Sunday, March 15, 2015

The Miracle of Mindfulness


Thich Nhat Hanh - An introduction to the practice of meditation







Observation and Contemplation...

This morning I wondered or contemplated  (as I swept each hair off the floor).  "Ahimsa and  the non-judgement aspect of this concept".

Where is the line drawn between an observation and judgement.  

For me being "judge mental" seems like a mental activity.  Hence not much compassion is involved  in the process.  The words of Mother Theresa resonate: "when we judge we have no time to love, where there is love there is no space for judgment".  

Observing could be like saying:  "I take a certain route or path to travel between two points".  So sharing this with another  they suggest an alternative path.   In my thoughts or in my mind I process either with more questions on this 'suggestive' path or with a "judge mental" response in thoughts and words.  It could be that "oh I don't want to go the suggestive way cos etc etc etc".  Here we pause and see if a "fear" is the basis or is there some intuitive guidance.   Seeing this within oneself is a daily practice that slowly builds "ahimsa" or the non judgmental/non violent way of relating with self and the others.   Fear is as much a part of living as breath is.  Through the awareness of each we develop courage and strength. 

I understand the "ahimsa" as the action one takes.  It is doing what is mine to do.  The judgment are the thoughts that underpin or motivate the action.  

The unraveling continues, each moment becomes lighter, the clarity comes with contemplation, introspection, and expresses as "ahimsa".

Sunday, March 8, 2015

Celebration of the life of a ’soul'.

What is the 'illusion' in life?  Is a soul born into the body of its choice?  I will go with this premise that the soul chooses a body for two reasons.  The first to clear its karma from past lives and secondly to have a vehicle in which to travel in this life.  Does the soul choose the gender? Is the gender simply to carry on the propagation of the humans? This might get clear in ones' contemplation.

This whole narrative is based on my contemplation.  

In the first seven years the soul develops the conditioning and filters through which he or she identifies with a specific gender.  The personality of the gender in this world, along with its' purpose, becomes hard wired through the familial, cultural and the societal norms.  Combined with the stories from the past life or lives, a 'disharmony' or struggle is felt by some children.  Why by some and not why others, this could depend on the disparity between what the soul came to fulfill and its outer layers,  the personality.  Proportionally the lesser this disparity the less inner struggle is felt by the individuals as they go through life.

Looking at ourselves as adults we bring attention to our own perception of the world, seen through the hard wired conditionings, our filters.  Seeing ourself in all its ‘biases', is the first step in accepting who we are, and how did we become who we are.  

Its like coming to a cross road, where we can choose to change our path, then the story and its daily narrative also changes.  

Staying with the unknown, or on a path where we can watch our own actions and reactions, our 'way of being' is the first step and maybe the next and the next…  

Sometimes we rush to replace our ‘stories’, we meet someone who ‘inspires’ us on our journey, or we feel scared not having a ‘direction’ or a ‘point to view’ for our life path, and latch onto the first thing that gives a sense of security.  This can be a false sense of security possibly become an entanglement, and does not meet the objective of ‘clearing’ the way for us to feel and know our purpose.

A journey of exploration is to be undertaken by each person, a journey by oneself and into the self.  The idea is to watch ourself in various situations, interactions and relationships, and to be able to see that it is all 'only our perception’.

An interesting occurrence begins to happen.  as we watch our hard wired conditioning and filters, we also find they begin to lose their stronghold on us.  This gives us an opportunity to see our 'soul', and in this seeing our 'purpose that we came to fulfill starts to appear'.  We begin to feel 'aligned'. 

‘Doing what is mine to do; doing which comes from the heart (the home of the soul); with no attachment to personal success and failure; and sharing the gains of success with all', becomes the path to follow.  

We break the karmic cycle.  Life continues to move, we leave the world a better place.