Thanks to our Friend, David, for sending us this beautiful art
~*~
~*~
Know Yourself First
by Thich Nhat Hanh
Suppose two warring parties want to negotiate, and both sides do not know enough about themselves. You have to really know yourself, your country, your party, your situation, in order to understand the other’s party, the other’s nation, the other’s people. Self and others are not two separate things because the suffering, hope, and anger of both sides are very much the same.You must know yourself in order to understand someone else.
When we get angry, we suffer. If you really understand that, you also will be able to understand that when the other person is angry, it means that he/she is suffering. When someone insults you or behaves violently towards you, you have to be intelligent enough to see that the person suffers from his own violence and anger. But we tend to forget. We think that we are the only one that suffers, and the other person is our oppressor. This is enough to make anger arise and to strengthen our desire to punish. We want to punish the other person because we suffer. Then, we have anger in us; we have violence in us, just as they do.
When we see that our suffering and anger are no different from their suffering and anger, we will behave more compassionately. So understanding the other person is understanding you, and understanding yourself is understanding the other person. Everything must begin with you.
Care for Your Anger
To understand ourselves, we must learn and practice the way of non-duality. We should not fight our anger because anger is our self – a part of our self. Anger is of an organic nature, like love. We have to take good care of anger. And because it is an organic entity; an organic phenomenon, it is possible to transform it into another organic entity. The garbage can be transformed back into compost, into lettuce, and into a cucumber. So don’t despise your anger. Don’t fight your anger, and don’t suppress your anger. Learn the tender way of taking care of your anger, and transform it into the energy of understanding and compassion.
“Drink your tea slowly and reverently, as if it is the axis on which the world earth revolves. Slowly, evenly, without rushing toward the future. Live the actual moment. Only this moment is life. You must be completely awake in the present to enjoy the tea. Only in the awareness of the present, can your hands feel the pleasant warmth of the cup. Only in the present, can you savor the aroma, taste the sweetness, appreciate the delicacy. If you are ruminating about the past, or worrying about the future, you will completely miss the experience of enjoying the cup of tea. You will look down at the cup, and the tea will be gone.
Life is like that. If you are not fully present, you will look around and it will be gone. You will have missed the feel, the aroma, the delicacy and beauty of life. It will seem to be speeding past you. The past is finished. Learn from it and let it go. The future is not even here yet. Plan for it, but do not waste your time worrying about it. Worrying is worthless. When you stop ruminating about what has already happened, when you stop worrying about what might never happen, then you will be in the present moment. Then you will begin to experience joy in life.”
I don’t think of the past anymore, I don’t think of the future anymore, I’m free from the past, from the future, and there is a real encounter between me and the tea.”
~Thich Nhat Hanh
~*~
“Tea meditation is a time to be with the Sangha in a joyful and serene atmosphere. Just to enjoy our tea together is enough. It is like a “good news” occasion, when we share our joy and happiness in being together.
At times, when we are drinking tea with a friend, we are not aware of the tea or even of our friend sitting there. Practicing tea meditation is to be truly present with our tea and our friends. We recognize that we can dwell happily in the present moment despite all of our sorrows and worries. We sit there relaxed without having to say anything. If we like, we may also share a song, a story or a dance.
You may like to bring a musical instrument or prepare something ahead of time. It is an opportunity for us to water the seeds of happiness and joy, of understanding and love in each one of us.”
“Around us, life bursts with miracles--a glass of water, a ray of sunshine, a leaf, a caterpillar, a flower, laughter, raindrops. If you live in awareness, it is easy to see miracles everywhere. Each human being is a multiplicity of miracles. Eyes that see thousands of colors, shapes, and forms; ears that hear a bee flying or a thunderclap; a brain that ponders a speck of dust as easily as the entire cosmos; a heart that beats in rhythm with the heartbeat of all beings. When we are tired and feel discouraged by life's daily struggles, we may not notice these miracles, but they are always there.”
~Thich Nhat Hanh
~*~
“I have noticed that people are dealing too much with the negative, with what is wrong. ... Why not try the other way, to look into the patient and see positive things, to just touch those things and make them bloom?”
~Thich Nhat Hanh
~*~
"Do not be idolatrous about or bound to any doctrine, theory, or ideology, even Buddhist ones. Buddhist systems of thought are guiding means; they are not absolute truth."
