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Page   8

 

What is Mindfulness?

  Mindfulness is the intentional cultivation of non-judgmental, non-reactive, present-moment awareness. The principles of mindfulness are fundamental to many traditional meditative practices and are non-sectarian in nature.  Mindfulness practice includes mindfulness meditation (also known as insight or vipassana meditation) and the cultivation of present-moment awareness during daily activities.  Mindfulness seeks to engender and enhance the experience of awareness, clarity and compassion.  Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) classes help people to cultivate the skill of mindfulness.

Mindfulness Benefits

  The practice of mindfulness is beneficial for people experiencing anxiety, depression, chronic pain, and physical symptoms related to stress or disease. The enhanced self-awareness through mindfulness helps us to see clearly, to accept, and to gain freedom from the suffering brought on by our automatic thoughts and assumptions. Through mindfulness we strengthen our ability to choose creative responses in difficult times, instead of behaving reflexively. As a result, mindfulness becomes stress reduction, not simply stress management.

  Through mindfulness we can experience the joy of being fully present in our everyday lives, learn from difficult times, and be open to compassion for ourselves and others. Mindfulness can be part of the foundation of a life lived gracefully, responsibly and skillfully. More…

The range of what we think and do
Is limited by what we fail to notice
And because we fail to notice
There is little we can do
To change
Until we notice
How failing to notice
Shapes our thoughts and deeds.
R.D. Laing

http://www.livingmindfully.org

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  In the book “It’s Easier Than You Think,” by Sylvia Boorstein, the author talks about the Buddhist concept of "Mind Hindrances." These are the five energies that traditional Buddhism identifies as impediments to the clear seeing of life events.

Mind Hinderances

  The five energies are lust, aversion, torpor, restlessness, and doubt. We often talk of them as neediness, anger, low energy, fear, and demoralization. As occasionally encountered experiences they can make life problematic, but these, occasional and normal, hindrances can intensify into something more lasting. If they do so they may change from being "Mind Hindrances" to "Mind States."

Mind States

  A "Mind State" is a hindrance that is not transient. It comes to stay. A Mind State becomes a habitual outlook and response pattern. All life experiences are filtered through the Mind State. The Mind State of lust looks at everything through the lens of neediness and desire. Something is missing and life is not satisfactory. The angry Mind State is always on the verge of irritation and frustration and fills the air with tension. Habitual lethargy robs life of the energy required for day-to-day tasks and leaves none left over for new adventures. The Mind State of Doubt creates an insecure world while the fearful mind spreads anxiety into all areas of life.

  Mind States are difficult to live with because they make life more fretful or tedious than needed. They become the lenses though which life is viewed. A Mind State is hard to recognize and harder still to give up. It seems to be the reality.

Mind Storms

  The real danger of Mind States, however, is that they can suddenly swirl up into "Mind Storms." A Mind Storm is a Mind State out of control. Mind Storms blow in due to some real or imagined occurrence and can wreak havoc while present. Comments are made and actions are taken that are later regretted. With a Mind Storm in control clear vision is lost and judgment is clouded. Just as the storms of weather come and go, so do the storms of the "Mind." They blow in and they blow out again and then the damage must be surveyed. …

  Mind Storms always give warning signs. These "storms" initially show up in that little voice of conscience that talks to us. You might recognize the voice of conscience as that positive voice that says, "Gee, you look good." And, "That was a terrific job." Or, in its negative tones, when it says, "That was really stupid. How could you be so dumb?" In a Mind Storm the voice is usually negative, critical, or irrational in its comments.

