Meditation Matters - St. John's Center

2009-11-26T11:51:00.000-06:00

Somehing about gratitude in honor of the day

2009-11-26T11:43:00.003-06:00

I really thing this is the most important aspect of gratitude we can ever cultivate:

The key to success is learning to just observe whatever comes up during meditation. Be grateful for seeing the truth, even if it is unpleasant. You do not have to react in any way. Definitely do not judge yourself or others. If you wallow in your thoughts or insights, it will keep them around. It is best to view all thoughts, emotions and insights as you would view clouds in the sky. Let them come and let them go.

"Be grateful for seeing the truth, even it it is unpleasant." Yes, that's it. It's hard, I know. Nevertheless, this particular form of gratitude will revolutionize our lives.

I found the above quotation right here.

Wednesday life form blogging

2009-11-25T22:33:00.002-06:00

Photo from Wikimedia Commons

One minute out of the hour

2009-11-25T21:27:00.004-06:00

~~~
Here's something that the Theravadan teacher Bhante Guneratana recommends:

When you’re at work or when you are unable to sit for a longer period in a quiet place, you can also enjoy a few moments of mindfulness. I recommend that everyone take one minute every hour during the day to do this. Work hard for 59 minutes, then take a one-minute break, and totally focus your mind on your breathing. Close your eyes, if you can. Or if you’re at your desk in a busy office, keep your eyes open at a point in front of you. Quietly, peacefully, count out 15 breaths—that’s about a minute. Don’t think about the future, don’t think about anything during that one minute. Just keep your mind totally free from all those things. When that minute is over, you have added some clarity to your mind. You have added some strength to continue on for the other 59 minutes in the hour. Then, vow to yourself that when another hour has passed you’ll give yourself another one-minute mindfulness break.

You can do this at your kitchen table or office desk. You can do this after you’ve parked your car and turned off the engine. You can do this during a restroom break. If you do this kind of one-minute meditation the whole day, at the end of an eight-hour work period you’ll have spent eight minutes in meditation. You’ll be less nervous, less tense and less exhausted at the end of the day. Plus, you’ll have a more productive and healthier day, both psychologically and physically.

I think it's a wonderful plan and I recommend it to everyone!

Something for us all to try

2009-11-24T16:45:00.003-06:00

~~~
Let's think about this one:

No one is useless in this world who lightens the burden of another.
- Charles Dickens

I really don't know anyone who can't do this.
~~~

Monday meditative picture blogging

2009-11-23T20:09:00.001-06:00

~~~

Photo by Cynthia Burgess

It's all material - really

2009-11-23T07:58:00.003-06:00

Rob Nairn, my major meditation teacher, used to say quite regularly, "It's all material; we can work with it." Over the years I have discovered that to be so, so true.

Today I found something by the wonderful teacher, Pema Chödrön, on that very subject - particularly as it relates to the truly unattractive mind state of self-pity. Here she is commenting on the slogan, "Don't wallow in self-pity", found in the traditional Seven Points of Mind Training text:

[S]elf-pity takes a lot of maintenance. You have to talk to yourself quite a bit to keep it up. the slogan is saying to get to know what self-pity feels like underneath the story line. That's how the training develops a genuine, openhearted, intelligent relationship with the whole variety of human experience.
...
It's all raw material for waking up. you can use numbness, mushiness, and self-pity even - it doesn't matter what it is - as long as you can go deeper, underneath the story line. That's where you connect with what it is to be human, and that's where the joy and the well-being come from - from the sense of being real and seeing realness in others.

Here's where I want to say don't judge your feelings but don't justify them either. Use them for greater awareness.

Sunday art blogging

2009-11-22T15:04:00.003-06:00

Artist: Eduard Tomek
Image from Wikimedia Commons

Our addiction to feeling good

2009-11-22T10:43:00.003-06:00

Listen, I like to feel good as much as the next person. But feeling good is not what meditation is all about. And if we don't feel good (for whatever reason) that doesn't mean our meditation is "not working".

Here's something about mindfulness I found that speaks to this:

Mindfulness is an impartial watchfulness. It does not take sides. It does not get hung up in what is perceived. It just perceives. Mindfulness does not get infatuated with the good mental states. It does not try to sidestep the bad mental states. There is no clinging to the pleasant, no fleeing from the unpleasant. Mindfulness treats all experiences equally, all thoughts equally, all feelings equally. Nothing is suppressed. Nothing is repressed. Mindfulness does not play favorites.

I would say, then, that a fundamental aspect of mindfulness has to do with the cultivation of distress tolerance. That's very different from the attachment to making distress go away.

The above paragraph is quoted from an article called "Mindfulness" by Bhante Gunaratana.

2009-11-21T18:00:00.000-06:00

Friday cat blogging!

2009-11-20T19:37:00.003-06:00

Photo from Wikimedia Commons

The importance of staying in the "now"

2009-11-20T14:02:00.002-06:00

Cynthia (the Center's administrative assistance and my good friend) sent me the following this morning:

The shift in consciousness happens the moment you say 'yes' to what is, because the entire structure of the egoic mind-made self lives on resistance and opposition and on making the now into an enemy. The beautiful thing is that we can step out of thousands of years of collective conditioning, without needing more time to step out of it.
-- Eckhart Tolle

How very true. So many times (when we lose mindfulness, that is) we just want the present moment to be over or we want to escape from it. Let's all work on learning to be utterly present to what simply is - right in this present moment.