~Thich Nhat Hanh
~*~
"When you are angry, close your eyes and ears and return to yourself in order to quell the flames. Smile, even if it takes effort... Sit wherever you are, and look deeply. If your concentration is not yet strong, you can go outside and practice walking meditation. Most essential is to water the seed of mindfulness and allow it to arise in your mind consciousness. Mindfulness is always mindfulness of something, just as anger is always anger at something. When you drink a glass of water and are aware that you are drinking a glass of water, that is mindfulness of drinking water. In this case, we produce mindfulness of anger. “Breathing in, I know I am angry. Breathing out, I know that anger is in me.” First the energy of anger arises, and second the energy of mindfulness arises. The second energy embraces the first in order to soothe it and allow it to subside."
“Around us, life bursts with miracles--a glass of water, a ray of sunshine, a leaf, a caterpillar, a flower, laughter, raindrops. If you live in awareness, it is easy to see miracles everywhere. Each human being is a multiplicity of miracles. Eyes that see thousands of colors, shapes, and forms; ears that hear a bee flying or a thunderclap; a brain that ponders a speck of dust as easily as the entire cosmos; a heart that beats in rhythm with the heartbeat of all beings. When we are tired and feel discouraged by life's daily struggles, we may not notice these miracles, but they are always there.”
~Thich Nhat Hanh
~*~
“I have noticed that people are dealing too much with the negative, with what is wrong. ... Why not try the other way, to look into the patient and see positive things, to just touch those things and make them bloom?”
~Thich Nhat Hanh
~*~
"Do not be idolatrous about or bound to any doctrine, theory, or ideology, even Buddhist ones. Buddhist systems of thought are guiding means; they are not absolute truth."
Thanks to you Friend, David, for sending us this beautiful art
~*~
"Love is the capacity to take care, to protect, to nourish. If you are not capable of generating that kind of energy toward yourself - if you are not capable of taking care of yourself, of nourishing yourself, of protecting yourself - it is very difficult to take care of another person. In the Buddhist teaching, it’s clear that to love oneself is the foundation of the love of other people. Love is a practice. Love is truly a practice."
"When we carefully observe our thoughts, we discover that they are not in our control—we swim in an uninvited constant stream of memories, plans, expectations, judgments, regrets. Often the root of these movements of mind is dissatisfaction. We seem to want both endless excitement and perfect peace. But instead of being served by our thinking, we are driven by it in unconscious and unexamined ways. While thoughts can be enormously useful and creative, often they dominate our experience with attachments to our likes and dislikes, with views that divide the world into higher and lower, self and other. Our thoughts repeatedly tell stories about our successes and failures, plan our security, habitually remind us of who and what we think we are. Through mindfulness, we can come to know and let go of the patterns of unhelpful worry and obsession; we can clarify our confusion and release destructive views and opinions. We can reflect on what we most value."
~Jack Kornfield
~*~
from the scattered brain of AOM:
My mind is always a busy place. When I am doing a task, (washing dishes, mowing the yard, folding clothes, etc. etc.) I am always thinking of what's next - rushing to what's next. I often find myself trying to multi-task. I hurry through one activity to get to another and another, etc. All of this thinking and pushing ahead tends to cause me stress. Great Balls of Fire it rattles my brain. : )
It's taken me YEARS (60 to be exact) to finally find a way to overcome this mental habit that causes me so much stress. Here's my new found secret:
ONE THING
When I am involved in an activity and CATCH my mind rushing ahead to the next, I say to myself, "One thing". In this I am telling myself to relax and focus on what I am doing at this present moment. Just do the one thing. Take your time - don't rush it - just do the ONE THING. When I do this, I immediately relax and become mindful, focusing on what I am doing at that present moment. So next time you CATCH your mind wandering and rushing off to the next things, remind yourself by thinking, ONE THING.
Maybe this will help you live more mindful. It's helped me.
~AOM
As our beloved friend, Thích Nhat Hanh, says:
“If while washing dishes, we think only of the cup of tea that awaits us, thus hurrying to get the dishes out of the way as if they were a nuisance, then we are not "washing the dishes to wash the dishes." What's more, we are not alive during the time we are washing the dishes. In fact we are completely incapable of realizing the miracle of life while standing at the sink. If we can't wash the dishes, the chances are we won't be able to drink our tea either. While drinking the cup of tea, we will only be thinking of other things, barely aware of the cup in our hands. Thus we are sucked away into the future -and we are incapable of actually living one minute of life.”
In this passage, Thich Nhat Hanh takes the example of
drinking Tea Mindfully to show us how to live Mindfully.
