"Defining mindfulness is like trying to define love or art" (Joseph Goldstein)
As I explore mindfulness through practising, I think about it as helping me understand more about being human, and to meet this with more compassion. Brain Pickings is a favourite blog about being human 😊 and here's an article by its author Maria Popova to celebrate 13 years of Brain Pickings. https://www.brainpickings.org/…/10/23/13-learnings-13-years/
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Meeting habits of ‘not wanting’ and ‘striving’ with an attitude of welcoming…
After a tiring Monday, I was supported to practice last night by members of our local sitting group. These opportunities are very precious to me – the sense of intention and space held by the group. And I deeply appreciated the insights we shared (in both senses of this word)… - How practising with an attitude of ‘welcoming’ all experience, just as it is, is a valuable counterpoint to how we so often meet the challenges of daily life (braced, contracted, resisting...) - How despite years of practice, an undercurrent of ‘striving’ for things to be a certain way is here. The practice can reveal this and allow it be here, gently acknowledged. - How there is no endpoint to practice, simply a path that is always unfolding. And is it any wonder that habits of striving and pushing against what is not wanted are so powerful and entrenched? And that an alternative stance of opening to and welcoming whatever is here is something we need to practise regularly. Welcoming experience does not mean we have to like it, or that we are going to passively resign ourselves to something that is unhealthy. Instead it brings a sense of spaciousness, clarity and the possibility of choosing how to respond. These reminders through sharing practice and experiences are immeasurably precious. The poem we shared: Peace is This Moment Without Judgement Do you think peace requires an end to war? Or tigers eating only vegetables? Does peace require an absence from your boss, your spouse, yourself?... Do you think peace will come some other place than here? Some other time than Now? In some other heart than yours? Peace is this moment without judgement. That is all. This moment in the Heart-space where everything that is is welcome. Peace is this moment without thinking that it should be some other way, that you should feel some other thing, that your life should unfold according to your plans. Peace is this moment without judgement, this moment in the heart-space where everything that is is welcome. ~Dorothy Hunt Pausing, considering the diary over the next few weeks, thinking about the balance of nourishing and depleting... and that there are many different forms of 'rest'.
Can you give yourself some of this over the next couple of days? |
AuthorI'm Claire - and I (re)learn something every day from practising and teaching mindfulness... Archives
March 2022
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