Mindfulness Practices for Beginners

Although mindfulness meditation is all the rage these days, most of us have little time for formal practice.

Studies have found mindfulness meditation has many benefits.

• Reducing Depression
• Reducing Pain
• Increasing Creativity
• Accelerating Cognition
• Settling the Mind

Mindfulness meditation doesn't have to be a chore in itself. There are quick and easy ways to add a little mindfulness into your busy everyday life.

1. Walking Meditation - Easiest and best done somewhere with few distractions, but you can try this one anywhere you will be walking for as little as ten to fifteen minutes. As with most forms of mindfulness, it's about focusing your attention. Start with how your feet feel touching the ground with each step, then you can begin focusing on your breath or maybe move your attention around to each part of your body. The key is to develop a relaxed state of attention. When your mind wanders bring it back without judging yourself.
2. Eating Meditation - Practice a little mindfulness meditation while you eat. When you take that first bite, really notice how it tastes. Take notice of how it smells or maybe the textures in your mouth. You don't want to do this the entire meal. But as a tool to focus your attention on the present moment.
3. Small Break - Turn away from the computer, tablet, or smartphone. Just sit for a while noticing the sensations in your mind and body. How do you feel? What can you hear? Just being present in the moment. Let wandering thoughts go, and bring your focus back to the present. Just be.
4. Mindful Listening - We get used to all of the commotion of life that we have a tendency to tune out things in our surroundings. ie; If you live in a city, there might be sirens, trains, and the hustle and bustle of people.  In the country, trees sway about, or maybe birds sing. What can you hear right now? As an exercise, you can put on some music, try to not let your mind wander. It may remind you of something or someone, bringing your mind back to the music. Try not to focus on the lyrics just take notice of the flow of the music.  
5. The Small Things - Even small things we do on a daily basis can become an opportunity to experience this moment. Brushing your teeth, your mind may be thinking of a thousand other things. Instead, try to focus on the task at hand. Take notice of the taste of the toothpaste, and how the bristles feel on your teeth. Showering or bathing is yet another opportunity to focus your mind on your senses instead of worries and useless thoughts.
6. The Breath - One of the most well-known techniques to focus on the moment is paying attention to your breath. Simply experiencing your breath in and out, it's like push-ups for your mind.

Hopefully, these exercises will help you develop a mindfulness practice. By no means is this list all there is.  

A quote from mindfulness expert Jon Kabat-Zinn,

"Mindfulness means paying attention in a particular way; on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally."

So don't feel limited to these exercises. Feel free to mix and match, explore the internet, and find the ones that fit you and your life the best.

Almost any activity can be incorporated into your mindfulness practice, and "Practice Makes Perfect."

Your-Thoughts-In-Your-Past-Manifest-Your-Future

Everyone You Didn't Meet Could Be Your Teacher Funkadelic Style

This is sort of a follow up to a post I wrote in August of 2017.  I was born at the very end of the 60's, the Summer of 69 to be exact. A time of transition I'm told from the days of peace and love hippie movement to the Funk of the 70's, LOL. 

This past week I have been re-reading a really great book about Jarvis Jay Masters, A Buddhist on Death Row. A lot more on that great book to come in the near future. If you haven't purchased it yet, I highly recommend it. 

So in this book, one of the many lessons Mr. Masters learns is about learning to watch his mind and freeing it from the preconditioned restraints that life itself had put on him. As he is contemplating this a song that would be played often in his youth came to mind by the Funkadelic's, "Free Your Mind and Your Ass Will Follow."

Everyone you didn't meet could be your teacher.

  

Funkadelic's, "Free Your Mind and Your Ass Will Follow."

The lyrics to this next song are loosely based on a combination of a book called "As a Man Thinketh", a literary essay by James Allen, published in 1902, and the basis of The Law of Attraction (you reap what you sow) It starts off with a very looooooong instrumental intro, it puts you in touch with yourself. But don't stop there is more, stick around it gets even better.....let it speak to you. You won't regret it.

 

Funkadelic's "Good Thoughts, Bad Thoughts"

Have you come across anyone or anything in your path that has opened your eyes to help you make sense of a teaching that you have been contemplating? 

Have one or more of those eye-opening moments come from an expected source?

Trance End

Essential Ideas of Buddhism

The Essential Ideas of Buddhism

When we speak about Buddhism we refer to an extraordinarily vast and deep subject. I have learnt but a single drop of this great ocean of knowledge, however I will share here a short, introduction to some of the fundamental points of the Dharma.

Buddha teaching his first disciples

Most might know that Buddhism is one of the great World Religions and that it traces back to Buddha Shakyamuni, who was born in Lumbini (Nepal) over 2500 years ago. Many of you will also probably know some of Buddha's great deeds, as it would take too long to describe them all. At the age of thirty-five, Buddha manifested the attainment of full enlightenment; then, he lived on until the age of eighty-one. From the attaining of enlightenment until his Parinirvana, he spent most of his time sharing and teaching.

The first teaching Buddha had given was on the Four Noble Truths: the Noble Truth of Suffering, the Noble Truth of the Cause of Suffering, the Noble Truth of the Cessation (or Liberation) of Suffering and the Noble Truth of the Path to End Suffering. After that, he covered a variety of teachings, always in accordance to the needs and mental dispositions of his disciples.

At first, these teachings of Buddha spread widely in India. Tibetans were first introduced to the Dharma in the seventh century of the western calendar; and, immediately recognising its extraordinary value, they applied great efforts into bringing the doctrine to their home country. Many travelled to India in order to study Buddhism there, and some outstanding Indian Buddhist masters were also invited to teach in Tibet.

Bodhisattva Vows

A shared link on the Bodhisattva Vows by; Neroudivergent Rebel

Bodhisattva-vows by Neroudivergent Rebel

Wisdom of the Buddha Dhammapada 27

What's Stopping You From Advancing on Your Path to Enlightenment?

Rev. Dr. Muko Takei from Shingyo Pre-sectarian Buddhist Temple explains what we need to advance in our spirituality.  To maintain a good focus and become unstuck on our path to enlightenment.