Tag: Mindfulness

Watching and observing

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Mindfulness is not thinking about things. (It is not “meditating on” some topic, as people often say.) It is a non-discursive observation of our life in all its aspects. In those moments when thinking predominates, mindfulness is the clear and silent awareness that we are thinking. I found it helpful and relaxing when someone said, “For the purpose of meditation, nothing is particularly worth thinking about.” Thoughts can come and go as they wish, and the meditator does not need to become involved with them. We are not interested in engaging in the content of our thoughts; mindfulness of thinking is simply recognizing we are thinking.

Gil Fronsdal

We just don’t know

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Letting there be room for not knowing is the most important thing of all. We try to do what we think is going to help. But we don’t know. We never know if we’re going to fall flat or sit up tall. When there’s a big disappointment, we don’t know if that’s the end of the story. It may be just the beginning of a great adventure. Life is like that. We don’t know anything. We call something bad; we call it good. But really we just don’t know.

Pema Chodron

No coming, no going

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No Coming. No Going.

Everything is pretending to be born and to die.

That is a lie

An interesting quote from Thich Nhat Hahn. I am not sure that I completely get it but I think it means  that  –  at one level –  nothing really comes or goes, nothing is born or dies, but rather everything simply transforms into something else.  How can I apply that to my life? Well, when I get fixed on something as it currently is and desperately want to hold on to that, I suffer. But if I am able to see that everything is in a process of transforming, and thus not ending, then I do not need to hold on and suffering does not arise. If I realize how limiting it is when I hold fixed stories about myself or my life, and instead move toward a full openness and acceptance of what may emerge, then I can  more easily deal with the inevitable changes which each moment brings.

Have no agenda

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My own experience is that the less you have in the way of expectations, the more effectively your efforts will bring fruits and beneficial results. Here in the West we are very idealistic, we create a fixed image – usually unconsciously – of how we want to be or what we want to change. Then through having that fixed idea, we miss the actual changes that we need to make. While our attention is riveted to the horizon, we miss where we are putting our feet. The more we can put aside any particular expectations or agendas, and the more we can engage wholeheartedly in the particular work or practices we are doing, then the better off we are in the long run.

Ajahn Amaro

Simple daily practices 2: Touch-points

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A useful technique involves  working with awareness of body touch-points. These are the parts of the body that come into contact with other objects in the course of each day, such as the bottoms of our feet as we move about, or the felt sense of sitting in a chair, or of our hands touching something. We bring our attention to a touch-point as often as we can remember.  This is useful in breaking our habitual mental and emotional patterns.

Narayan Liebenson Grady

Watch the mind

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Practice is separate from any posture. It is a matter of directly looking at the mind. This is wisdom….. You must examine yourself. Know who you are. Know your body and mind by simply watching. In sitting, in sleeping, in eating, know your limits. Use wisdom. The practice is not to try to achieve anything. Just be mindful of what is. The whole of meditation is looking directly at the mind.

So, be patient.  Live simply and be natural. Watch the mind. This is our practice.

Ajahn Chah