Tolerance and mutual understanding

2009-11-19T07:17:00.002-06:00

St. John's Center is self-consciously interfaith. We come together (regardless of our faith tradition - or none) to meditate, to learn to keep silence, because the teachings that help us do this are, in fact, universal. I've long believed that learning tolerance and appreciation for those of other faith traditions is the great task of our times. Here's something about that:

In every great faith and tradition one can find the values of tolerance and mutual understanding. The Qur’an, for example, tells us that "We created you from a single pair of male and female and made you into nations and tribes, that you may know each other." Confucius urged his followers: "when the good way prevails in the state, speak boldly and act boldly. When the state has lost the way, act boldly and speak softly." In the Jewish tradition, the injunction to "love thy neighbour as thyself," is considered to be the very essence of the Torah.

This thought is reflected in the Christian Gospel, which also teaches us to love our enemies and pray for those who wish to persecute us. Hindus are taught that "truth is one, the sages give it various names." And in the Buddhist tradition, individuals are urged to act with compassion in every facet of life.

Each of us has the right to take pride in our particular faith or heritage. But the notion that what is ours is necessarily in conflict with what is theirs is both false and dangerous. It has resulted in endless enmity and conflict, leading men to commit the greatest of crimes in the name of a higher power.

It need not be so. People of different religions and cultures live side by side in almost every part of the world, and most of us have overlapping identities which unite us with very different groups. We can love what we are, without hating what — and who — we are not. We can thrive in our own tradition, even as we learn from others, and come to respect their teachings.
-- Kofi Annan

Wednesday life form blogging

2009-11-18T21:18:00.003-06:00

Photo from Wikimedia Commons

Powerfully expressed

2009-11-18T09:50:00.001-06:00

Oh, my. Look at this:

Without mindfulness there is no meditation practice. With mindfulness whatever we do is meditation.

I found these two sentences in the middle of a talk by the same lama I quoted yesterday, Lama Gursam Rinpoche. They are so powerful I wanted them to stand alone. But you can read the rest of his talk right here. It is entitled "Loving Oneself and Others".

Calm abiding

2009-11-17T08:06:00.003-06:00

I have always loved the two words "calm abiding" put together as they are used with regard to meditation. Here's a little bit about what that expression is meant to convey:

Calm abiding meditation has different levels and techniques. It is important to sit comfortably and in silence. Try to be calm in body, speech, and mind. Calmness of the body means that everything the body wants is given up for a time. So you need to be patient with that.
...
Calming the speech means not speaking. Calmness of the mind means relaxing. The mind will not remain calm, so it requires some technique, such as watching the breath go in and out. Our inner energy has a strong connection with the breath. So how do we know if the mind is calm? During our meditation, suddenly thoughts will arise. When you truly recognize this happening, that is a beginning of calm abiding. When they go unrecognized, that is not calm abiding. But still thoughts will arise again and again. We chase after all the thoughts that arise. So that happens when we start calm abiding, but that is not a problem. Just keep at it and do not chase after or judge the thoughts. Just be aware and bring the focus back to your natural breathing. That will bring back your natural calm.

This is by Lama Gursam Rinpoche and you can find his website right here.

Monday meditative picture blogging

2009-11-16T19:07:00.002-06:00

Photo from Wikimedia Commons

Sunday art blogging

2009-11-15T15:20:00.003-06:00

Artist: August Macke

Image from Wikimedia Commons

Intentionally paying attention

2009-11-15T13:27:00.003-06:00

I love finding new definitions or descriptions of meditative practice that really seem to convey what it's all about. Here's one I just found today:

Meditation refers to the activity of intentionally paying attention, to a particular object for a particular purpose. Spiritual practitioners and members of many faith traditions have developed meditation practices over countless years of human experience. There are literally thousands of ways to practice meditation. As it has been developed in diverse faith traditions, the purpose of all meditation practice is to awaken us. Meditation is intended to bring about transformation and change, through understanding, compassion, and clarity of seeing.

It's from the UCSD Center for Mindfulness website.

The problem with attachment to plans

2009-11-14T07:02:00.003-06:00

Letting go of attachment to outcome is undoubtedly THE major enterprise of a life dedicated to meditative principles:

We must be willing to get rid of the life we've planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.
-- Joseph Campbell

I discoverd Joseph Campbell when I was quite young, maybe even an undergraduate, when I read his wonderful book, Myths to Live By. Highly recommended.

The finest gift

2009-11-12T20:51:00.002-06:00

Compassion and loving-kindness are fundamental principles of applying meditative practice to our lives. But they can also seem a bit abstract sometimes. It helps to have some specific suggestions. Here you go:

The finest gift you can give anyone is encouragement. Yet, almost no one gets the encouragement they need to grow to their full potential. If everyone received the encouragement they need to grow, the genius in most everyone would blossom and the world would produce abundance beyond our wildest dreams.
-- Sidney Madwed

Veteran's Day, 2009

2009-11-11T12:12:00.002-06:00

~~~

Ha!

2009-11-11T07:48:00.005-06:00

~~~

Our dear friend-of-the-Center, Paul Rogers, sent me this!

(Click photo to enlarge.)

2009-11-10T13:33:00.000-06:00

A profound little couplet

2009-11-10T07:21:00.003-06:00

Just for the heck of it this morning, I did a GoodSearch on "happiness" and then clicked on the Wikiquote link that was listed. Here's something I found:

Happiness depends, as Nature shows,
Less on exterior things than most suppose.
-- William Cowper

Very true. Oh, so true.
~~~
By the way, folks, please use GoodSearch as your search engine at least part of the time. You will help the Center thereby. Be sure to put our full name (St. John's Center for Spiritual Formation) down as your charity. Also, if you download their toolbar, using GoodSearch becomes incredibly easy. Also, if you like to order things online, do use GoodShop to access those sites. The Center gets a percentage of the sale that way. Thanks so much!!!