boston College Memorial Labyrinth

Photo from Wikimedia Commons

I just came across a very interesting little article that reports on the growing use of labyrinth meditation by members of the Jewish faith. At least one synagogue has built a labyrinth on its property for practitioners to use:

"There's nothing not Jewish about a labyrinth," said Rabbi Jeffrey Arnowitz, the synagogue's associate rabbi....

"In fact, there's something incredibly Jewish about them, this whole idea of wandering. We spent 40 years in the desert wandering. For the Jews, it was more important to wander and learn what you had to learn wandering than it was to get to the goal. That's ultimately what the labyrinth is all about."

Arnowitz already has used the winding path as a tool during spiritual counseling sessions, and has plans to use the route for services in the future.

Someone who left a comment on the article said the following:

Labyrinths are not Judaic, Christian, Islamic, or other. Labyrinths are universal. They pre-date Old and New Testaments. Labyrinths' architectural designs contains sacred coordinates. Walking the path, following the many twists and turns, yet maintaining some awareness of the center, is a parable for the journey through this life.

Remember, we have a finger labyrinth here at St. John's Center and there are a number of walking labyrinths you can use in Tulsa. For those who live elsewhere, do check out the location of the labyrinth nearest you and try the practice. It can be very, very illuminating.

More about self-acceptance

I have had occassion recently to reflect about the pernicious nature of self-denigration that often plagues people's suffering. I attribute this, among other things, to the so-called "just world" theory so prevalent in this country. The "just world" notion posits that we deserve whatever happens to us - that if we do everything "right" then our life will go smoothly and we will get what we want. Many, many, many people believe this. That philosphy is exposed when a person who is beset by difficulties cries out, "What did I do to deserve this?"

Radical self-acceptance really is the way. Here's part of a little reflection that I found on a Beliefnet blog:

For me, remaining in the moment is probably the most difficult thing in the world. When I try to meditate, it seems that my thoughts are bouncing off the walls.. I think the more I try to remain still, the less success I have.

Now I am working on acceptance. However I feel,.whatever, is happening, I remind myself myself to accept the present moment unconditionally. If am meditating, and not doing a good job of quieting my thoughts, I am learning to accept that. I remind myself many times during the day, to accept myself..

As I become less judgemental, I reduce the level of stress not only on me, but on people around me. In time, I will no longer have to remind myself to be self accepting, it will become natural.

I think the person writing here is just a little bit optimistic in thinking that we will at some point no longer have to remind ourselves to be self-accepting. It is, however, quite realistic to have confidence that, as we practice, we will need to remind ourselves much less often.

One problem with attachment to judgment!

~~~

One important principle of meditation practice is that of "acceptance without judgment". I'm just suggesting that the intersection in the Venn diagram above might well increase a bit the more faithful we are to that principle!! :-)

What letting go really means

I've read a fair amount of Melody Beattie's material over the years. I had never read much about her life, however, until I was looking for a bio for this post. Do click through on her name below. Her personal story is truly an eye-opener:

Letting go doesn't mean we don't care. Letting go doesn't mean we shut down. Letting go means we stop trying to force outcomes and make people behave. It means we give up resistance to the way things are, for the moment. It means we stop trying to do the impossible--controlling that which we cannot--and instead, focus on what is possible--which usually means taking care of ourselves. And we do this in gentleness, kindness, and love, as much as possible.

-- Melody Beattie

Monday meditative picture blogging

A field in Switzerland

Photo from Wikimedia Commons

A wonderful wish for yourself and everyone

This is said to be an adaptation of a prayer by St. Teresa:

May there be peace within.

May you trust that you are exactly where you are meant to be.

May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith in yourself and others.

May you use the gifts that you have received, and pass on the love that has been given to you.

May you be content with yourself just the way you are.

Let this knowledge settle into your bones, and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise and love.

It is there for each and every one of us.

You could consider it a prayer or a meditation or even a metta (lovingkindness) practice.

I found it right here.

How much meditation time?

There's an important principle here:

Half an hour of meditation each day is essential, except when you are busy. Then a full hour is needed.

~Saint Francis de Sales

Give it some thought, okay? :-)

Friday cat blogging!

Artist: Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Image from Wikimedia Commons

An important awareness

It's time for another saying found on the marquee of the Nazarene Church down on the corner from my house:

The problem with self-deception is that people are so good at it.

In meditation language, this is called both "absence of mindfulness" and the "mind poison of delusion".
~~~

