Author: Karl Duffy

This is a Mindfulness Practice Blog written in Laois, Ireland, containing reflections on meditation practice, psychological growth, spirituality and wellness which hopefully may encourage and benefit others as they reflect on their lives and seek to develop a more balanced, mindful and conscious approach to it.

The wind blows through

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Maybe it is because it is windy here in Ireland, that I  post  a reflection on the wind to help us deal with moments we are afraid,  feeling deficient, or burdened with the need to “become”, to be better, as Sharon Salzberg described this morning :

It is essential to understand that an emotion is merely something that arises, remains and then goes away. A storm comes, it stays a while, and then it moves away. At the critical moment remember you are much more than your emotions. This is a simple thing that everyone knows, but you may need to be reminded of it: you are more than your emotions.

Thich Nhat Hahn, Healing Pain and Dressing Wounds

Not leaning

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In our usual mind state, we are continually activating the process that in Buddhist terminology is known as “bhava,” which literally means “becoming.” In this space of becoming, we are subtly leaning forward into the future, trying to have security based on feeling that we can hold on, we can try to keep things from changing. We are continually out of balance in this state – in meditation we might notice that we even try to feel the next breath while the present one is still happening. When we speak about letting go, or unplugging, or renouncing, we are talking about dropping the burden of becoming and just returning our awareness to the natural center of our being, returning to a state of natural peace.

Sharon Salzberg, How Doing Nothing Can Help You Truly Live, Huffington Post

photo arcalino

Changing and unchanging

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In the MBSR group last night in Moone we were talking about how each day we are confronted with new experiences and challenges – unexpected deadlines, getting a parking ticket, the wind bringing down trees. We can be faced with changing feelings and attitudes, moods and emotions. However, as we said,  it is not so much the experiences in our life that are crucial but how we relate to our experiences. Through sitting we are nourishing something that does not change – our awareness – which allows us say, as Tara Brach suggested yesterday,  “This too”:

The water in the stream may have changed many times,

but the reflection of the moon and the stars remains the same.

Rumi

Developing inner resources

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stepping-stones

A full life is not made up of an uninterrupted succession of pleasant  sensations, but really comes from transforming the way we understand and work through the challenges of our existence. Training our mind makes it not only possible to cope with mental toxins like hatred, obsession and fear that poison our existence…..but also gives us the inner resources to successfully face the highs and lows of life, without being distracted or broken by them, and allows us draw deep lessons from them.

Matthieu Ricard, The Art of Meditation

Support

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Holding Hands with Elderly Patient

We are all substantially flawed, wounded, angry, hurt, here on Earth. But this human condition, so painful to us, and in some ways shameful – because we feel we are weak when the reality of ourselves is exposed – is made much more bearable when it is shared, face to face, in words that have expressive human eyes behind them.

Alice Walker, Letter to President Clinton

Being kind to yourself today

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Change
 
Typically you will find that when you’re anxious, lonely, or depressed, you’re also down on yourself in some way, and that undercurrent of feeling deficient or unworthy is what’s keeping you cut off from your own aliveness, as well as your feeling of connection with others. The way of healing and homecoming begins with what I call “a gesture of kindness.” You might for instance put your hand on your heart—letting the touch be tender—and send a message inwardly. It might be “It’s okay, ….. Often, it’s simply,  “This, too.” Sometimes, this gesture of kindness includes saying “yes” to whatever is going on — the yes meaning, “This is what’s happening, it’s how life is right now … it’s okay.”
 
Tara Brach