When we look back at our experience, we can see so clearly its ephemeral, dreamlike nature. Yet when we look ahead, when we look to the future, somehow (and this is the great enchantment) we get dazzled by all the possibilities that are there waiting for us as if the next event in our lives, the next sitaution, the next project, the next reationship, the next meal, even on meditation the next breath ... we live our lives in anticipation of the next hit of experience as if the one that's coming will finally do it for us. What's so strange is that nothing up 'til now has brought that sense of real completion or fulfillment. So why are we so seduced into thinking that the next one will? This is a very strange phenomenon.
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Experience and expectation
Oh, my goodness! Do read this and give it some careful thought. It's an amazingly powerful observation:
Monday, July 25, 2011
Facing our pain
I just learned today that Charlotte Joko Beck died last month at the venerable age of ninety-four. She was one of the meditation teachers I admired the most. Here's something she said that actually says a lot:
~~~
We have to face the pain we have been running from. In fact, we need to learn to rest in it and let its searing power transform us.A few simple words, really. With a meaning that bears careful and deep pondering.
~~~
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Our attitudes toward ourselves
I suppose in all my years of pastoral counseling, meditation therapy and spiritual direction, I am most grieved by the tendency of people to reproach themselves - even condemn themselves - when they make mistakes:
~~~
She's right, you know.If we fall, we don’t need self-recrimination or blame or anger – we need a reawakening of our intention and a willingness to recommit, to be whole-hearted once again.
~~~
Friday, July 22, 2011
Peace - the real thing
The craving for control gives rise to more suffering than anything else I've ever observed:
Peace requires us to surrender our illusions of control. We can love and care for others but we cannot possess our children, lovers, family, or friends. We can assist them, pray for them, and wish them well, yet in the end their happiness and suffering depend on their thoughts and actions, not on our wishes.
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
An important observation for us all
Ah. So very, very true:
The little things? The little moments? They aren’t little.
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Monday, July 18, 2011
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Inside - Outside
Here's something Alan Watts said that I had not come across before today:
Really, the fundamental, ultimate mystery -- the only thing you need to know to understand the deepest metaphysical secrets -- is this: that for every outside there is an inside and for every inside there is an outside, and although they are different, they go together.
Now that's going to take some pondering. But it's very appealing, isn't it?
~~~
Saturday, July 16, 2011
Friday, July 15, 2011
That which we resist persists
It's a well documented meditative principle. If we, for example, try to stop thoughts from arising, they become much more distracting than they were before. It's never helpful to get into an adversarial relationship with ourselves.
Here's a little extremely ironic "quick fact" that illustrates this principle very effectively:
~~~
Here's a little extremely ironic "quick fact" that illustrates this principle very effectively:
~~~
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Courage and respect
Oh, isn't this both very wonderful and very true? It's by Pema Chödrön:
~~~
"The most fundamental aggression to ourselves, the most fundamental harm we can do to ourselves, is to remain ignorant by not having the courage and the respect to look at ourselves honestly and gently."We often think we're protecting ourselves by refusing to look within. Actually, just the opposite is the case.
~~~
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Online stress relief
Here's an online activity you can try for stress relief and/or focusing purposes:
Online abstract image maker
Just click on the link and you'll see what I mean.
~~~
Online abstract image maker
Just click on the link and you'll see what I mean.
~~~
Monday, July 11, 2011
Sunday, July 10, 2011
More about discernment
I know so many people who manage to make themselves miserable by trying to do too much:
Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials.-- Lin Yutang
Saturday, July 09, 2011
Friday, July 08, 2011
Thursday, July 07, 2011
Something about finding ourselves
Here's something else from the marquee belonging to the Nazarene Church down on the corner from my house:
You will never find yourself until you face the truth.
That may seem fairly obvious but I think people overlook it a lot. The meditative process, of course, is about facing the truth about how our minds work - how they really work (not how we think they ought to work.)
~~~
Wednesday, July 06, 2011
Well, yeah....
Said by a very wise lady:
How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.
Tuesday, July 05, 2011
Please pray and/or send good thoughts
Below is the picture of a wonderful cat named Cookie who is eighteen years old and now in her final illness and very close to death. Cookie's human, a young woman named Casey, is understandably distraught as Casey was only seven years old when Cookie became her cat.
Please do whatever you do: send thoughts, offer prayers, practice compassion meditation for them both.
A sincere "thank you" to all from me.
UPDATE: (Monday, July 11) This wonderful kitty went to her reward a few days ago surrounded by her human family. Never was there a cat more loved or laid to rest with more honor. Thanks to everyone for their concern and compassionate thoughts.