Tuesday meditative picture blogging

Photo from Wikimedia Commons

Kindness and Interconnectedness

A fairly new book by Sharon Salzberg has just come to my attention. It is called The Kindness Handbook: A Practical Companion. Here is just one small paragraph that I think is very focused and to the point:

If we look deeply into any kind of behavior, we will see an urge to feel a part of something greater than our own limited sense of self, a desire to feel at home in this body and mind. This urge toward happiness is often made twisted and distorted by ignorance, not knowing where happiness is actually to be found, and so we do damaging things. But we all share the desire to be happy, a vulnerability to change, to loss, and to fragility. Remembering what we share inspires us toward kindness.

There is a distressing level of truly unnecessary unkindness in our interactions with others. Often the perpetrator thinks it is trivial while the recipient may end up deeply hurt. Giving attention to the practicalities of learning to be kind is all to the good.

Labor and interconnectedness

One of the key principles of the meditative tradition is that we are not really separate; we are all connected. When you think about it, this is what the labor movement historically has been all about:

Years ago I recognized my kinship with all living things, and I made up my mind that I was not one bit better than the meanest on the earth. I said then and I say now, that while there is a lower class, I am in it; while there is a criminal element, I am of it; while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.

-- Eugene Debs

~~~

If the workers took a notion they could stop all speeding trains;

Every ship upon the ocean they can tie with mighty chains.

Every wheel in the creation, every mine and every mill;

Fleets and armies of the nation, will at their command stand still.

-- Joe Hill

~~~

Although it is true that only about 20 percent of American workers are in unions, that 20 percent sets the standards across the board in salaries, benefits and working conditions. If you are making a decent salary in a non-union company, you owe that to the unions. One thing that corporations do not do is give out money out of the goodness of their hearts.

