Our appointment with life is in the present moment.
The place of our appointment is right here, in this very place.
Thich Nhat Hanh
Tag: Awareness
The basic Instruction
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
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
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
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
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