“Drink your tea slowly and reverently, as if it is the axis on which the world earth revolves. Slowly, evenly, without rushing toward the future. Live the actual moment. Only this moment is life. You must be completely awake in the present to enjoy the tea. Only in the awareness of the present, can your hands feel the pleasant warmth of the cup. Only in the present, can you savor the aroma, taste the sweetness, appreciate the delicacy. If you are ruminating about the past, or worrying about the future, you will completely miss the experience of enjoying the cup of tea. You will look down at the cup, and the tea will be gone.
Life is like that. If you are not fully present, you will look around and it will be gone. You will have missed the feel, the aroma, the delicacy and beauty of life. It will seem to be speeding past you. The past is finished. Learn from it and let it go. The future is not even here yet. Plan for it, but do not waste your time worrying about it. Worrying is worthless. When you stop ruminating about what has already happened, when you stop worrying about what might never happen, then you will be in the present moment. Then you will begin to experience joy in life.”
I don’t think of the past anymore, I don’t think of the future anymore, I’m free from the past, from the future, and there is a real encounter between me and the tea.”
It has dramatically changed my life for the better
And I'd really like you to have this gift in your life
Important NOTE! : )
Something you should know
Mindfulness is different from Meditation in that
You don't have to Meditate to be Mindful
But you do have to be Mindful to Meditate.
As I continue to study and practice Mindfulness
My life is truly improving
I now can catch myself thinking of things
That would normally send me
Into a tailspin of depression or an explosion of rage
Now, I can see them
Before they have a chance to take me with them
Now - I am learning to watch my thought and feelings
Like stepping out of myself
To be the watcher of my thinking and feeling
Having that little distance
Affords me the time to choose how I will respond
Being more aware of my thoughts and feelings
Has helped me avoid living a life of mindless reactions.
It used to be that
When others would push my buttons
I went into an instant programmed reaction
Reacting without thinking
Like a rudderless boat recklessly tossed about
by people and events around me.
Now, as I continue to grow in being Mindful,
It's like having a rudder to steady and steer my life
I can see obstacles that lay before me (I can see clearly now the rain is gone : )
I have time to decide how I will respond to life
And choose a wiser course of action
I now see things about myself that I never saw before
I can now savor the moments of my life
On a deeper and richer level
And the really cool thing is...
It's really not all that difficult
I mean really
If I can benefit from it - anyone can
It just requires you to make the effort to be aware
Of what's going on in each present moment
Whatever you are doing - pay attention to that
Be With That
Be Here, Now, in This Present Moment
And it will benefit your life
As it has mine
Now here's some folks who do a good job explaining Mindfulness:
~*~
"While washing the dishes one should only be washing the dishes, which means that while washing the dishes, one should be completely aware of the fact that one is washing the dishes. At first glance, that might seem a little silly: why put so much stress on a simple thing? But that’s precisely the point. The fact that I am standing there and washing these bowls is a wondrous reality. I’m being completely myself, following my breath, conscious of my presence, and conscious of my thoughts and actions. There’s no way I can be tossed around mindlessly like a bottle slapped here and there on the waves.
While washing dishes, you might be thinking about the tea you’re going to drink afterwards, and so try to get them out of the way as quickly as possible in order to sit and drink tea. But that means that you are incapable of living during the time you are washing the dishes. When you are washing the dishes, washing the dishes must be the most important thing in your life. Just as when you’re drinking tea, drinking tea must be the most important thing in your life.
In fact we are completely incapable of realizing the miracle of life while standing at the sink. If we can't wash the dishes, the chances are we won't be able to drink our tea either. While drinking the cup of tea, we will only be thinking of other things, barely aware of the cup in our hands. Thus we are sucked away into the future -and we are incapable of actually living one minute of life.”
~Thich Nhat Hanh
(The Miracle of Mindfulness)
~*~
"Mindfulness simply means awareness. It's a direct, intuitive knowing of what you are doing while you are doing it. It's knowing what's going on inside your mind and body, and what's going on in the outside world as well.
Most of the time our attention is not where we intended it to be. Our attention is hijacked by our thoughts and emotions, by our concerns, by our worries for the future, and our regrets and memories of the past. Mindful awareness is about learning to pay attention, in the present moment, and without judgement. It's like training a muscle - training attention to be where you want it to be. This reduces our tendency to work on autopilot, allowing us to us choose how we respond and react."
Suppose two warring parties want to negotiate, and both sides do not know enough about themselves. You have to really know yourself, your country, your party, your situation, in order to understand the other’s party, the other’s nation, the other’s people. Self and others are not two separate things because the suffering, hope, and anger of both sides are very much the same.You must know yourself in order to understand someone else.