-- Molly Ivins

~~~

I would like to recommend that we all make a special effort to devote some time today to Lovingkindness Practice - for the sake of workers who are oppressed and for the sake of all who are engaged in the struggle for basic fairness for the ordinary laborer. For that matter, let us do the practice also for those who stand in opposition to fairness and justice for the working person. They too experience pain and suffering and need the benefit of our kindness. Without it, how will their hearts ever be moved?

Harmony

A simple statement. Profound, too:

Once you realize that at the basic level we are part of a great organic whole, it becomes very difficult for you to harbor the thoughts of hate and violence against anybody. A regular practice of meditation results into a permanent feeling of harmony with the universe.

It's from a blog post I found right here.

Coming to life

Self-definition (and presentation) is a big obsession with a lot of people. I love how Eckhart says we "won't die" if we give this up!!

Give up defining yourself - to yourself or to others. You won't die. You will come to life. And don't be concerned with how others define you. When they define you, they are limiting themselves, so it's their problem. Whenever you interact with people, don't be there primarily as a function or a role, but as the field of conscious Presence. You can only lose something that you have, but you cannot lose something that you are.

- Eckhart Tolle

Deeply sad

Here's where the meditative principles of the Four Reflections (sometimes called the Four Great Contemplations) will come to our rescue. They are, as you'll remember:

1. Precious human birth
2. Law of cause and effect
3. Impermanence and mortality
4. Weariness with "this world"

Spend time reflecting on these. Such a practice will truly help us all to let go of the attachments we may have cultivated concerning success in "the office" and find our purpose and meaning through compassion and insight instead.

Wednesday life form blogging

Photo by Jeannie Dibble

Something about simplicity

I came across a little article today entitled "Secrets Of How To Live A Simple Life". Here's part of what it says:

One secret to how to live a simple life is to look honestly at how we complicate our lives and stop doing those things. It may be different for each of us, but there are some common habits. The first one is taking on responsibilities without fully acknowledging the costs and complexities they add to our lives.

If you bought a new boat, for example, would you think about the time you will spend maintaining it? Would you think about the trip to the insurance office for insurance, the necessity to shop for accessories like life-jackets and fire extinguishers? Would you remind yourself that boats break down, and you'll have to deal with hauling it someplace to have it repaired? Would you consider the trailer-hitch you'll need, the tarp to cover the boat, the tarp to replace that one when it tears, the bearings in the trailer wheels that will someday fail. Finally, would you think about the hours you'll have to work to pay for all this fun?

Nothing is wrong with owning a boat, by the way. If little else is going on in your life, all of the above could easily be a part of "the simple life." No one thing is too much, but when we don't recognize the complexity our choices add to our lives, we tend take on more than we can reasonably handle.

Very thought provoking, don't you think?

Monday meditative picture blogging

Photo from Wikimedia Commons

Sunday prayer blogging

Isn't this lovely?

Art is prayer made visible
Music is prayer made audible
Dance is prayer embodied
But the greatest art we practice
Is the art of compassion
Which is prayer in action and service.

—Rev. Dr. Gina Rose Halpern

I found it here (bottom of page).

How to laugh at your own perfectionism

It's a bumper sitcker I just found:

I am a nobody, nobody is perfect, therefore I am perfect.

:-)

Something about unhappiness

This is a wonderfully evocative paragraph about a common attachment:

Much of our unhappiness comes from the desire to be happy at the expense of others. It’s really very ironic that in grasping after happiness in this way we end up causing ourselves pain. It’s like sticking your hand into what you think is a cool stream in order to find relief on a hot day, only to discover that the water is boiling.

It is from an introduction to loving-kindness practice that I found on the Wildmind site.

So simple, so profound

And so true:

There's nothing like starting off the day with meditation. Whether it's five hours or simply five minutes. The important thing is to start. After 21 days it will be a habit. There are many positive benefits to amaze one. The entire day becomes different. And there are many ways to meditate. Find the way that suits you best. Working on oneself is always an "inside job." One simply needs to kick it off.

I found it right here.

How lack of mindfulness can play out

Long time friend of the Center, Paul Rogers, sent us the following:

If you want to do just one thing to improve your primary relationship, make the words "always" and "never" off limits. That usage is both inflammatory and quite an exaggeration. Start by substituting the words "often" or sometimes" or even "most of the time" and right away you'll bring more mindfulness into your experience of the other person.

Being aware without judgment

Here's a description of mindfulness I found recently that I really like:

When you practice mindfulness meditation, you practice being in the present moment, and noticing all of your experiences. You practice being aware of things happening outside of yourself (e.g., things you see, smell, hear), and things happening internally (e.g., your thoughts, feelings and sensations). Importantly, mindfulness meditation involves being aware without judgment. So, you are paying attention to all of these experiences, without labeling them as good or bad.

