May you receive great encouragement
when new frontiers beckon.
May you take time to celebrate
the quiet miracles that seek no attention.
May you experience each day
as a sacred gift
woven around the heart of wonder.
John O’Donoghue, Benedictus
Tag: Present moment
Practicing mindfulness: Come back to the present as much as possible
Today I rose early and the weather had cleared after yesterday’s rain. It was a lovely fresh morning, before the cloud and mist moved in again. The birds are beginning to sing again and there was a sense of light and joy. Bright mornings make it easy to feel clear and spacious within. And when we do, we find it not so difficult to be kind. It makes it possible to believe in the natural goodness deep inside us. However, even with bright starts on days like this we can still see that the mind has brief moments when it can get confused and dark. When a combination of circumstances come together that frighten us, we can become flustered and defensive. It is always interesting to see the mind’s capacity to wander from the way things are and live in thoughts and wonderings and wishing things were other, with the potential narrowing that this brings.
In sitting practice we are reminded to practice “starting over” – to return again and again to the breath when the mind wanders, without being harsh with ourselves. It is a lesson for life also. We frequently get distracted. We sometimes get lost. And then we wander away from the natural kindness that exists when we are calm. So the practice is to simply try to start over again, by dropping into this moment, noticing what we are doing, becoming conscious of the breath or of the sensations in our body. We do not need to add the extra judgment about how unworthy our behaviour makes us to the existing situation. We do not make a drama out of it. We acknowledge honestly and simply that we have gotten lost, or are in the wrong, and then go back to start over again.
Everything is of interest
There is no such thing as an isolated event. Everything we experience, and the choices we make, impact on the way our life will be in the future. Thus, the best way to live a full life is to pay attention to and appreciate each passing moment, living them in kindness and openness, not closing the heart.
Every moment and every event of everyone’s life on earth plants something in their soul.
Thomas Merton
Reduce your stress today: Flow with what is
This is a nice practice to work with, taken from Pavel Somov’s book, Present Perfect: A mindfulness approach to letting go of Perfectionism and the Need for Control. Why not try it today?
By insisting on reality being a certain way, we get stuck. To get unstuck, downgrade your expectations to preferences. Whereas an expectation is an unwarranted entitlement, a demand that reality comply with your vision of how it should be, a preference is just a wish. Instead of expecting traffic to be light, allow a passing wish for traffic to be light and then go with the flow of what is. Instead of wishing for that perfect warm weather to go out for a walk, acknowledge your wish for the preferred weather, then layer up and go out anyway. Instead of waiting for the perfect wind, pull up the anchor of your expectations and sail the wind that exists. Practice expecting nothing and flowing with what is.
The choices we make, each day
We create ourselves by our choices.
Kierkegaard
Walking through life with ease and without fears
In our daily life, our steps are burdened with anxieties and fears. Life itself seems to be a continuous chain of insecure feelings, and so our steps lose their natural easiness. [However] Our earth is truly beautiful. There is so much graceful, natural scenery along paths and roads around the earth! Do you know how many forest paths there are, paved with colorful leaves, offering cool and shade? They are all available to us, yet we cannot enjoy them because our hearts are not trouble-free, and our steps are not at ease.
When you practice walking meditation, you go for a stroll. You have no purpose or direction in space or time. The purpose of walking meditation is walking itself. Going is important, not arriving. Walking meditation is not a means to an end; it is an end. Each step is life; each step is peace and joy. That is why we don’t have to hurry. That is why we slow down. We seem to move forward, but we don’t go anywhere; we are not drawn by a goal. Thus we smile while we are walking.
Walking meditation is learning to walk again with ease.
Thich Nhat Hahn
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