Forgiveness
“The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.” – Gandhi When angry or holding resentment, the way out is forgiveness. This usually comes naturally at some point, but after a confrontation, there can be a good chunk of time where the natural impulse is hold on to that resentment, generating ill will towards your adversary, almost …
These endless thoughts
It started as a week long Mind Chatter exercise for the Creativity & Personal Mastery class, where I wrote down the thoughts in my head periodically during the day, and the emotional tenor that I felt at the time (and whether they felt positive or negative). At the end of the week, I gathered the half-dozen pages of thoughts I …
Mindfulness and observing thoughts
The first step to working with unproductive thoughts is to become aware of what thoughts you are having. Just as when you are speaking, if you wish to eliminate filler words such as uh, um, or and – the first step is to catch it happening. Here is exercise to observe your thoughts from the insight meditation center: During the …
Unproductive thinking
So much for exploring the journey. I like to write for my empty bucket because it is an excellent way to explore topics of personal transformation, and having a daily post forces me to sit down and think. I didn’t post last week as I got swept away with anxiety and unproductive thoughts. Or more correctly: thoughts that kept repeating …
Joy of being
The joy of being arises in this present moment when you realize that everything you are experiencing is perfect. Nothing needs to change – the joy is in appreciation of what is. It doesn’t mean you don’t act, rather when you do act it is more of a dance with what is, rather than craving to get somewhere or something …
Five senses plus four more
At the core of Vipassana is understanding the impermanence of all things. Everything we know, we experience within the body as a sensation, either as a subtle vibration of awareness, or through our senses. Everything we experience arises within us, and then passes away. Our obvious senses include sight, hearing, taste, smell, touch. According to wikipedia, our senses also include: …
Dissolving pain
I have experienced two 10-day Vipassana retreats. During my second retreat, I had an amazing insight into the power of the meditation. (I’m a slow learner.) One of the objectives behind Vipassana is to dissolve pain by observing it in the present moment and accepting what is. When we are aware of the internal resistance we are creating, we can …
Practicing Vipassana
Vipassana meditation is pretty straight-forward. At the retreat, you start working with your breath, and progress to passing your awareness through your body. The rough guide to Vipassana is: Awareness of breath (paying attention to your breathing). Focusing your breath awareness onto a smaller and smaller point at the base of your nose. Passing that same awareness slowly over the …
Vipassana retreat
The largest offering of Vipassana Meditation is that taught By S. N. Goenka, offering free 10-day courses (costs are covered through donations). It originated in India, but now there are meditation centers world-wide. At first glance, the daily schedule for the 10 days looks pretty demanding: 4:00 a.m. Morning wake-up bell 4:30 – 6:30 a.m. Meditate in the hall or …
Vipassana
Vipassana is a meditation centered around observation and awareness. It differs from focused meditations that use mantra’s, such as transcendental meditation, or meditations that focus on controlling the breathing, because it is precisely about NOT controlling anything, and just observing. Sounds easy enough, right? In Vipassana, for once your life you don’t have to DO anything. In fact, you’re specifically …