  This little voice of self-talk can talk us into some bad spots. The challenge of Mind Storms is to learn to watch them come and go but not to react by feeding them more energy through negative thinking and impulsive deeds. We need to observe the little voice while not necessarily responding too seriously to it.

lessons4living.com  

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  Concentration is practicing “being”. For once, purposefully stop all the “doing” in your life and relax into the present without trying to fill it with anything.
  Simply allow yourself to be in the moment with things exactly as they are, without trying to change anything. Mindfulness is learning how to slow down and nurture calmness and self-acceptance. A skeptical but open attitude works best. Your only hope is to become more fully yourself. If you are in pain, then be with the pain as best you can. Giving the mind one thing to keep track of, namely the breath, to replace the whole range of things that it usually finds to preoccupy itself enhances our powers of concentration. The mind will become less reactive both to its own thoughts and to outside pressures. The most important thing people get out of their meditation training is the realization that they are not their thoughts. By watching your thoughts without being drawn into them may help you to be less of a prisoner of those thought patterns which are narrow, inaccurate, self-involved, habitual to the point of being imprisoning, and also just plain wrong. This can allow a greater sense of manageability in your life. Each time we recognize a thought, register its content, then let go of it and come back to our breathing and a sense of our body, we are strengthening mindfulness. We are becoming more accepting of ourselves, not as we would like to be, but as we actually are

Healing

  Kabat-Zinn says to accept non-striving and self-acceptance as a new way of being - a way to tap into a new way of seeing and feeling without holding up standards of success and failure based on a habitual and limited way of seeing your problems. The meditative view is that it is only through acceptance of the actuality of the present, no matter how painful or frightening or undesirable it may be, that you can live life without a cure. In the vocabulary of mindfulness meditation the word “healing” means a profound transformation of view. Meditation practice can transform our capacity to face, embrace and work with and within the “full catastrophe”. Healing is coming to terms with things as they are. Self-regulation and management rather than cure is called for. This might at least give you a feeling of being able to control and reduce some of the stress, pain and anxiety that you experience. It can uncouple the physical sensations from our thoughts about them. Suffering comes from our resistance to pain.

  In meditation practice you may find yourself coming to terms with things as they are, a deepening of understanding and compassion, a lessening of anguish, despair, fear or hurt. You start from where you find yourself and work here. It is an internal way to work with fear and pain. You allow yourself to be where, and as, you already are. This is bitter medicine to swallow when you don’t like what is happening or where you find yourself, but it is especially worth swallowing at such times. Mindfulness is a lifetime’s journey along a path that ultimately leads to who you are. It will not conflict with any beliefs or traditions – religious or for that matter scientific – nor is it trying to sell you anything, especially not a new belief system or ideology. Try it for a few years and see what happens.
.-- Ann Crickmer, MSW

  http://www.msakc.org/Medical/Alternative/Meditation.htm

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"However," Teresa continued, "If you can release your judgment about pain and just observe it, you will notice a very important fact about the nature of pain- pain comes in waves! "
 "This is the body-mind's built-in protective mechanism." Teresa explained. "If the pain were truly nonstop, you wouldn't survive. And so you are granted a few gaps in between the intense sensations while you stop and catch your breath."
"But it feels like the pain is unrelenting," I protested. "If you were clinically depressed, you would understand."
"The key to reducing your perception of pain," Teresa continued dispassionately, "is to uncouple the sensations in your body from the thoughts about them."
"What does that mean?"
There are two levels of pain that you are feeling. The first level is physiological-the raw pain in your body. The second layer (and this is where you have some control) consists of how you interpret your experience. Perhaps you may be thinking, 'This torment is killing me,' or 'This will last forever,' or 'There is nothing I can do about it.' Each of these despairing thoughts creates a neurochemical reaction in the brain that creates even more distress. If you can learn to detach yourself from these judgments, much of the pain that arises from them will diminish."
"How do I do this?"
"Think of your anxiety or depression as a large wave that is approaching you. As the wave makes contact, see if you can ride the wave by focusing upon your breath. Breathe through the sensations, breathing in and out while attending to the sound of your breathing. Don't fight against the pain-that will only make it worse. Just breathe. It's not even about getting through the day; it's about getting through each breath." -- Anon Website

 