It's from a little article by Kristalyn Salters-Pedneault, PhD that you can find right here.

Monday meditative picture blogging

Photo from Wikimedia Commons

Sunday art blogging

Attributed to Vincent van Gogh

Image from Wikimedia Commons

Something about life and our minds

This is interesting:

We think in generalities, but we live in details.

- Alfred North Whitehead

Alfred North Whitehead is one of the most important names in the approach to reality known as process philosophy (or process theology). If you haven't explored it you might like to find out more.

Something about anger

This is an intriguing way of sorting through our anger issues:

Anger is a deluded mind that focuses on an animate or inanimate object, feels it to be unattractive, exaggerates its bad qualities, and wishes to harm it. For example, when we are angry with our partner, at that moment he or she appears to us as unattractive or unpleasant. We then exaggerate his bad qualities by focusing only on those aspects that irritate us and ignoring all his good qualities and kindness, until we have built up a mental image of an intrinsically faulty person. We then wish to harm him in some way, probably by criticizing or disparaging him.

Because it is based on an exaggeration, anger is an unrealistic mind; the intrinsically faulty person or thing that it focuses on does not in fact exist.

It is that last observation that is truly revolutionary when you think about it. What if we were able to realize - on a consistent basis - that the "person" with whom we're angry does not actually exist? WOW!

I found the piece right here. It's by Geshe Kelsang Gyatso.

One simple mental thing

I just found a very short, pithy and really focused article on Examiner.com that I want to encourage you to read. It's called "What is mindfulness and why meditation?" by Eddie Adams and here's a brief excerpt:

Jon Kabat-Zinn, a pioneering author and doctor who's work is responsible for bringing mindfulness into medicine and popular culture, has described mindfulness as "a process of bringing a certain quality of attention to moment-by-moment experience." Our attention, or awareness, is the one simple mental thing that is always readily available to us all at any moment. By cultivating our mindfulness, we can help ourselves respond more skillfully to daily stresses, emotional suffering, and ingrained behaviors that may no longer help us live happily.

Now go see what she says about meditation. The very last sentence is just delightful!

Not a bad definition!

This is fun:

Enjoy doing nothing without falling asleep - meditation.

-- J. Kleykamp

And there's something to that, too!

Doing our own inner work

"Figure of Wisdom"

Creative Commons

This can provoke a lot of thought for those who will let it:

We do not receive wisdom,
we must discover it for ourselves,
after a journey through the wilderness
which no one else can make for us,
which no one can spare us,
for our wisdom is the point of view
from which we come at last to regard the world.

-- Marcel Proust

Actually, I don't think this means that wisdom cannot be taught or shared. It does mean, however, that each person has to integrate it and apply it according to his or her own context. We can't just scoop up someone else's wisdom wholesale and run with it.

Something about choices

I want to share three quotations with you today because I really think they go together:

Every decision you make - every decision - is not a decision about what to do. It's a decision about Who You Are. When you see this, when you understand it, everything changes. You begin to see life in a new way. All events, occurrences, and situations turn into opportunities to do what you came here to do. -Neale Donald Walsch

To live is to choose. But to choose, you must know who you are and what you stand for, where you want to go, and why you want to get there…. - Kofi Annan

Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions. - Dalai Lama

It occurs to me that if we really see our choices and decisions as being about who we are, we will be more able to let go of attachments to outcome. And that letting go will hugely reduce our stress and increase our well being.

Monday meditative picture blogging

Photo from Wikimedia Commons

Quieting the mind

Today an article caught my attention because of the title: "Pockets of Quietude". Here's the first paragraph:

In our culture we believe that doing, taking action, and making the effort are the most important ways to get out of a crisis. What if the opposite is true? What if you give yourself permission to simply be and rest in order to find peace and solutions to your current confusion? Learning to listen requires two things: a practice that facilitates quieting your mind, such as meditation, prayer, or communing with nature; and an understanding or discovery of how you receive answers.

The author also quotes someone who suggested that having a "not-to-do" list is as important has having a "to-do" list. I'd never thought of it quite that way before.

Go on over and read the whole piece. It's very short.

Benefits

I just came across a brief article entitled "The 3 Most Common Benefits of Meditation". I actually agree that these, if not the most common, could definitely be considered the most important. They are:

1. peace of mind and tranquility
2. a sense of compassion
3. non-reaction

The writer, Sonia Gallagher (who calls herself a "recovering attorney"!), offers a short descriptive paragraph on each of these benefits. Go on over there and take a look.
~~~

