hopeandfaith101

[hopeandfaith101]

— zenmister, from, the post Negativity Filter

[hopeandfaith101]

Make Up Your Mind

Everyday, before we leave our homes, we make up our selves. We shower and pick out clothes for the day. We fix our hair, shave, apply make up on our faces, gargle mouthwash, and put on deodorant and perfume. This is how we present ourselves to the world every day. All that stuff is not easy. It takes time and energy. It sets the tone for the day. As we go through these daily rituals, we are not just applying make up to our faces, we are applying make up to our minds. It is important to be aware of this.

Sometimes we decide that we are not morning people. This is a good recognition that it is harder for us to create good moods in the mornings than at other times of day. It is especially important for non-morning people, who have to be up and about in the mornings anyway, to think about how we make up our minds in the mornings. The way to intentionally make up our minds is through mindfulness. It doesn’t take any extra time to watch what is happening in our minds as we go about our routines. By recognizing our difficult moods and thoughts, we can soothe them to make the whole day go a little more smoothly.

If we imagine that we wear our moods on our faces (which, of course, we do) it makes perfect sense to pay attention to what mood we wear. Our mood is easily as important as which shirt is right for the occasion. If we wake up and begin our day with a bad mood, then we have to recognize this and be gentle with ourselves and those around us. We have to pay close attention to our judging thoughts, which say this is good or that is bad. If we are in a bad mood, we will notice that we judge a lot of things as bad. It’s not really a fair judge. When we make up our minds to build awareness of our moods, we limit the damage that these moods do to ourselves and others.

Even in a sour mood, when our internal judge is shouting, “bad, bad, bad”, we can notice how good the warm water feels on our skin in the shower. We can appreciate how the hair brush scratches our scalp. We can find music and smells that remind us of the goodness all around us. Finding a happy thought to counter a bad mood is not all that different from brushing our teeth to counter coffee stains.

The best thing about making up our mind is that we can do it all day long. We don’t need a mirror, we are a mirror. Whenever we notice our mind running off into bad, bad, bad, we make up our mind to see the other side. Getting started first thing in the morning is important, because, like it or not, we are all morning people. Each morning we make up our mind one way or another. If we make up our mind mindfully, we will spread peace through our lives.

[hopeandfaith101]

Peace & Harmony

The main thing that you need to do in life is to create peace and harmony. To create peace and harmony you have value peace and harmony. You don’t have to feel peaceful and harmonious all the time (that would be nice), but you have to regularly remember that peace and harmony is very important.

When you are feeling at peace and in harmony with life, then you can radiate that feeling to help everybody else. That will help. When you are feeling ill at ease or out of harmony, you can absorb all the peace and harmony that others are radiating. That will help too. Peace is always there.  Harmony is always there.

If things feel like they are disharmonious, then you can gently bring them into harmony. If there is conflict, then you can bring peace. The trick is being patient and remaining focused on peace and harmony. The trick is not giving up when peace and harmony seem lost. The trick is not getting tricked into thinking that other things are more pressing than peace and harmony.

You can accomplish all of your life’s goals in peace and harmony. Without peace and harmony, there are no worthwhile goals. To practice peace and harmony, simply look for peace and harmony wherever you go, whatever you do. That is important. If you forget from time to time, try again.

— Zenmister, from Peace and Harmony

[hopeandfaith101]

The Spiritual Grind

The ordinary mind is the Buddha mind.  It is easy to be spiritual in a quiet room surrounded by crystals, chimes and Buddhas. It’s nice to let your spiritual side shine at yoga or with your sangha. If you are not a nun or monk, there is a lot more of your life to live.  How are you spiritual at work or school, or in the grocery store? Zen has an answer for that.

There is no difference between your busy body, daily grind self and your meditating self. The meditation is the relatively easy part of your day.  It’s just you, your breath and your focus.  As soon as you get off the cushion, the difficult work begins. That’s when you forget about your spirit and you just go about your day as you.

Practicing mindfulness, when you have other things on your mind, is difficult. All you can ever do is do what you are doing.  All you can ever think is what you are thinking. Adding awareness throughout your day uses the skills you practice in meditation, to appreciate the rest of your life. You don’t have to flaunt your spirituality, just know that it’s there. Know that you’re there, here.

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If you wish to mature toward your authentic and spontaneous nature in any degree, the ideas of “me” and “mine” must go. You must come to see that you neither the body nor the mind, neither the “me” nor the “mine. The true light of awareness is without being this or that, without any self-identification with anything in particular or in general. It is light itself.

Nisargadatta Maharaj

[hopeandfaith101]

“Be an island unto yourself. Take refuge in yourself and not in anything else.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

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“Some thoughts are right, some are wrong, and it is hard to tell which is which. From a Zen perspective, there is a simple answer, don’t think.”