~~~
Monday, July 04, 2011
Independence Day
Photo from Wikimedia Commons Ultimately, freedom is an inside job. Nevertheless, if we, as human beings, are going to create conditions conducive to the experience of freedom, this principle is vital:
Freedom to differ is not limited to things that do not matter much. That would be a mere shadow of freedom. The test of freedom's substance is the right to differ as to things that touch the heart of the existing order. If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion, or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith within.
-- Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson
~~~
Sunday, July 03, 2011
The benefits of TRUE leisure time
This is from Simplify Your Life: A Little Treasury by Elaine St. James:
I was recently in a meeting with a dozen high-powered professional people. We started talking about our goals for our leisure time, and how seldom we allow ourselves to truly enjoy our own quiet moments. We each decided to make a list of the things we really liked to do.The lists included things like watching a sunset. Taking a walk. Chatting with a friend. Browsing in a bookstore. Reading a good book. Puttering in the garden. Taking a nap. Spending quiet time with our spouse. Spending quiet time with our kids. Listening to a favorite piece of music. Watching a favorite movie. Sitting quietly in a comfy chair and doing nothing.
I recommend making your own list. I have one!
~~~
Friday, July 01, 2011
A little relaxation help
I've blogged this one before, actually, but it's been quite a long time.
Enjoy. Very soothing:
Enjoy. Very soothing:
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Our responsibility
One of my private clients told me not long ago that during Oprah Winfrey's long run of her television program, she had the following sign on her dressing table where she could see it before going on the air:
~~~
You are responsible for the energy you bring to those around you.I really like that. Notice what it does not say. It does not say that we are responsible for how other people feel. We can't take that on, really, (although others may try to manipulate us into believing we can or should). We do, however, have some real choice about what we contribute to the atmosphere around us.
~~~
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
True freedom
I find myself surprised by how many people think that meditative practice is either a waste of time or a form of escapism or both. Here's the real deal:
“Mindfulness is not an evasion or an escape. It means being here, present, and totally alive. It is true freedom—and without this freedom, there is no happiness.”
Monday, June 27, 2011
Meditation and special challenges
This is a hopeful and inspiring article, I think:
Special-needs students use meditation to control behavior
Here's how it gets started:
Brandon Heinz, an eighth grader in the Bristol Township School District, told occupational therapist Charles E. Gallagher that he had been asked to sit still "millions of times."The problem is that it's not always easy.
For Brandon, 14, and his classmates - students with autism, attention-deficit disorders, or other special needs - controlling signs of anxiety is often a struggle.
So Gallagher made a suggestion: Breathe.
"In through your nose, and out through your mouth," he instructed. Then, he said, let out a big sigh.
Gallagher went on to teach the students meditation techniques to help them cope when frustration threatens to overwhelm.
Do click on through to read the rest. It's a short piece.
And you know something? We don't have to be diagnosed with "special needs" to benefit from these principles and techniques!
~~~
Sunday, June 26, 2011
The heart of effective living
All the great teachers from all the wisdom traditions teach this, really:
~~~
No, this doesn't mean not to plan. We need to live in the moment - not necessarily for the moment. (There's a difference.) We can, however, be thoroughly in the moment while we're making sensible plans for the future - letting the planning be an act of responsibility and not an obsession.Present-moment living, getting in touch with your now, is at the heart of effective living. When you think about it, there really is no other moment you can live. Now is all there is, and the future is just another present moment to live when it arrives.
-- Wayne Dyer
~~~
Friday, June 24, 2011
Inner peace
Well, this is certainly succinct:
~~~
You know, I come across people who actually seem to boast of impatience or, at the very least, vigorously justify it. Now that I think about it, they weren't very peaceful sorts at all....Inner peace is letting go of impatience.
~~~
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Recongizing beauty
Here's something a Center participant sent to me. Very true, I would say:
There's so much beauty around you--and not just where one conventionally would look for beauty. In a flower, of course it's there supremely, but even in places you would not be looking for it.
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Real equanimity, real peace
It's amazing, really, how ferociously people will often defend the "right" to have enemies, to believe that is is somehow right to see others as enemies. Here's another way:
If there is love, there is hope to have real families, real brotherhood, real equanimity, real peace. If the love within your mind is lost, if you continue to see other beings as enemies, then no matter how much knowledge or education you have, no matter how much material progress is made, only suffering and confusion will ensue.
Monday, June 20, 2011
Sad and often true
This:
People have a hard time letting go of their suffering. Out of a fear of the unknown, they prefer suffering that is familiar.