Why attachment is such an obstacle

I came across a transcription of a meditation talk by someone named Eshu at Victoria Zen Centre.

Here's part of it:

[A]s we continue to practice, we find that we are very attached to who it is that we think we are.

I think that many people, only think that we’re attached to all the good things that we think we are, but as we continue to practice, we begin to find that we’re also deeply committed, deeply immersed, deeply fixated with our own grief, our own anger, our own likes and dislikes and preferences. We’re even attached to our own failure.

If it’s familiar to us, we are it. So when we come to this place where we are confronting ourselves honestly, when we have entered into this moment with all things as it’s content ... good and bad, light and dark, pleasant and unpleasant ... we’re faced with this choice. Do I actually want to change? Because if we do we have to break through the wall... we have to do things which may be profoundly uncomfortable. We have to let go of aspects of ourselves which we have held up, glorified and fixated to as being 'me'. “I’m this kind of person”, “I’m that kind of person”, “I like this and I don’t like that.” “Ooh, this kind of person is really not my style.” When we start to honestly see where these kinds of choices... where these kinds of fixations have brought us, we’re always faced with this choice... to let it drop... let it hit the floor... and arise as somebody new... to allow this old self to drop away, or to use traditional terms, to allow the old self to die, and to arise anew.

Yes, we are just as attached (sometimes more so) to pain as we are to pleasure. And so learning to let go of attachment will end up benefitting us hugely.
~~~

The importance of relaxation

"Vitruvian Man" by Leonardo da Vinci

Image from Wikimedia Commons

Interesting to notice who said this!

Every now and then go away, have a little relaxation, for when you come back to your work your judgment will be surer. Go some distance away because then the work appears smaller and more of it can be taken in at a glance and a lack of harmony and proportion is more readily seen.

-- Leonardo Da Vinci, 1452-1519

Wednesday life form blogging

Photo from Wikimedia Commons

Here's how to be free

This is definitely material for deep reflection:

Live your life so that the fear of death can never enter your heart. When you arise in the morning, give thanks for the morning light. Give thanks for your life and strength. Give thanks for your food and for the joy of living. And if perchance you see no reason for giving thanks, rest assured the fault is in yourself.

-- Chief Tecumseh

About how invisible, internal things fit together

Photo from Wikimedia Commons

Dear Readers,

I want to call your attention to an article that was sent to me by Teresa Wilbur, long time friend of St. John's Center. It is called Music: Essential for Life however the title does not begin to do justice to the power of the piece which is really an address to parents of incoming students at The Boston Conservatory.

I've always known that my years and years of training and professional work as a musician prepared me more than anything else possibly could have for my spiritual vocation. In fact, I have long been aware that the vocation is one. This brief piece by Dr. Karl Paulnack puts words to why that is true more eloquently than I have ever before experienced. And so I'm posting this on all three blogs today.

I will share only three sentences here:

If there is a future wave of wellness on this planet, of harmony, of peace, of an end to war, of mutual understanding, of equality, of fairness, I don't expect it will come from a government, a military force or a corporation. I no longer even expect it to come from the religions of the world, which together seem to have brought us as much war as they have peace. If there is a future of peace for humankind, if there is to be an understanding of how these invisible, internal things should fit together, I expect it will come from the artists, because that's what we do.

Please go read the whole thing. I promise you, you'll be glad you did.

And then listen to some good music today. Something beautiful. Something meaningful to you.

You'll be glad you did that too.

~~~

The BIG breakthrough

All of us have difficult people in our lives. Some of us have them only occasionally; others have them fairly consistently. Learning to address this situation skillfully is one of the most important things we can do in life:

As human beings we have good qualities as well as bad ones. Now, anger, attachment, jealousy, hatred, are the bad side; these are the real enemy…The true troublemaker is inside.

--His Holiness the Dalai Lama

All right. It's radical. And it's sometimes hard to take on board. But it's very true. Now this part is important: Simply recognizing that the true troublemaker is inside does not automatically make the other person innocent. Everyone on the planet may well agree with us that the difficult person is objectively a monster. What we learn here, however, is that our suffering and unhappiness come from within. This realization can revolutionize our lives. Honestly.

Something to try

Or at least we could try a variation on this theme:

Maybe we don't have to stand out on the street calling out compliments to complete strangers but what might happen if we made it a point to extend ourselves in terms of affirming the people we connect with every day? Find something - anything - nice to say to each person we enounter. We just need to make sure it is sincere.

These guys just recently went on a ten day tour in order to spread their approach to other parts of the U.S.

Now, I want you to ponder how wonderfully this both draws from and supports our meditative principles. First, I think we can all see how a basic level of mindfulness is necessary in order to do this at all. Second, it is definitely an act that calls for compassion, lovingkindness and sympathetic joy!

I found the original information here.

UPDATE: Here's one definition of compliment: noun. an expression of praise, commendation, or admiration: A sincere compliment boosts one's morale.

Also, many people have never learned how to feel comfortable accepting a compliment. You might like to check out the wikiHow article on this subject. Also here is a webpage that gives some hints on writing a letter of compliment. A number of the suggested phrases are also useful for learning how to express appreciation in person.

One good minute

I just found a short article over on Examiner.com entitled "The one minute meditation technique". Here's one little paragraph that really caught my attention:

In my tai chi classes we always start our practice with a one-minute gratitude meditation. This is a time where we focus on all the things for which we are grateful. Heart Math Institute studies have determined that "appreciative feelings activate the body’s biochemical systems that help diminish stress and stabilize the psyche."

It occurred to me that we could all train ourselves to start our work day in this manner. Suppose that, as soon as we arrive to our workplace, we sit at our desk or stand at our station and simply call to mind what we are grateful for. Then we need to make it routine. I have an idea that our day will tend to go a lot better this way.

By the way, the specific "one minute" technique as described in the article is actually a form of "refuge" practice although the writer doesn't call it that. You might like to click through and read the whole piece.

(The free graphic above was found right here.)

A little comic relief!

Wednesday life form blogging

Photo from Wikimedia Commons

Why is letting go so hard?

Many people complain that the process of letting go is simply too hard. They try - they really do - and still seem to be burdened by whatever it was they had decided to relinquish.