  Pain is a necessary and natural part of life. It alerts us that something is out of equilibrium and needs to be tended to. However, sometimes it can be ambiguous and difficult to read. Prolonged pain accompanied by negative thoughts, fears and faulty belief-systems can turn into unbearable suffering; acted out in all forms of violence; anxiety, stress and depression. Emotional and mental pain its especially challenging because of the illusive nature and the stigmas attached to it in our culture. Because mental/emotional pain is invisible, we can easily doubt its validity and react to it by denying it, feeling ashamed of it and judging ourselves. Internalized pain can isolate us and alienate us from ourselves and from others. It can take on a life of its own and become an identity that distorts who we really are.
  Few people are able to tolerate mental and emotional pain in others or to be compassionate and accepting of it in themselves. And this is as true of those in the medical profession and our friends and family as everyone else. In our culture we are taught to "snap out it" and "get on with life." We resent it when we feel helpless and powerless and have no answer to our own pain or to the suffering of others.
In seeking relief from pain, we often want to get away from it, get rid of it or kill it, but there are times when the only possible relief can come from transforming our relationship to it  - non-judgmentally opening up to its moment-by-moment-sensations and seeing it for what it is; expanding our breath and directing it to the part of the body or psyche that feels the pain; and noticing the negative stories that the mind is telling us and letting them go.  ----
Samuel Kirschner.

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. "Aren't you upset?" I would ask. "I've done
all I could about it," she would say, "so there is no point in being upset." --Anon

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  “Our culture turns away from people in pain because they remind us that what happened to them may some day happen to us and that all of us are going to die. Compassion is at the heart of controlling our prejudices, attitudes and actions about pain.  --Arthur Rosenfeld

After all this is over, all that will really have mattered is how we treated each other. - Unknown

 

Fail to plan, plan to fail.—Unknown

 

"  Whatever you do, you need courage. Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising that tempt you to believe your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires some of the same courage that a soldier needs. Peace has its victories, but it takes brave men and women to win them." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

The meaning of life cannot be told; it has to happen to a person." - Ira Progoff

 

"  Because of our natural tendency to think in counterproductive ways, it takes an effort to improve. A person who wants to master the attribute of happiness has to be willing to make that effort." - Rabbi Zelig Pliskin, author Gateway to Happiness

 

Forgiveness is the release of all hope for a better past. - Alexa Young

 

You know you have forgiven someone when he or she has harmless passage through your mind. - Rev. Karyl Huntley

 

  Nathan Sharansky wrote the following: "Deceptive hope poisons the soul and weakens the spirit.  What then is the solution?  The only answer is to find the meaning in your current life.  It's best if you are left with only one hope -- the hope of remaining yourself no matter what happens."

 

 

  If you are not happy you are doing something wrong. Unhappiness is caused by our culturally conditioned habit of value judging, criticizing, finding fault and condemning anyone or anything that does not conform with or comply with our personal values, desires or expectations and we then consciously or unconsciously emotionally resist their "Reality" never realizing that our resistance can't change them to meet our values, desires or expectations. Happiness is generated by accepting "What Is," "As Is" even though we may not like it or want it because we realize that emotionally resisting "What Is" can not change "What Is" to meet our values, desires or expectations.  Such as emotionally resisting the sun for rising or setting.   --Sid Madwed

 

"I am happy and content because I think I am." - Alain-Rene Lesage (1668-1747) Writer 

 

"Freedom is that instant between when someone tells you to do something and when you decide how to respond." - Dr. Jeffrey Borenstein

 

"Whoever can see through all fear will always be safe." - Tao Te Ching

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   One of the yamas, or moral restraints, in Patanjali's Yoga Sutra is ahimsa, the practice of nonviolence, and this includes nonviolence toward yourself. Of course, you may well want something in your life so much that you are willing to take a chance of hurting your body by driving it too hard. But usually a conscious, short-term exertion to reach a goal is not what causes violence to self. More often it is a matter of long-term disregard of the signals of imbalance. This disregard comes from repeatedly getting so caught in wanting or fearful mind-states that you're unable to reflect on your own behavior. You may have a surface-level awareness of the distress you are feeling in your body, but you don't sincerely respond to the discomfort. In such instances you are in a driven state, controlled by your mind's imaginary creations rather than your inner values.