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Valuing the darkness
Oh, I really, really like this:
Well, I've found it now and it will continue, I'm sure, to be a powerful springboard for reflection.
~~~
Odd that I had not come across it before but I haven't. It's so wonderful that I would have thought it would be picked up more often in a variety of books and websites on the spiritual life.“Enlightenment is not imagining figures of light but making the darkness conscious.”
Well, I've found it now and it will continue, I'm sure, to be a powerful springboard for reflection.
~~~
Saturday, June 18, 2011
Acceptance
This beautifully expresses timeless meditative principles:
When we see ourselves in a situation which must be endured and gone through, it is best to meet it with firmness, and accommodate everything to it in the best way practicable. This lessens the evil, while fretting and fuming only increase your own torments.
-- Thomas Jefferson
Friday, June 17, 2011
A willingness to be still
I would say that there is a difference between a receptive sort of stillness and the "couch potato" kind:
Wisdom comes with the ability to be still. Just look and just listen. No more is needed. Being still, looking, and listening activates the non-conceptual intelligence within you. Let stillness direct your words and actions.
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Over-concern with "getting it right"
The following is from an article about meditation entitled "Meditation Is Not What You Think" by Ed and Deb Shapiro.
~~~
Meditation invites us to stop, just stop, breathe and be. Just as with a musician playing or an artist painting, when we stop trying to make it happen something occurs, like the radiant sun that suddenly emerges in a cloudy sky. But because we try so hard, we identify more with the technique instead of allowing the meditation to reveal itself.Many people get frustrated with meditation because they're striving for some sort of idealized technique that will produce a certain feeling. I like the encourage simply to stop, to breathe and to be.
~~~
Monday, June 13, 2011
Steps
Truly, I tell you, this is the only way to begin and then to maintain a meditative practice:
By the way, if you've never read The Little Prince, I highly recommend it. Even though it looks like a book for children, it really is for grown-ups.
~~~
What saves a person is to take a step. Then another step.
By the way, if you've never read The Little Prince, I highly recommend it. Even though it looks like a book for children, it really is for grown-ups.
~~~
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Something about perception
Good old Heisenberg:
~~~
Yup. As I often find myself saying in the Foundations class, "Notice the non-objectivity of perception."What we observe is not nature itself, but nature exposed to our method of questioning.
~~~
Saturday, June 11, 2011
The effect we have on others
Quite some time ago, someone I respect very much mentioned how important it is that people take at least some responsibility for how they come across. I've never forgotten it. Below is a passage from the Daily Om website that talks about just that:
~~~
Most people rarely give thought to the effect they have had or will have on others. When we take a few moments to contemplate how our individual modes of being affect the people we spend time with each day, we come one step closer to seeing ourselves through the eyes of others. By asking ourselves whether those we encounter walk away feeling appreciated, respected, and liked, we can heighten our awareness of the effect we ultimately have. Something as simple as a smile given freely can temporarily brighten a person’s entire world... And small gestures of kindness can even prove to those embittered by the world that goodness still exists.The complete article is right here.
~~~
Friday, June 10, 2011
Authentic silence
Here is one of the sayings of the Desert Fathers and Mothers from early Christian monasticism. What I really like about this one is that it reveals the futility of trying to make interior progress by slavishly following rules or by interpreting instructions too literally. The intention of the heart matters much more than overt ways of evaluating how we are advancing:
A person may seem to be silent, but if his heart is condemning others, he is babbling ceaselessly. But there may be another who talks from morning till night and yet he is truly silent, that is, he says nothing that is not profitable.
-- Abba Pimen
Wednesday, June 08, 2011
The truly valuable gift
This story has been around for a while in various versions. Stories on this overall theme go all the way back to the Desert Fathers and Mothers of early Christian monasticism and no doubt exist in other wisdom traditions as well.
Here's the version I found today and it really spoke to me:
Here's the version I found today and it really spoke to me:
A wise woman who was traveling in the mountains found a precious stone in a stream. The next day she met another traveler who was hungry, and the wise woman opened her bag to share her food. The hungry traveler saw the precious stone and asked the woman to give it to him. She did so without hesitation. The traveler left, rejoicing in his good fortune. He knew the stone was worth enough to give him security for a lifetime. But a few days later he came back to return the stone to the wise woman."I've been thinking," he said, "I know how valuable the stone is, but I give it back in the hope that you can give me something even more precious. Give me what you have within you that enabled you to give me the stone.