First of all, it is important to remember that "letting go" does not mean "getting rid of". The act of letting go doesn't suddenly give us unlimited control over what we don't like! But another reason letting go is so hard has to do with our beliefs about our identity. Here's a brief description of how these beliefs come about:

You have been conditioned since you were very young to relate everything to yourself. As soon as you learn to recognise people and things, you're taught how to relate these to the "I" and "mine"-- my mom, my dad, my toy, etc. As you grow up you're taught how to relate ideas and concepts to yourself. You have to learn that so that you can function properly in society. But at the same time, this process slowly and unconsciously creates a concept of selfhood, and you build up your ego. This build up is strengthened by the values of society. You learn to compete, to achieve, to accumulate knowledge, wealth and power. In other words, you are trained to possess and to cling.

By the time you are grown up, the concept of ego-self has become so real that it is difficult to tell what is illusion and what is reality. It is difficult to realise that "I" and "mine" are temporary, relative and changeable. The same is true of all that is related to "I" and "mine." Not understanding that "I" and "mine" are temporary, you struggle to keep them permanent; you cling to them. This desire to try to keep everything permanent is what makes it so difficult to learn to let go.

-- Dr. Thynn Thynn

The problem with assumptions

I've been talking with several people lately about assumptions - particularly the unwarranted kind. Here's something that speaks to our often habitual tendency to operate and make decisions on the basis of assumptions that we haven't checked out:

I always prefer to believe the best of everybody - it saves so much trouble.

-- Rudyard Kipling

That gyroscope in your heart

Good morning, dear readers.

Perhaps, like me, you sometimes tune in to A Prairie Home Companion on NPR and are familiar with the gentle jokes about English majors. Here is a question addressed to Garrison Keillor and the beginnings of his answer:

So, what exactly IS an English major supposed to do after college?
Andrea
--
This is the beautiful problem that confounds us all, Andrea, and we must face it every morning with as much wit and bravery as we can summon up. What you do, exactly, is get out of bed, pee, put water on to boil for tea or coffee, put bread in the toaster, choose between the apricot and blueberry yoghurt, eat slowly and thoughtfully, take a shower, and put on clean clothes, and by this time you likely will know what comes next. Merce Cunningham faced this problem and so does Michelle Obama and Brett Favre and the Queen of Tonga. If I believed in the efficacy of long-range planning, I'd recommend it, but I believe in luck and improvisation and the gyroscope in your heart and the built-in b.s. detector that English majors are supposed to acquire, having created so much of it in our term papers.

All right. This is true of meditaors as well! We are supposed to have a built-in b.s. detector having had so much of it arise in what we call our "distractions" during meditation. I also don't much believe in the "efficacy of long-range planning" and I highly recommend the approach offered above by Mr. Keillor.

(Yes, and that "10 items or less" sign in the stores irritates me no end as well!)

Little ways mindfulness can matter! :-)

New meditation blog

I have just found a new meditation blog. Well it's new to me. The name of it is "Meditation Secrets Revealed" and the blog owner is Vlad Moskovski, someone who has studied meditation, yoga, Tai Chi, Qiqong, and Aikido. He states that "...[while] our scientific understanding of the world has brought us wonderful technology, our understanding of the human potential and the world of the mind is rudimentary; it is the greatest unexplored frontier." I so agree and often make that very point in session one of the Foundations course here at the Center.

Here's something Vlad says in one of his posts that I found a bit amusing:

While siting at a workshop last week, I noticed that several people around me were having trouble paying attention and sitting still. The topic was interesting, the presenter was being extremely engaging and yet here they were, fidgeting. As part of an exercise in non-judgment and listening, attendants were asked to pair up and take turns give advice on problem areas in their partner’s lives. I was not surprised to see that patience was one of the top resources that people frequently wish they had more of...

He then goes on to offer three meditation techniques to help us cultivate patience. Go on over there and check them out! Here's the post.
~~~

A point of rest

This is simply beautiful. I hope you think so too:

When we come to a point of rest in our own being, we encounter a world where all things are at rest, and then a tree becomes a mystery, a cloud becomes a revelation, and each person we meet a cosmos whose riches we can only glimpse.

— Dag Hammarskjöld

A few happiness skills

Hey, you could do a lot worse than this, you know:

Something about values

Paul Rogers sent me this. Thanks, Paul!
~~~

Think for yourself!

Something I really appreciate about the meditative tradition is that it is not dependent upon a belief system as such. Meditation is, rather, about cultivating happiness and alleviating suffering. It does this through very practical, demonstrable principles along with regular practice.

