Sunday art blogging

This is by Jan Safranek and you can find it over on Wikimedia Commons.

Recognizing gifts

I already posted the following over on facebook but I think it belongs here as well. Two powerful meditative principles, after all, are that we need to see our enemies as precious teachers and also that we practice gratitude to everyone.

Yes.

And consistent meditation will give us these

Something to try

Meditation headline of the day

Here you go:

Scientific evidence supports mindfulness practices

Here's a little snippet from the article:

A new report by Dr. William Marchand of the George E. Wahlen veterans Affairs Medical Center and the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, reveals “mindfulness practices” including Zen meditation have shown benefits for patients with certain physical and mental health problems. 

Mindfulness is described as "the practice of learning to focus attention on moment-by-moment experience with an attitude of curiosity, openness, and acceptance." Dr. Marchand reviewed published studies that examined the health benefits of these practices.

Most of us who are aware of meditation at all have heard of this research before. But the more we reinforce what we already know, the more likely we are to be consistent in our practice.
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Worthy of reflection

I guess the problem is that some people enjoy the feeling of self-righteousness more than peace of mind. Very sad.

True of most things, actually

Being where we are

Here's something I posted on facebook back in March.

This strikes me as quite an important consideration:

"How much of your life do you spend looking forward to being somewhere else?" 

 -- Matthew Flickstein 

Have you ever thought how wonderfully satisfying life could be if we fully embraced being exactly where we actually ARE at any given moment?
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Some truly excellent advice

It's very counter cultural, of course:

"Do not encumber your mind with useless thoughts. What good does it do to brood on the past or anticipate the future? Remain in the simplicity of the present moment."

-- Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

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