  Feelings of inadequacy, vulnerability, longing, or not having enough are an inevitable part of the human experience. If you, like most people, have not found spiritual freedom, you cannot stop them from arising. But you can stop such feelings from controlling your life by changing how you perceive them. If you refuse to identify with these feelings, disown them as being neither you nor yours, thus seeing them simply as emotional states of mind that come and go, you will discover there is the possibility for some inner harmony even under difficult circumstances.

  For instance, let's assume you cannot change your work schedule, and it seems so overwhelming to you that you regularly get very tense and anxious about it. You can experience the schedule as much less violent by not thinking about it in its entirety except when you are in planning mode. The rest of the time you just do what the plan calls for, concentrating on the task in front of you without adding the thought, "Here I am with all this work and so much more to do this week."

  Said another way, don't make a panoramic movie out of your difficult schedule such that you are constantly seeing yourself doing all that has to be done, as if it were going to be done all at once. Instead just do what has to be done right now, for that's all you can do. It may sound like a simple thing to do, but it is very subtle and difficult, yet so liberating!

  Another method you can use to cope with overscheduling is to notice each time you experience fear or wanting while thinking about all you have to do. Consciously label these feelings as fear and wanting in your mind and then see for yourself that they originate as impersonal mind-states, the way a storm forms due to weather conditions. The land that receives the storm does not own it, and the storm is not the land; it's just a storm, which due to its own characteristics can cause damage. So it is with the stormy situations in your life where there is a tendency to both deny and take ownership of fear or wanting. This misperception leads you to believe you should be able to control them, which in turn causes the physical contractions and the mental anguish that constitute violence to self.

Stopping the Violence

  In seeking freedom from violence to self, practice noticing over and over again that you are constantly, and usually unconsciously, wanting things to be different than the way they are. You become a little dictator to yourself, sitting on a throne, arms crossed, pouting and demanding that things you like should stay the way they are forever and what you do not like should disappear immediately. This craving to hold on to what you like and to get rid of what you find difficult is considered the source of suffering in life and the origin of violence against self. By practicing living with things as they are, you will discover that while life may not be less painful, your experience of it is immeasurably better. Also, fully accepting what is true in the moment is the only firm place to begin to make changes in your life. Living in the moment is not a one-time commitment but something that has to be done again and again.

  Nonviolence to self is a lifetime practice of which there are ever more subtle levels to discover. The more you are able to be with yourself in a nonviolent way, the less harm you will do to another. Be gentle with the body and mind; refuse to get caught in believing that things have to be a certain way in order for you to be happy.

  At some point each day, softly close your eyes, relax your shoulders, let your mind settle on the breath without trying to control it. In the ensuing quietness, see for yourself how mysterious life is…. --Phillip Moffit  

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  Mindfulness meditation is a method of focusing one’s attention on the present moment in an intentionally non-reactive, non-judgmental, moment-to-moment awareness of both the inner and outer worlds. As one writer characterizes it, mindfulness means “full awareness and non-judgmental acceptance of the present moment.” Developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn, PhD and founder of the Stress Reduction Clinic at the University of Massachusetts, mindfulness meditation is distinct from other meditative methods such as transcendental meditation, in which the principle goal is to attain a special mental state. In contrast, mindfulness focuses on the here and now, the challenge being to appreciate the richness of the present moment.

Don’t worry–be mindful!

  The practitioner of mindfulness meditation develops the ability to observe the events of his or her life without engaging the worry and concern that can accompany reflection. But his behavior should not be thought of as simple dispassion. Instead, Kabat-Zinn refers to such non-judgmental thoughtfulness as responding, as opposed to reacting, and patients in his clinic have found relief from a variety of health related symptoms such as chronic pain, stress, and anxiety by practicing mindfulness. --- BENJAMIN MEYERS  

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"  The most basic fear experienced by people coming to see me for therapy is of being overwhelmed by the force of their own emotions if they relax the grip of their egos. They fear that if they give up control, they will lose control, that their unconscious will, if given a chance, rise up and inundate them. In some way, this reflects the classic view of the unconscious as a seething cauldron of demonic forces that have to be tamed by the light of reason and analysis. While respecting the power and complexity of the Freudian unconscious, my Buddhist understanding has made me suspicious of my patients' fears. It is my experience that emotions, no matter how powerful, are not overwhelming if given room to breathe. Contained within the vastness of awareness, our emotions have the power to connect us with each other rather than driving us apart..." 