One infinitesimal moment

I really am glad that I found this poem. Spend some time with it, okay?

One Easy Step to Enlightenment

First off, and I do mean first
You know in your heart
that the times are changing
Oh so much slower than we thought
and you know in your heart
that the good guys and the bad guys
don't know any more than you what's going on
End of the World?
End of Time?
I'm here to tell you
and yes that is my job
It doesn't matter
This moment and only this moment, matter
It is your heart, your very soul
that will shape this moment
and when we, together
Awaken to the idea
that is this moment
we will reach out
without any thought for
what's in it for us
without any notion of our need
but reach out in one infinitesimal
moment
for no other reason than to
Be
Together
Joined
In the Moment

-- Krev Roues

Friday cat blogging!

Photo from Wikimedia Commons

Your reset button

This is a very, very thought provoking sentence:

He discovered his reset button early on and there were not many things that bothered him all the rest of his days just because of that.

-- Brian Andreas

Oh my: that troublesome old ego!

Here's a wonderful paragraph from the forward to Be the Change: How Meditation Can Transform You and the World by Ed and Deb Shapiro.

I think I am the most important being in the world, but nobody else thinks it is about me, time doesn't think it is about me, space doesn't think it is about me, the planet doesn't think it is about me. It doesn't take much to get the message that it is actually not about me! But if somebody comes and steps on my toe or wants to take away my strawberries, then suddenly it is all about me again!

- Robert Thurman

There's a nice little article about this book over on The Huffington Post that features Law & Order actor, Linus Roache.

Rainbow

Photo from Wikimedia Commons

This is something about priorities and also something about impermanence:

The work will wait while you show the child the rainbow - but the rainbow may not wait...

-- Unknown

Things change

Someone gave me a lovely little book called The Future Is Now by The 17th Karmapa. It is an easy book to dip into as it has a short little teaching on each page beside an evocative photograph. Here's one I came across that I really like:

It is impossible to be at your best or your worst at all times. Who is always consistent? Everyone changes according to different situations and as they go through life's different phases. There is no point in feeling great pride or great shame simply because of temporary circumstances.

Well! He really challenges black-and-white, all-or-nothing thinking here, doesn't he?
~~~

Painful thoughts in meditation

All to often I come across people who believe that they should strive not to think at all about anything difficult or negative. Akong Tulku writes the following in his marvelous book Taming the Tiger:

The tendency to over-react when things go right or wrong brings suffering to ourselves and others involved with us. Thus our minds need training, so that we may find balance and stability whatever the outer circumstances. It is like training a horse that is frightened by the sound of fire. By gradually acquainting the horse with the noise of fire, he will no longer be surprised by it and will cease to panic when he hears it. Similarly, if in meditation exercises we confront anger and pain again and again, over a period of time, we will be able to face and deal with them in life.

So, if distressing thoughts come up from time to time in meditation, that's actually what is supposed to happen!
~~~

Control vs choice

This brings me much consolation - and optimism too. Optimism not in results but in the assurance of insight and illumination by accepting and working skillfully with whatever happens:

"We cannot direct the wind... but we can adjust the sails."

-- Unknown

The meditative principles teach us how.

The dragons in our lives

Could be (even though I know this is really, really hard with some people):

Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage. Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love.

-- Rainer Maria Rilke

Rilke is the poet who so eloquently taught us that living the questions is really more important than searching for answers.

Friday cat blogging!

Photo from Wikimedia Commons

The tipping point

Most days I make an effort to visit a site called "Inspiration Peak". Today I found a short essay by Eileen Bennett that explores whether this is a terrible time or a great time to be alive on planet Earth. It's called "The Tipping Point" and I'd like to encourage you go on over and read the whole thing. Here are two little paragraphs from the piece:

I think we are living in very exciting - if disturbing - times. When you consider all the pain and turmoil in the world, it's easy to think that we are regressing, rather than progressing. On the other hand, when you look at all the amazing things that are happening in different areas, you can see that an awakening is inevitable.

There are groups and individuals all over the world striving to make this a better place to be for everyone. The catch-phrase of the moment is 'tipping point' - and everybody can lend their weight to ensuring that we tip into a positive, life-enhancing future, rather than sink further into a negative, destructive one.

Well, I don't know whether the destruction can be turned around or not. What I do know is that, whatever happens, I want to be counted among those who dedicated their efforts to the positive, life-enhancing approach.

