With our cell phones and PDA’s we are now able to be in touch with anyone and everyone at any time.
In the process, we run the risk of never being in touch with ourselves.
Jon Kabat Zinn
Photo theeerin
Category: Be fully present
Simplifying our activities
Mindfulness meditation helps us work against the fragmentation which is a by-product of the modern world, with its speed, constant demands, and abundance of stimuli. We practice in slowing down and simplifying life in order to be able to savour it more deeply. We drop into a natural goodness by letting go of the chatter of the mind and judgmental thoughts.
Sitting [in meditation] is essentially simplifying space. Our daily lives are in constant movement: lots of things going on, lots of people talking, lots of events taking place. In the middle of that, it’s very difficult to sense what we are in our life. When we simplify the situation, when we take away the externals and remove ourselves from the ringing phone, the television, the people who visit us, the dog who needs a walk, we get a chance to face ourselves.
Charlotte Joko Beck
photo Doolin, Co Clare, Nicola Mondinelli
Be fully there for your life today
Mindfulness is the quality and power of mind that is deeply aware of what’s happening — without commentary and without interference. It is like a mirror that simply reflects whatever comes before it.
It serves us in the humblest ways, keeping us connected to brushing our teeth or having a cup of tea.
Joseph Goldstein, Here, Now, Aware: The Power of Mindfulness
The ‘knowing’ mind.
In our practice we develop that quality of mind which knows – the ‘knowing’ mind. Not ‘reacting’ mind, but ‘knowing ‘ mind. It’s very different. Within the quality of knowing you can see everything. You can see the reactions. You can see the pain. You can see the joy. You can see the peace. You witness everything.
Ajahn Sundara
Accepting and rejecting
We have a deep tendency to label our experiences, to decide quickly which are good or bad, which we like or do not like, sometimes before they even happen. This closes us down to the potential within them, to possibilities which could turn out differently than our thinking mind suggests. It stops us sticking close to what is, and focuses us on not what we think it might or should be
By our accepting and rejecting,
we lose sight of the true nature of things.
Seng-T’san, Third Chinese Chan (Zen) Patriarch, died 606.
Letting the mind settle
Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone
Alan Watts
