Monday 18th October 2010

Are you optimistic, pessimistic or realistic?

It is said an optimistic person sees a glass half full and a pessimistic one sees it half empty.  Which one has the right view?  Well, maybe both or maybe neither it tends to be quite individual. A realistic person may just say there is glass with a certain amount of water inside it.  A more mathematical mind may say it is 50% water, 50% air, a scientific mind may break it further into gases and/or elements, and so on.

The thing is, it is what it represents to you that is important, the most important thing is to be truthful about what certain aspects of life represent to you and work with your mind as it is.  If you know you look on the more gloomy side of things naturally, don't just sweep those thoughts under the carpet.  Similarly if you are naturally a very optimistic person, that needs to be noticed also, as with any other mind states you notice yourself habitually slipping into.  You don't need to enforce your views on anyone, but just being aware of them can help you grow.

Wednesday 6th October 2010

With a shift in the weather in the UK to wetter conditions this could be a great opportunity to do more formal practise.  Although we should be keeping our mindfulness practise up as much as possible, it is also important to do the formal sessions.  One of my teachers says it is like recharging the batteries on your mobile phone.  You use the phone all day, but at times you need to plug it back in to get the 'juice' back up again.

We need to do the same with our practise.  When its cold and wet outside, you can use this as extra motivation to stay in and do a little more formal practise.  Hopefully this well help establish good habits for later.

10th September 2010

A lot of the sessions people ask for help with tend to revolve around stress.  The world has been slowly switching on to the fact that stress can be a problem.  There are so many ways of  dealing with stress and new ways surfacing almost daily.  We have to remember that stress can be incredibly stimulating and help us to get out of trouble as well as cause us and others around us problems.

  My personal view on stress as I write this is that it is not so much the eradication of stress that is important, but rather our way of managing it.  Mindfulness practise helps us to be aware not only of how the stress may be affecting us, but also how to respond to the affect rather than just habitually react.  Rather than repressing the stress cycle or intentionally creating more stress to 'let it out' (as oppose to just releasing the unwanted stress as it arises) , by developing mindfulness practise the stress can be channeled into a positive outcome rather than a negative or meaningless one.

Wednesday 08 September 2010

Acceptance was the last blog, but today I think I would like to write about responsibility.  Without a sense of responsibility and without taking responsibility for our own actions or non-actions (think about it) then we could also be causing more unhappiness.  The "3 poisons" I mentioned in my last post may be inherent in humans beings (or all life) but that does not mean we have to succumb to it.  The acceptance of these traits is merely for us to not get frustrated and find blame.  We can however try not to act on the impulses when they arise in our self or others.  A great teacher once said that Global Responsibility will never happen until all people can take self-responsibility.  Once the majority of people become self-responsible, then gradually Global Responsibility can emerge.  By training our minds, we are starting our own path to self-responsibility.

Thursday 2 September 2010

Acceptance is one of the most important pieces of the practise, and I have tried to explain my understanding of it, but, as my practise goes on, my understanding deepens, and I hope to share with you my thoughts.  Aside from the cutting away of the ego, it might be best to explain it with as much subject/object as possible so that it is accessable to as many as possible.

I read recently a book by Edward de Bono (the person who originated the term lateral thinking) in it he suggests human beings are naturally agressive and greedy; if we add in ignorant as well we have the classic '3 poisons'.

If we can accept this though, not just about others but about ourselves, life becomes a lot easier.

Please contact me if you would like to discuss this further.

19th August 2010

Mindfulness with an object can seem hard to begin with.  After what might be the honeymoon period of just learning to relax, having to focus can seem like torture.  It is essential however to go through that.  With mindfulness practise we are constantly trying to cut the bonds which bind us.  We are looking for true freedom, true happiness and trying to let go or accept all experiences that arise in the mind. We are trying to respond to our environment more than just react to it.  The focus needed with the use of the object can be transferred to other events which arise and can help us to respond more appropriately.  This in turn should allow us to be happier and spread more happiness. I will talk more about this on another entry, for now though, please try to keep up with your practise.

27th June 2010

Mindfulness is only one small part of the whole picture, even though it can be an almost endless pursuit.  There are so many other factors to develop also.  Some of you may have heard me talking about things such as discipline, patience, generosity, diligence and concentration.  Today I would like to share some thoughts on wisdom.  According to many highly accomplished teachers all these things are needed to develop a completely peaceful mind.  Wisdom has many different aspects, although we tend to think of it as something learnt from a book, there are many other ways of developing it.  Most of us recognise that life itself is wisdom.  Do we actually learn from it though?  One of my teachers always talks about how we walk in circles, mostly habitual events in our life.  We get to the end of the circle (of a negative habit) sometimes in despair wondering why these things happen to us constantly.

  Before we can evaluate it and learn from it though, we get caught up in it again.  Mindfulness gives us some space to evaluate daily (if you have a daily practise).  There are times when we go beyond the breath watching practise alone and integrate reflection.  This is a small part of our effort towards gaining more wisdom.

  Please allow some time today and every day for some mindfulness.