Going to Pieces Without Falling Apart, Mark Epstein  

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Haiku poets should be aware of the tyranny of the ego, for it clings to its obsession with being special.  –Robert Spiess  

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"  The Sufi is he whose thought keeps pace with his foot -- i.e., he is entirely present: his soul is where his body is, and his body is where his soul is, and his soul where his foot is, and his foot where his soul is. This is the sign of presence without absence. Others say on the contrary: 'He is absent from himself but present with God.' It is not so: he is present with himself and present with God."

  We live in a culture that has been described as materialistic, alienating, neurotically individualistic, narcissistic, and yet ridden with anxiety, shame, and guilt. From the Sufi point of view humanity today is suffering under the greatest tyranny, the tyranny of the ego.  We "worship" innumerable false idols, but all of them are forms of the ego.

  There are so many ways for the human ego to usurp even the purest spiritual values. The true Sufi is the one who makes no claims to virtue or truth but who lives a life of presence and selfless love. More important than what we believe is how we live. If certain beliefs lead to exclusiveness, self-righteousness, fanaticism, it is the vanity of the "believer" that is the problem. If the remedy increases the sickness, an even more basic remedy is called for.

  The idea of "presence with love" may be the most basic remedy for the prevailing materialism, selfishness, and unconsciousness of our age. In our obsession with our false selves, in turning our backs on God, we have also lost our essential Self, our own divine spark. In forgetting God, we have forgotten ourselves. Remembering god is the beginning of remembering ourselves.  –www.sufism.org  

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  Clinging occurs not just in regard to what you want now; you may also cling to memories of something bad that happened to you or cling to regret over some action you took. Bad memories or deep sorrow do not have to lead to clinging. In his book, The Art of Happiness (Riverhead Books, 1998), the Dalai Lama speaks of a regret from his own life: "It's still there. But even though that feeling of regret is still there, it isn't associated with a feeling of heaviness or a quality of pulling me back." When you experience that quality of heaviness or being pulled back, it is a symptom indicating that you are clinging to something in the past. Living life in the spiritual dimension means letting go equally of past and future and being present for each moment as it arises. It serves no purpose to judge yourself or to wish to undo that which has been written in the sands of time.

  Herein lies the paradox common to mystical teachings in most spiritual traditions: In order to be fully alive, you also have to die. When you cling to the past or future, believing you are holding onto something precious, you are denying what is sacred about life. Your life, with its unique pains and joys, can only be reconciled in your surrender to the truth of your experiences as they arise one moment after another, never fixed, always moving. A beautiful sunrise, a baby's smile, a broken heart, cancer, the loss of love—open fully to the experiences of your life in all their mysterious manifestations. Meet each of these moments with compassion, loving-kindness, and your very best response. Then let loose of each in turn, for however beguiling in their beauty or their horror, they are truly only life dancing.

Phillip Moffitt

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For many, another part of the idea of acceptance is that it is something passive, and that if we accept the situation then we do nothing to change it.    Our conventional logic tells us that we can't both accept something and yet want to change something about it at the same time.     But indeed we can.  

Part of the misconception regarding acceptance is that there is an unawareness of its meaning.    Or more precisely, that it has more than one definition.    As it is referenced in lexicon texts, acceptance is primarily equated with approval.     While this is a legit way to process the word related to many situations, there is also a crucial distinction to be made.

Acceptance also has an enormous significance that is separate from the "approval" denotation most often associated with it.    We need to look at the word  as a homonym of sorts, in recognition of its dual meaning.

The other way we can use and live the word "acceptance" is in the context of linking it to its opposite, "resistance".    

It is where we stand within the acceptance-resistance dynamic that will dictate the degree of emotional pain we feel, and for how long.

This other definition of acceptance refers to dropping all resistance to circumstances.  Specifically, it means dropping the purposeless behavior of never-ending questioning  as to "why did this happen",  and to cease endlessly going over every spoken and acted detail of the situation. 

