Monday morning

It's dark, it's raining, it's 4.00am and it's Monday. I feel dreadful and the world will soon know it. My meditation is agonising this morning, my exercise pathetic; and then I have to go to work.

Yet the benefit of having a minimal foundation in practice is that I know, even in the midst of feeling awful, that I don't have to dig myself any deeper. I can still be aware of how it is right now, and that it changes. My gloom is not a permanent state if I don't ride it.

Restraining myself from acting unwisely on the basis of feeling strongly, and knowing that feelings will change just given time and patience. These are the two fruits of practice that I have earned and which sustain me this Monday morning!

Wild Mind

One of the most vivid images of the relationship between our conscious mind and the enlightened mind came to me in a book about writing by Natalie Goldberg. She studied Zen with Katagiri Roshi and views writing as a spiritual activity. She says to look at the vastness of the blue sky and then imagine a small black dot in the middle of the vastness. The small black dot is the conscious mind. I have the feeling that metaphor has become a sleeper for me and I will'get it' when the time is right.

Byron Katie

Some of the people I respect greatly, Steve Chandler for example, consider Byron Katie's 'Work' to be a really valuable way of making changes. Out of respect for those who have helped me I am researching and trying out this process. I came across it years ago and gave it short shrift, yet perhaps in doing something different there is something new to learn.

Feedback as a relationship builder

How to Give Feedback So that People Use It http://bit.ly/3BqEFD This is yet another great research based piece from the positive psychology movement.

Thirty years and still learning

I have been practising, teaching and been taught meditation for more than thirty years, and I am glad to write that I am still learning.

Recently I have been experimenting with incorporating another filter in to my mindfulness practice. When we practice mindfulness we may just notice what comes along as what comes along. Another way to practice is to notice what comes along as impermanent, subject to change and ‘not self’; these are traditional Buddhist filters for experience.

A filter I am playing with at the moment is, ‘does this thought/feeling take me away from or towards my goals? If it takes me away from my goals then I practice making the choice to change that thought/feeling immediately.

This is an experiment in mindfulness meditation as a whole life practice for people living in the secular world. That sounds a bit too grand, really. This is an experiment I am making as part of my interest in owning my practice of meditation and keeping it alive, rather than an unconscious part of my daily routine. In my opinion this is one of the ways mindfulness will develop as it becomes ‘owned’ by practitioners who live outside a monastic system.

There is no judgment here, simply that different contexts require different responses.

So, consider your own context of practice. If you are a beginner, stick with the teachings you have been given. If a bit more experienced why not investigate your own practice and notice, through experimentation, what works for you.

Flying behind the plane

Interesting distinction by Gary Klein in his book Sources of Power. The further up the organisational ladder you are the more you need to look ahead. I f we are too wrapped up in ourselves and our dramas rather than responding to available feedback we are more likely to make mistakes.

Richard

www.lifechoicemeditation.com

Heart Bytes 3

Here is the link for the latest heart bytes, 'feel good' story...take a tissue.

http://tinyurl.com/7bms4x

enjoy!

Richard

www.lifechoicemeditation.c

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