When we get angry, we suffer. If you really understand that, you also will be able to understand that when the other person is angry, it means that he/she is suffering. When someone insults you or behaves violently towards you, you have to be intelligent enough to see that the person suffers from his own violence and anger. But we tend to forget. We think that we are the only one that suffers, and the other person is our oppressor. This is enough to make anger arise and to strengthen our desire to punish. We want to punish the other person because we suffer. Then, we have anger in us; we have violence in us, just as they do.
When we see that our suffering and anger are no different from their suffering and anger, we will behave more compassionately. So understanding the other person is understanding you, and understanding yourself is understanding the other person. Everything must begin with you.
Care for Your Anger
To understand ourselves, we must learn and practice the way of non-duality. We should not fight our anger because anger is our self – a part of our self. Anger is of an organic nature, like love. We have to take good care of anger. And because it is an organic entity; an organic phenomenon, it is possible to transform it into another organic entity. The garbage can be transformed back into compost, into lettuce, and into a cucumber. So don’t despise your anger. Don’t fight your anger, and don’t suppress your anger. Learn the tender way of taking care of your anger, and transform it into the energy of understanding and compassion.
Suppose two warring parties want to negotiate, and both sides do not know enough about themselves. You have to really know yourself, your country, your party, your situation, in order to understand the other’s party, the other’s nation, the other’s people. Self and others are not two separate things because the suffering, hope, and anger of both sides are very much the same.You must know yourself in order to understand someone else.
When we get angry, we suffer. If you really understand that, you also will be able to understand that when the other person is angry, it means that he/she is suffering. When someone insults you or behaves violently towards you, you have to be intelligent enough to see that the person suffers from his own violence and anger. But we tend to forget. We think that we are the only one that suffers, and the other person is our oppressor. This is enough to make anger arise and to strengthen our desire to punish. We want to punish the other person because we suffer. Then, we have anger in us; we have violence in us, just as they do.
When we see that our suffering and anger are no different from their suffering and anger, we will behave more compassionately. So understanding the other person is understanding you, and understanding yourself is understanding the other person. Everything must begin with you.
Care for Your Anger
To understand ourselves, we must learn and practice the way of non-duality. We should not fight our anger because anger is our self – a part of our self. Anger is of an organic nature, like love. We have to take good care of anger. And because it is an organic entity; an organic phenomenon, it is possible to transform it into another organic entity. The garbage can be transformed back into compost, into lettuce, and into a cucumber. So don’t despise your anger. Don’t fight your anger, and don’t suppress your anger. Learn the tender way of taking care of your anger, and transform it into the energy of understanding and compassion.
Thanks to our Friend for sending us this beautiful art
~*~
The River of Feelings
by Thich Nhat Hanh
from his book, Peace Is Every Step
"Our feelings play a very important part in directing all of our thoughts and actions. In us, there is a river of feelings, in which every drop of water is a different feeling, and each feeling relies on all the others for its existence. To observe it, we just sit on the bank of the river and identify each feeling as it surfaces, flows by, and disappears.
There are three sorts of feelings-- pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral. When we have an unpleasant feeling, we may want to chase it away. But it is more effective to return to our conscious breathing and just observe it, identifying it silently to ourselves: "Breathing in, I know there is an unpleasant feeling in me. Breathing out, I know there is an unpleasant feeling in me." Calling a feeling by its name, such as "anger," "sorrow," "joy," or "happiness," helps us identify it clearly and recognize it more deeply.
We can use our breathing to be in contact with out feelings and accept them. If our breathing is light and calm--a natural result of conscious breathing-- our mind and body will slowly become light, calm, and clear, and our feelings also.
Mindful observation is based on the principle of "non-duality": our feeling is not separate from us or caused merely by something outside us; our feeling is us, and for the moment we are that feeling.
We are neither drowned in nor terrorized by the feeling, nor do we reject it. Our attitude of not clinging to or rejecting our feelings is the attitude of letting go, an important part of meditation practice.
If we face our unpleasant feelings with care, affection, and nonviolence, we can transform them into the kind of energy that is healthy and has the capacity to nourish us. By the work of mindful observation, our unpleasant feelings can illuminate so much for us, offering us insight and understanding into ourselves and society."
There is a very interesting documentary now playing on Netflix about this newly discovered da Vinci painting. The program is entitled, "Da Vinci: The Lost Treasure". In it journalist Fiona Bruce receives an exclusive preview to an amazing artistic treasure.
(Note: This painting recently sold at auction for 450 million dollars - that's great and all, but that money sure would feed a lot of people - just sayin'.)
~*~
What are you doing right now?
What are you thinking.
What is going on around you?
What sounds do you hear?
