Displacing Rather Than Suppressing

     It's very easy to be less than skillful, even for long-time meditation practitioners. Instead of observing with curiosity whatever arises, it's very easy to automatically judge & banish whatever we don't like, compulsively grab whatever we want, and thus miss much of the rest of life. 
     The "hardware" for this approach-avoidance dichotomy resides in every human brainstem. A lifetime of continuous mindfulness training allows us to override autopilot, and thus live increasingly more wisely.

      “When I find myself full of fear or desire, I remember that I am dealing with a brain and nervous system that has been hard-wired for millions of years for these emotions. Then I apply one of my favorite mantras, ‘I’m perfectly human.’ When I sit in meditation as a human being rather than as an individual, I feel I am part of a collective effort on the part of our species to right itself, to find a new sanity. As Robert Thurman says of meditation, ‘It’s evolutionary sport.’ In the light of that big perspective, I thank you for being on my team.”      Wes Nisker

 

Pippo of Villa Zuccari, Umbria, Italy

A Meaningful Life

"I shall see to it, if I can,
that my death makes no statement
that my life has not made already."                           Montaigne, Essays

See: http://www.johnlovas.com/2012/04/perception-and-gaining-mind.html
and: http://www.johnlovas.com/2012/01/why-be-mindful.html
 

BOTH - Hurt Child & Wise Grandparent - At The SAME TIME

     Open-hearted, alert, hypo-egoic engagement with "things as they is", no matter how they is, is doable, though of course it's a work-in-progress. A part of us can rest ("grounded"?) in this timeless, still, loving energy, with increasing stability, even while another part of us is rattled, in pain, etc.

     See: http://mindfulnessforeveryone.blogspot.ca/2014/04/526-monitoring-my-state-of-being-moment.html

Julie Fletcher, National Geographic   http://photography.nationalgeographic.com

Kindness - Heart-Mindfulness - Nurturing

     "Mindfulness is being in wise relationship with everything."

     "What are we doing with the gardens entrusted to us?"           Jon Kabat-Zinn
 

Kindness

Before you know what kindness really is
you must lose things, feel the future dissolve in a moment
like salt in a weakened broth.
What you held in your hand,
what you counted and carefully saved,
all this must go so you know
how desolate the landscape can be
between the regions of kindness.
How you ride and ride
thinking the bus will never stop,
the passengers eating maize and chicken
will stare out the window forever.

Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness,
you must travel where the
Indian in a white poncho lies dead
by the side of the road.
You must see how this could be you, how he too was someone who journeyed through the night
with plans and the simple breath
that kept him alive.

Before you know kindness
as the deepest thing inside,
you must know sorrow
as the other deepest thing.
You must wake up with sorrow.
You must speak to it till your voice
catches the thread of all sorrows
and you see the size of the cloth.
Then it is only kindness
that makes sense anymore,
only kindness that ties your shoes
and sends you out into the day
to mail letters and purchase bread,
only kindness that raises its head
from the crowd of the world to say
it is I you have been looking for,
and then goes with you every where
like a shadow or a friend.                 Naomi Shihab Nye (1953-) 

For Those Who Nourish Love

Mists of my childhood
When spirits glided
Wise & sour-hearted
Spoke straight to my heart

Sorrowed the sour &
Searched all my life
For the wise

Blessings & thanks
To the wise

TakeIT   www.dpreview.com

Head & Heart can be Miles Apart

     It's amazing how much one can read & know (facts) about a religion / philosophy of life, without this knowledge having any appreciable affect on one's way of living, and thus, quality of life. People can be very smart, and at the same time, be far from living wisely. For transformational learning to take place, learning has to be welcomed in & embraced by mind, heart, emotions, body - all that we are.
     But, for many of us, (with apologies to Vegas) 'What happens in the head, stays in the head'. Many of us remain "scientific materialists" at heart. We may accept the Buddhist ideas we read and hear about, but don't actually believe in them. "Instead, we live as if the world were dead and this (material) reality the only one that exists."

       Ray RA. Indestructible Truth. The Living Spirituality of Tibetan Buddhism. Shambhala, Boston, 2000.

Martin Kristiansen   www.dpreview.com