— Zenmister, from the post What If I’m Right? (via zenwords)

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“Whenever you are conscious of the breath, you are absolutely present. You may notice that you cannot think and be aware of your breathing. Conscious breathing stops your mind.”

— Eckhart Tolle

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Why Is It Taking So Long To Heal Ourselves?

Sometimes we wonder why it is taking so long to change/heal ourselves and why the same sort of heavy emotions keep coming up. We don’t realize how rapidly we have accumulated patterns throughout our entire lives, especially during moments of intense heavy emotions. These patterns harden and direct our future behavior into reactions that are similar to the ones we have felt in the past. When we start the deconditioning process of letting go, we release layers of knotted energy that have been kept in our subconscious — the same emotional history that has been affecting our daily lives and forcing us to recreate the past.

— Yung Pueblo

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“How many times have you worked yourself up into agitation only to fin that there was really no problem at all?”

— Yung Pueblo

[hopeandfaith101]

“Each time you breathe out, breathe out all of the things in you that keep you from knowing your true self; breathe out all the separateness, all the feelings of unworthiness, all the self pity, all the attachment to your pain. Breath out anger and doubt and greed and lust and confusion.”

— Ram Dass

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“Meditation can be thought of as the art of awakening. Through the mastering of this art we can learn new ways to approach our difficulties and bring wisdom and joy alive in our life.”

— Jack Kornfield

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Mind Altering Practice

Regular meditation changes how you think. It changes the structures in your brain. It changes how you relate to yourself and others. Beginning immediately, and then cumulatively, over time, meditation alters your mind.

To witness the immediate effects of meditation, take ten, ten-second breaths. Adjust your posture, so that your back is straight and head is level, then bring your attention to your breathing. As you breathe in, count from one to five. Hold the breath for a moment, then, as you exhale, count down from five to one. At the end of each exhale, count the breath. Count ten breaths and the mini-meditation is complete. As quickly as one or two breaths, you can recognize a difference in your mind. Ten breaths like that, ten times a day is equivalent to around 20 minutes of mediation.

The difference that you notice immediately is more pronounced if you are stressed or tense. Breathing deeply and evenly switches on your relax mode. The more you work the switch, the better it works for you. If you are too relaxed, you can work the switch the other way, and take fast short breaths to get your anxiety up.

Ten breaths is a short form of mediation, which will take around two minutes. A five minute mediation will be 25-30 breaths. For around twenty minutes of mediation, rest your attention on your breathing for 100 breaths.

If you spend a lot of time angry, you have a mind built for anger. If you spend a lot of time afraid, you have a mind built for fear. If you spend a lot of time feeling grateful, you have a mind built for gratitude. If you spend a lot of time in meditation, you can see the mind you have and make adjustments to create the mind you want.

A long-term effect of mediation is a physical change to your brain structure that allows for more executive control and better emotional regulation. Another is that your outlook changes. As you intentionally practice thinking of gratitude, compassion and love, your mind gets in the habit of feeling those feelings and naturally settles into those pleasant states.

Life will always bring you circumstances to send you through emotional highs and lows, but with a regular meditation practice, no matter what is happening around you, you will be able to bring your attention back to your breath, be present where you are, and compassionately, intentionally build the mind you want to live with for the rest of your life.

— Zenmister, Mind Altering Practice 

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“Feelings come and go like clouds in a windy sky. Conscious breathing is my anchor.”

Thich Nhat Hanh

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Mindful Walking

Walking can give you a chance to spend time being mindful without taking any extra time out of your day. Wherever you are walking to or from today, turn it into a meditative exercise. Walk slowly, paying attention to the sensations on the soles of your feet. Notice as each part of the sole from heel to toe, touches the ground. Lifting, moving, placing. Notice how the body moves as you walk. Walk with awareness. One step at a time. Notice any thoughts that arise and let them be. 

— From the book Everyday Mindfulness 

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[hopeandfaith101]

Like most people, you have ideals, have you not? And the ideal is not real, not factual; it is what should be, it is something in the future. Now, what I say is this: forget the ideal, and be aware of what you are. Do not pursue what should be, but understand what is. The understanding of what you actually are is far more important than the pursuit of what you should be. Why? Because, in understanding what you are, there begins a spontaneous process of transformation; whereas, in becoming what you think you should be, there is no change at all, but only a continuation of the same old thing in a different form. If the mind, seeing that it is stupid, tries to change its stupidity into intelligence, which is what should be, that is silly, it has no meaning, no reality; it is only the pursuit of a self-projection, a postponement of the understanding of what is. As long as the mind tries to change its stupidity into something else, it remains stupid. But if the mind says, ‘I realise that I am stupid and I want to understand what stupidity is, therefore I shall go into it, I shall observe how it comes into being,’ then that very process of inquiry brings about a fundamental transformation.

~ Jiddu Krishnamurti