Acceptance might best be described as a shift in focus.    Instead of forever seething in angry thoughts about the dilemma or wishing with all one's might that things were different, the focus becomes "now that this has happened, what can I do to get back on track?"

Can you see how acceptance is not a passive, but an active quality?    Whether it is a mental/emotional action or a physical action to change an external situation,  action and acceptance correlate positively. ---- Coleen Lawrence 

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Without Spirit our mind lives in a variety of never-ending restless, churning, searching states. – Patanjali  

  Denying  "what is" only leads to our being consumed, overrun, and overwhelmed by the situation, as a mind in resistance cannot move forward.     We remain stuck in the past, where all we are  able to do is keep rehashing the same events over and over.     We become obsessed with analysis of every minute detail of the happenstance, and in all of our pain we forever keep wailing out the question to the universe "why  does  it have to be this way"!  -- Coleen Lawrence   

  -- Coleen Lawrence   

                                

"Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterward."

- Vernon Law

"No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another." - Charles Dickens

"The faster we travel, the less there is to see." - Helen Hayes (1900-1993) Actor

"Nothing would be done at all if a man waited until he could do it so well that no one could find fault with it." - John Henry Newman (1801-1890)

"He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how." - Friedrich Nietzsche

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  It's actually most important to listen to a another's point of view when you disagree! Often the very thing that we need is that which we push away. If you find yourself being flippant or dismissing an idea out of hand, that's probably struck a defensive chord in you. That's precisely where you have an opening to grow -- and need to pay the most attention.

  That's the power of schizophrenia within us. We'll call something "ridiculous" -- even as we have a sneaking suspicion that it has the power to transform us in a positive way. --Rabbi Noah Weinberg

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You must understand the whole of life, not just
one little part of it, in order to love. That is why you must read,
that is why you must look at the skies, that is
why you must sing and dance, and write poems,
and suffer, and understand, for all that is life.
~Jiddu Krishnamurti

 

Mind  body  and  soul  are  three  parts  of  one  totality.  Each  one  is  usually not directed
to the same point. But if they are directed to the same point results are fascinating.
                                                                                                                                           Pavel

 Getting over a painful experience is much like crossing monkey bars. You have to let go at some point in order to move forward.  - Anonymous

 

 

Wild Geese

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting-
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

Mary Oliver, Dream Work, Grove Atlantic Inc., 1986 & New and Selected Poems, Beacon Press, 1992  

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  We are bidden to serve G-d with sublime joy, sans the artificial stimulation of drugs or alcohol. Armed with the knowledge that G-d guides the world and that every occurrence beyond one’s control will ultimately be positive, how can one be but in a state of constant, natural elation?    Rabbi Price  

"  Healing in its fullest sense requires looking into our heart and expanding our awareness of who we are." - Mitchell Gaynor  

 

Forgetting or neglecting to be mindful can teach you a lot more than just being mindful all the time. – Jon Kabat-Zinn

 

  Matters leading to sadness fall into two categories: matters that can be corrected and matters that cannot. If something can be done to correct a situation, why feel sad? Simply take action to correct the matter! On the other hand, if nothing can be done, what gain is there in feeling sad? Sadness will not improve matters. It is wiser to accept what cannot be changed.
Gateway to Happiness, p.179-80 by Rabbi Zilig Pliskin
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    As we learn to keep coming back to the breath as a way back into our bodies and as an anchor to the present moment, we feel our minds moving into stillness. This does not mean that we stop all thoughts or feelings but rather we acknowledge their presence in the field of our awareness. We hold an intention to not react to every thought but rather to see thoughts and feelings arising and dissolving as waves or clouds drifting by. We learn to not buy into our thoughts and we begin to divest them of their emotional charge. We can then see that out thoughts are separate from who we really are- that we are not our thoughts.
  Just as a lake reflects the clouds and trees on a calm, still day, so to our minds can reflect our true Self when it is undisturbed.    ---by Stephanie Kristal

 

 

 

 

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