Tag: Awareness

Everything changes

Karl Duffy3 Comments

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A quote from the new book by Joseph Goldstein, Mindfulness: A Practical Guide to Awakening, which is  a profound reflection on the Satipatthana Sutta, one of the foundational texts in mindfulness meditation. Here he suggests a practice to help us get a real understanding of impermanence, to see directly the truth of change and in that way gain a helpful perspective on how to deal with the ups and downs of a day:

When we pay attention, we see that everything is disappearing and new things are arising, not only every day or hour but in every moment. When we leave our house, or simply walk from one room to another, can we notice this flow of changing experience – the flow of visual forms as we move, different sounds, changing sensations in the body, fleeting thoughts or images? What happens to each of these experiences? Do they last? The truth of their changing nature is so ordinary that we have mostly stopped noticing it at all.

photo mx

Turning up

Karl Duffy2 Comments

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Our appointment with life is in the present moment.

The place of our appointment is right here, in this very place.

Thich Nhat Hanh

The basic Instruction

Karl Duffy1 Comment

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Do not pursue the past.

Do not usher in the future.

Rest calmly within present awareness,

clear and non-conceptual

Basic meditation guidance  in

The Ocean of Definitive Meaning by Karma Wangchûg Dorjé (1556 – 1603)

Letting go of perfection today

Karl Duffy2 Comments

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It is interesting being back in Ireland this December and seeing how Christmas is portrayed in advertisements. In today’s world there is a constant push toward self-improvement, towards presenting oneself  perfectly and being seen in control of events. So we are encouraged to have the “perfect Christmas” by shopping in this store or by getting this product. This type of mentality gets us into a state of anticipation, of waiting, of thinking that things are transformed by getting this or changing that. We look forward to a special day or to the holidays, believing that it will somehow fix whatever out of balance in our lives. This drive can be almost overwhelming. However, there is never any such thing as a “perfect” Christmas, or a perfect holiday. It is better to recognize that lives and days are inevitably messy, a mix of good and bad, and to find our balance in that.

A lot of disappointed people have been left

standing on the street corner

waiting for the bus marked Perfection

Donald Kennedy

photo tinou bau

Connecting

Karl Duffy1 Comment

still5

If you are connected to the body you are in the present moment. Now, any time we do mindfulness meditation, which is this very simple practice of noticing, we bring our attention to the experience, living that experience, and registering what’s here. If you are with your breathing it’s not only being with your breath — breath in breath out breath in — it is also letting the experience of breathing be registered in that experience. You are taking in the sensations of that experience in a deeper, fuller way. It’s like you are on the beach on a nice sunny day, you’re on the edge of the ocean, and you stand there and take in the breeze, the smell of the ocean, the sight. You really register the experience; you take it in. So, in the same way, you sit with your breath and take in the fullness of the experience of breathing in.

Gil Fronsdal

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