How is your body feeling?
Today we are going to talk more about Mindfulness
I know I talk a lot about it
But for a very good reason
It has dramatically changed my life for the better
And I'd really like you to have this gift in your life
(Something you should know
Mindfulness is different from Meditation.
You don't have to Meditate to be Mindful
But you do have to be Mindful to Meditate.)
As I study and practice Mindfulness
My life is truly improving
I now catch myself thinking things
That normally would send me
Into a tailspin of depression
or an explosion of rage
Now - I am learning to watch myself
Like stepping out of myself
To be the watcher of my thinking and doings
Being more aware of my thoughts and feelings
Has helped me avoid living a life of mindless reactions.
It used to be like
When others would push my buttons
Ooooooo I was instant reaction
Reacting without thinking
Like a rudderless boat recklessly tossed about
by people and events around me.
Now, as I continue to grow in being Mindful,
It's like having a rudder to steady and steer my life
I can see obstacles that lay before me
I have time to decide how I will respond to life
I now see things about myself that I never saw before
I can now savor the moments of my life
On a deeper and richer level
And the really cool thing is...
It's really not difficult
I mean really
If I can gain from it - anyone can
It just requires you to make the effort to be aware
Of what's going on in each present moment
Whatever you are doing - pay attention to that
Be With That
Be Here, Now, in This Present Moment
Be aware of what you are doing
And it will benefit your life, too.
~AOM
Now here's some folks who do a good job explaining Mindfulness:
~*~
While washing the dishes one should only be washing the dishes, which means that while washing the dishes, one should be completely aware of the fact that one is washing the dishes. At first glance, that might seem a little silly: why put so much stress on a simple thing? But that’s precisely the point. The fact that I am standing there and washing these bowls is a wondrous reality. I’m being completely myself, following my breath, conscious of my presence, and conscious of my thoughts and actions. There’s no way I can be tossed around mindlessly like a bottle slapped here and there on the waves.
While washing dishes, you might be thinking about the tea you’re going to drink afterwards, and so try to get them out of the way as quickly as possible in order to sit and drink tea. But that means that you are incapable of living during the time you are washing the dishes. When you are washing the dishes, washing the dishes must be the most important thing in your life. Just as when you’re drinking tea, drinking tea must be the most important thing in your life.
In fact we are completely incapable of realizing the miracle of life while standing at the sink. If we can't wash the dishes, the chances are we won't be able to drink our tea either. While drinking the cup of tea, we will only be thinking of other things, barely aware of the cup in our hands. Thus we are sucked away into the future -and we are incapable of actually living one minute of life.”
~Thich Nhat Hanh
(The Miracle of Mindfulness)
~*~
Mindfulness is the energy of being aware and awake to the present moment. It is the continuous practice of touching life deeply in every moment of daily life. To be mindful is to be truly alive, present and at one with those around you and with what you are doing. We bring our body and mind into harmony while we wash the dishes, drive the car or take our morning shower.
~unknown
~*~
"Mindfulness simply means awareness. It's a direct, intuitive knowing of what you are doing while you are doing it. It's knowing what's going on inside your mind and body, and what's going on in the outside world as well.
Most of the time our attention is not where we intended it to be. Our attention is hijacked by our thoughts and emotions, by our concerns, by our worries for the future, and our regrets and memories of the past. Mindful awareness is about learning to pay attention, in the present moment, and without judgement. It's like training a muscle - training attention to be where you want it to be. This reduces our tendency to work on autopilot, allowing us to us choose how we respond and react."
In this video, mindfulness expert Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn defines "What is mindfulness?" and discusses the hard work and rewards of practicing mindfulness.
“Around us, life bursts with miracles--a glass of water, a ray of sunshine, a leaf, a caterpillar, a flower, laughter, raindrops. If you live in awareness, it is easy to see miracles everywhere. Each human being is a multiplicity of miracles. Eyes that see thousands of colors, shapes, and forms; ears that hear a bee flying or a thunderclap; a brain that ponders a speck of dust as easily as the entire cosmos; a heart that beats in rhythm with the heartbeat of all beings. When we are tired and feel discouraged by life's daily struggles, we may not notice these miracles, but they are always there.”
~Thich Nhat Hanh
~*~
“I have noticed that people are dealing too much with the negative, with what is wrong. ... Why not try the other way, to look into the patient and see positive things, to just touch those things and make them bloom?”
~Thich Nhat Hanh
~*~
"Do not be idolatrous about or bound to any doctrine, theory, or ideology, even Buddhist ones. Buddhist systems of thought are guiding means; they are not absolute truth."
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