-- Author Unknown
Tuesday, June 07, 2011
Urgent and vital
Well! I certainly agree with this:
~~~
Meditation, of course, is the most effective way of resting the mind. My own teacher used to say that frequently: "Rest the mind; rest the mind." If we are straining in any way when we meditated, we truly aren't doing it correctly.Sometimes the most urgent and vital thing you can possibly do is take a complete rest.
~~~
Monday, June 06, 2011
Saturday, June 04, 2011
More about the "now"
This is well spoken:
~~~
Schweitzer has long been one of my personal heroes. If you don't know much about him, I really recommend that you read up on this life and work.Truth has no special time of its own. Its hour is now - always.
~~~
Friday, June 03, 2011
Wednesday, June 01, 2011
Blogging interruption
I'll be back soon, folks. I just have a lot going on right now and am a bit tired out. I'll be back Friday at the latest.
Blessings to all!
~~~
Wednesday life form blogging
Gorgeous chameleon
I'm sorry to say that I lost track of where I found this photo.
~~~
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Cultivating gratitude
I've just found a website entitled Thx Thx Thx. It's a blog by someone who posts hand written thank you notes - not necessarily to people but also to things and concepts.
And here's another one:
Here's a sample:
And here's another one:
There are wonderful mindfulness exercises when you think about it.
~~~
Monday, May 30, 2011
Memorial Day, 2011
Henri Chapelle American Cemetery and Memorial
"We must be prepared to make heroic sacrifices for the cause of peace that we make ungrudgingly for the cause of war. There is no task that is more important or closer to my heart."
-- Albert Einstein
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Friday, May 27, 2011
Wisdom and awareness
There's a lot here, people:
Let is make a pledge to ourselves that we will do what is necessary to help ourselves be teachable.
~~~
I especially like this part: "Everything teaches. Not everyone learns."Life offers its wisdom generously. Everything teaches. Not everyone learns. Life asks of us the same thing we have been asked in every class: "Stay awake." "Pay attention." But paying attention is no simple matter. It requires us not to be distracted by expectations, past experiences, labels, and masks. It asks that we not jump to early conclusions and that we remain open to surprise.
Let is make a pledge to ourselves that we will do what is necessary to help ourselves be teachable.
~~~
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
A wonderful way to help
I've been asked to call your attention to a program known as The Fresh Air Fund. Here's something about it:
And click here to donate:
THE FRESH AIR FUND, an independent, not-for-profit agency, has provided free summer vacations to more than 1.7 million New York City children from low-income communities since 1877. Nearly 10,000 New York City children enjoy free Fresh Air Fund programs annually. In 2010, close to 5,000 children visited volunteer host families in suburbs and small town communities across 13 states from Virginia to Maine and Canada. 3,000 children also attended five Fresh Air camps on a 2,300-acre site in Fishkill, New York. The Fund’s year-round camping program serves an additional 2,000 young people each year.
And here's a video that will tell you more:
And click here to donate:
~~~
Scent as a meditative support
A friend of mine, Vivienne, has published a very interesting interactive book called Meditating with Aromatics.
Here's part of what she says about it on her blog:
Over the last year I have published a number of meditations that use fragrance as a starting point and the intention has been to write an entire book of them. After much thought I decided that I would start by making the meditations available during the process of writing the book and publishing it in stages.
There’s a few good reasons for this. The first is that it gives me a greater incentive to write them. The second is subtler. Making a book available during its creation rather than when it is a finished product would normally be the very last thing I’d ever do but this is different.
It’s different because I want the readers to be involved in the creation. How often have you read a book and wished to ask the writer to do something different? Ask for instructions to be clearer or more detailed? Or make a personal request? This time you can.
Meditating with Aromatics is a work in progress that you can help shape as it is written. You can request that I write a meditation for a fragrant substance that has special power for you. You can suggest scents I may not have considered. You can try them out and let me know what would work better for you.
Isn't that really interesting? I have ordered a paper copy (very low cost) but she's made it available for a free download as well. Do click through and check it out.
~~~
Monday, May 23, 2011
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Something about love
I do mean the real thing, of course. Real love - not play love:
The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves, and not to twist them to fit our own image. Otherwise we love only the reflection of ourselves we find in them.
-- Thomas Merton
Friday, May 20, 2011
What is spirituality, anyway?
This is something to ponder:
Spirituality exists wherever we struggle with the issue of how our lives fit into the greater cosmic scheme of things. This is true even when our questions never give way to specific answers or give rise to specific practices such as prayer or meditation. We encounter spiritual issues every time we wonder where the universe comes from, why we are here, or what happens when we die. We also become spiritual when we become moved by values such as beauty, love, or creativity that seem to reveal a meaning or power beyond our visible world. An idea or practice is "spiritual" when it reveals our personal desire to establish a felt-relationship with the deepest meanings or powers governing life.