How the light gets in

Here's something my dear friend, Sally Lloyd, sent me this morning. You will, undoubtedly recognize the song but the video that's been put together by way of illustration is probably new. And I find it very moving indeed:

In case you don't know much about Leonard Cohen, you can read about him here.

There is a strong message here about meditative practice as I'm sure you'll recognize.
~~~

Wednesday life form blogging

Photo from Wikimedia Commons

Impermanence

We do well to remember this. And it's not meant to make us despair but, rather, to support us in becoming liberated:

What is life? It is a flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime. It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset.

~ Crowfoot, Blackfoot warrior

Destination

Here's something for your reflection -- especially for those who are convinced that the "geographical cure" will make everything better:

One's destination is never a place but rather a new way of looking at things.

~ Henry Miller

And you know that I'm going to say that the meditation process - both formal sitting and the application of the principles to everyday life - makes it possible for us to cultivate that new way of looking at things. It really does! And not just superficially or temporarily, either. If we continue meditating and learning to let go of ego grasping, our way of looking at things truly changes radically.

Found here.

Summer Stars

Photo from Wikimedia Commons

My dear friend, Liz Roome, reminded me of the following wonderful Carl Sandburg poem this morning:

Summer Stars

Bend low again, night of summer stars.
So near you are, sky of summer stars,
So near, a long-arm man can pick off stars,
Pick off what he wants in the sky bowl,
So near you are, summer stars,
So near, strumming, strumming,
So lazy and hum-strumming.

Carl Sandburg is the person who once said that the ugliest word in the English language is "exclusive".

Something to think about.
~~~

Keep walking, move within

Keep walking, though there's no place to get to.
Don't try to see through the distances.
That's not for human beings.
Move within,
But don't move the way fear makes you move.

— Rumi

Stress reduction breathing

This is very effective. And it's pleasurable to do. Try it!

~~~

Hmmm. Think about it.

Sent to me by Paul Rogers.

Return to reality

I found an article today called Meditation as Awakening to the Now. Here's part of what it says.

Meditation, in contrast to popular belief, is not deep concentration or the tuning out of external stimulus for the sake of transcending daily life. Meditation, rather, is a return to reality.
...
For most of us, the value in meditation comes from our lack of awareness in day to day living. In the activity of nearly all things we are constantly looking toward the next event, or musing over dead experiences and ideas. Very rarely do we see, touch, smell, hear, and contemplate our present.

We really need to let go of that seductive idea that in meditation we're going to tune the real world out. Such an approach is, rather, a way of cultivating the mind poison of delusion.

The present little inch

We all know this deep down. We really, really do. For some reason that is difficult to understand, we forget. And so we need to be reminded:

Watch your way then, as a cautious traveler; and don't be gazing at that mountain or river in the distance, and saying, "How shall I ever get over them?" but keep to the present little inch that is before you, and accomplish that in the little moment that belongs to it. The mountain and the river can only be passed in the same way; and, when you come to them, you will come to the light and strength that belong to them.

-- M. A. Kelty

A WONDERFUL meditation story

Really, people. This is the best meditation story ever! How many times have we been taught to let go of attachment to results? Remember this story! It will not only help you cultivate acceptance and non-attachment, it will also stimulate your sense of humor!

EXPERIENCES

A student went to see his meditation teacher and said, “My situation is horrible! I feel so distracted most of the time, or my legs ache, or I’m repeatedly falling asleep. It’s terrible.” Said the teacher matter-of-factly, “It will pass.”

A week later, the student returned to his teacher. “My meditation is wonderful! I feel so aware, so peaceful, so alive!” “It will pass,” replied the teacher.

I'm very sorry. I forgot where I found this so I can't give you a link. Maybe I'll come across it again. If I do, I'll publish the link in an update.
~~~

Monday meditative picture blogging

Photo from Wikimedia Commons

More about connectedness

All too often I find myself in conversations with people who think that berating themselves is a good motivator or that self-loathing is somehow a mark of humility. Not so! Not so! And, therefore, you can understand why I was so delighted to find the following:

Believing in yourself is not just for you; it's for every person who has touched your life in a significant way and for every person your life will touch the same way five minutes from now, or five centuries from now.

-- Jaye Miller

Still water

Photo from Wikimedia Commons

“We cannot see our reflection in running water. It is only in still water that we can see”

-- Taoist proverb

The way to take a break from running is to meditate. But you know that.