On the “Be-Normal Blog“, Josh goes into something that I feel is very important. Our true spiritual practice is not only about sitting in zazen each morning… or a meditation break after lunch… or church.
Our practice is breathing… is being present in awareness each moment. Every moment.
Living awake every moment… that is our practice.
Take a read, it’s worth it: Be Normal::Practice Makes Perfect
That’s the question I find myself asking ALL the time. It’s a central focus of my meditations more often than not.
I just randomly stumbled upon a blog that answers this question in a way that made me laugh so hard I’m still in tears… I introduce… Puppetji
…[forget] this nonsensical questions. People seem to believe they are what they do. Stop. This is false my friends. This is merely the identity trying to create meaning or purpose where there is none.
Let go of these questions… freedom comes in not knowing.
Burn This Book <<< dreamslaughter
When you call yourself an Indian or a Muslim or a Christian or a European, or anything else, you are being violent. Do you see why it is violent? It is because you are separating yourself from the rest of mankind. When you separate yourself by belief, by nationality, by tradition, it breeds violence. So a man who is seeking to understand violence does not belong to any country, to any religion, to any political party or partial system; he is concerned with the total understanding of mankind.
~ J. Krishnamurthi
The Window
(Author Unknown)
The men talked for hours on end. They spoke of their wives and families, their homes, their jobs, their involvement in the military service, where they had been on vacation. And every afternoon when the man in the bed next to the window could sit up, he would pass the time by describing to his roommate all the things he could see outside the window.
The man in the other bed would live for those one-hour periods where his world would be broadened and enlivened by all the activity and color of the outside world. The window overlooked a park with a lovely lake, the man had said. Ducks and swans played on the water while children sailed their model boats. Lovers walked arm in arm amid flowers of every color of the rainbow. Grand old trees graced the landscape, and a fine view of the city skyline could be seen in the distance. As the man by the window described all this in exquisite detail, the man on the other side of the room would close his eyes and imagine the picturesque scene.
One warm afternoon the man by the window described a parade passing by. Although the other man could not hear the band, he could see it in his mind’s eye as the gentleman by the window portrayed it with descriptive words. Unexpectedly, an alien thought entered his head: Why should he have all the pleasure of seeing everything while I never get to see anything? It didn’t seem fair. As the thought fermented, the man felt ashamed at first. But as the days passed and he missed seeing more sights, his envy eroded into resentment and soon turned him sour. He began to brood and found himself unable to sleep. He should be by that window - and that thought now controlled his life.
Late one night, as he lay staring at the ceiling, the man by the window began to cough. He was choking on the fluid in his lungs. The other man watched in the dimly lit room as the struggling man by the window groped for the button to call for help. Listening from across the room, he never moved, never pushed his own button which would have brought the nurse running. In less than five minutes, the coughing and choking stopped, along with the sound of breathing. Now, there was only silence–deathly silence.
The following morning, the day nurse arrived to bring water for their baths. When she found the lifeless body of the man by the window, she was saddened and called the hospital attendant to take it away–no words, no fuss. As soon as it seemed appropriate, the man asked if he could be moved next to the window. The nurse was happy to make the switch and after making sure he was comfortable, she left him alone.
Slowly, painfully, he propped himself up on one elbow to take his first look. Finally, he would have the joy of seeing it all himself. He strained to slowly turn to look out the window beside the bed. It faced a blank wall.
Source:http://classes.bus.oregonstate.edu/ba465/Stories/The%20Window.htm
… by our higher selves.
Every day most find something to worry about. Sometimes we are already worried and in search of a reason to be so.
Sometimes unfortunate things happen in our lives… a loved one is sick, you lose your keys, your work falls into chaos… so many things to worry about.
Or you can choose to not worry. If you shut off your desire to control and relax your impulse to steer the ship, then quiet your mind… you will notice a pressure. This pressure is pushing you in a certain direction… this pressure is your intuition.
If we calmly follow our subtle intuition… and completely surrender our desire… all of a sudden things work out. It’s an astounding an amazing phenomenon.
