Tag: Mindfulness

Repetition is what allows something brand new to happen.

Repetition, like the lapping of ripples against a rock,

gently shifts the ground on which we tread,

and alters our relationship to the things we experience

Anne C. Klein, American professor of Religious Studies and Buddhist teacher

Can you allow ten seconds for a pause in the midst of what arises?

It seems easy in theory, but the difficulty, and the learning, is that you have to face your planned drive, as well as meet the reflexes and reactions that arise when you do that: ‘What’s the point of pausing?’ ‘Not now’ ‘ I have to get on.’ Pretty convincing, aren’t they?

Meeting and investigating this urge to get on (bhava tanhā) is what meditation training is about. 

Take mindfulness of breathing: the practice is to follow the exhalation into the pause phase where the abdominal muscles come to rest, as if there is no next inhalation. Then let the inhalation gather, fulfil itself and also come to rest with the upper chest and throat lightly expanded. The pause phase is the crucial bit: it’s when the will lets go. That brings a relaxation at the end of the out-breath, and a bright opening at the end of the inhalation. As you tune into that pause, and trust letting go of the next moment, or of what to do, or even who you are – there is a growing sense of release.

Ajahn Sucitto

Lessons that apply not just to muscles but also to most of our lives

First of all, remember that the brain thinks in patterns not individual muscles.

Secondly, the brain learns from failure.

Third, manual muscle testing is most effective with light pressure.

Fourth, Neurology rules the roost.

Fifth, it takes repetition to change a dysfunctional pattern into a functional one.

David Weinstock, author of NeuroKinetic Therapy: An Innovative Approach to Manual Muscle Testing 

I didn’t need to understand the hypostatic unity of the Trinity;

I just needed to turn my life over to whoever came up with redwood trees.

Annie Lamott, Traveling Mercies