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Benefits of being wrong
It's a catchy title:
Why being wrong is good for you
And it won't take you long to read it.
Here's a little excerpt:
~~~
Why being wrong is good for you
And it won't take you long to read it.
Here's a little excerpt:
We are wrong about what it means to be wrong. Far from being a sign of intellectual inferiority, the capacity to err is crucial to human cognition. Far from being a moral flaw, it is inextricable from some of our most humane and honorable qualities: empathy, optimism, imagination, conviction and courage. And far from being a mark of indifference or intolerance, wrongness is a vital part of how we learn and change. Thanks to error, we can revise our understanding of ourselves and amend our ideas about the world.There's also a video of the author, Kathryn Schulz, giving a TED talk about this.
~~~
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
The art of acceptance
It is very important to remember that acceptance does not necessarily mean approval. I think that confusion often is what trips people up when they're trying to learn how to accept what is. We can also still work to change something. It just that right this very second, we need to be able to accept what actually is the case in order to free up our energy to make wise choices about the matter.
I started to discover the meaning of happiness when I started to discover--and practice--the art of acceptance. When I started to accept life for what it was and I started to accept whatever situation I was in as the way things were, I started to see that my happiness depended on my own attitude. When I started focusing on getting the most out of my life the way it was rather than trying to turn it into what I thought it should be, I started to realize that I was, indeed, becoming a much happier person.
-- Tom Walsh
Monday, May 16, 2011
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Friday, May 13, 2011
Recent posting difficulties
Dear friends,
The Blogger program has been down the past couple of days and I have been unable to put up any new posts. It's now functioning again but, at the moment, I'm hard at work on organizing the Center's garage sale items. The garage sale is scheduled for tomorrow (Saturday) and so that will require all my attention as well.
I'll probably be back to posting on Sunday.
Sincere apologies for any mindfulness inconvenience!
Blessings to all,
Ellie
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
The practicalities of meditation
Such a sensible way of looking at things, don't you think?Some people think that meditation takes time away from physical accomplishment. Taken to extremes, of course, that's true. Most people, however, find that meditation creates more time than it takes.
~~~
Sunday, May 08, 2011
In honor of Mother's Day
I would assert that we can all - man and woman alike - become this mother:
Let us ponder these things today.
~~~
Remember that in the meditative tradition, we are taught to have the kind of compassion for all beings that a mother has for her only child. We are also taught to regard all beings as mother.Becoming a mother makes you the mother of all children. From now on each wounded, abandoned, frightened child is yours. You live in the suffering mothers of every race and creed and weep with them. You long to comfort all who are desolate.
Let us ponder these things today.
~~~
Friday, May 06, 2011
Learning to "sit down quietly"
Here's part of why meditation contributes to well being. Most of us don't really know how to "sit down quietly" for very long, at least, and meditation teaches us just that:
Happiness is a butterfly which, when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.
- Nathaniel Hawthorne
Thursday, May 05, 2011
More on silence
Well, this is very ancient, isn't it? Who knows? Perhaps it was out of the depths of silence that he came up with his famous theorem:
Learn silence. With the quiet serenity of a meditative mind, listen, absorb, transcribe, and transform.
-- Pythagoras
Wednesday, May 04, 2011
Distinctions
Imagine how different the world might well be if we all took this one to heart:
In the sky, there is no distinction of east and west; people create distinctions out of their own minds and then believe them to be true.
-- The historic Buddha
Monday, May 02, 2011
Walking meditation
The best description yet:
"Walk as if you are kissing the Earth with your feet."
-- Thich Nhat Hanh
Sunday, May 01, 2011
Care provider support and mindfulness
I just found a pdf file of a paper written by two army officers about meditation and relilence. There's a lot of good stuff there. For now, let me offer these snippets:
~~~
Mindfulness is a way of being, a way of seeing, a way of knowing. One definition describes mindfulness as a way of being in which one is highly aware and focused on the reality of the present moment, accepting and acknowledging it, without getting caught up in the thoughts that are about the situation or emotional reactions to the situation.The full title of the paper is "The Use of Meditation and Mindfulness Practices to Support Military Care Providers: A Prospectus". You might like to go over and take a look.
...
The primary purpose of meditation is to cultivate a non-judgmental awareness of body and mind, and secondarily to learn how to witness events and experiences on a moment-to-moment basis. Meditation practices can also help to foster insights into one’s habitual and reactive patterns of perceiving and behaving, thus facilitating change of these patterns.
~~~
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