Don’t pray, don’t desire… just surrender and “walk” in the direction of the subtle pressure.
…Surrender
Large parts of our life involve accumulating “stuff”. We’re always buying more and more, always collecting.
I’ve started to declutter my life by letting go of “stuff” each day. It’s a process of simplifying my living space.
The less stuff I have, the lighter and more at peace I’m feeling. It’s pretty powerful, this letting go.
Meditate on this, you don’t need anything other than breath, water, and small amounts of simple food. Some would add inter-personal interaction, and I would agree that we need people to interact with… but not as much as you think.
Let go and free yourself of your attachments… even if it’s just for a day.
The Ultimate Quest, “The Meaning of Life” or “The Purpose of Life”.
I mean, we’re here living on this earth at this time… why?
Out of all the books I’ve read and people I’ve spoken with… the one bit of wisdom I’m finding in common is this:
“Life is without objective meaning.”
At first that sounds like a very bad, depressing notion. But think about it. If there’s no inherent purpose to our lives, then we are free. Free to create meaning.
So we are free to exist and free to create our purpose, however simple or grand it is… without external judgment.
What do you want to do now?
The one truth in life is that nothing is forever.
People die, circumstances change, people change.
Relationships are one of those things in life that hurt most when they change.
To open one’s heart is to love and be alive, and you can’t close your heart to avoid the pain of a changing relationship.
There are many memories and feelings I always cherish about you.
The light of your smile,
the joy of your embrace,
the happiness of your laugh,
the sensuality of your lips as we kissed,
the warmth of your hand holding mine.
This is a simple list that represent a deeper series of memories,
memories I can’t help but hold dear and close in the hollow space of your absence.
I loved you from the day I met you, and I love you now.
I will miss you, my love.
There are more books about meditation than I can count. Every book explains a different way to meditate and different reasons to meditate.
If we cut out all the excess information, there is only one primary reason and one primary way to meditate.
We meditate in order to stop our mental chatter.
Stopping our mental chatter brings euphoria, insight, improved physical and mental health, and taps into our intuitive unconscious. These are side effects of stopping our mental chatter and that is the goal of meditation.
Stopping the mental chatter can occur primarily by sitting and breathing. When a random though pops up we observe it from a distance, acknowledge that it is a thought, and then let it go bringing focus back to breathing. Sometimes we get the feeling of boredom that’s just another thought (strong because we’re identifying ourselves with it). Acknowledge it, let it go, focus on breathing.
Chanting is interesting because it’s basically a focus on breathing with an auditory component. Chanting with other people in unison… that’s an incredible experience that makes it very easy to stop the mental chatter.
The meditation books also talk about soft (new agey) music, incense, positions, etc. The point of all this is to put you in a better mood for meditation. They make you feel sacred and help you to relax.
When you meditate, if you’re going to use anything to help you, beyond sitting in a quiet place, make sure that your reason for using it is not ego based.
Being true in your motivations is very difficult to identify. The more you think or talk about it, the more false it is for you. You know right away if something is real, don’t ignore that.
When you get right down tot he basics, all we need to do is eat a small amount of food and water every day. Food and water are the only external “object” we need to acquire to be alive.
Everything else we purchase is in the spirit of attempting to make ourselves more comfortable. Being comfortable is not a bad thing, in fact being comfortable is a result of being happy (not necessarily the other way around).
When we start placing greater value on those other external object, that’s when we simply start creating unhappiness. We start believing that we can’t be happy without this or that.
Stop thinking… stop thinking about your next purchase for a moment. Stop thinking about your next paycheck AND stop thinking about your next bill for a moment.
Close your eyes, and take really deep breaths as if you’re pushing the air into your stomach. Hold your breath for a few seconds and slowly let it out… and smile.
If you were able to do that without letting your ego creep in with also sorts of random thoughts about the future and the past… or “problems”… then you just experienced life right now. Even if it was just for a moment.
If you can’t get past your ego chatter (called monkey mind by some)… then you most certainly will not understand what I just said. You’ll probably have some negative thought/comment about my words. That was your ego… not you. If you were able to see that… now you know what I mean.