Tuesday, May 31st, 2011
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The biggest problem in our society is that we have lost our ability to just be.
Thursday, May 5th, 2011
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What makes mindfulness so special is that we practice the quality of attention that we give to ourselves and our surroundings. We all give attention, otherwise we wouldn’t have a mind. But often this attention is often colored, or biased. It might be a harsh kind of attention, or even too soft, where it gets blurry and we loose our sharpness. The mindfulness technique is perfectly designed to practice a very natural, friendly but clear form of attention to our emotions, thoughts, sounds, feelings, smells etc. It is an unconditional and non-judgmental form of attention, yet very warm and human. By being mindful of all that happens (Vipassana) we start to see, our patterns, reactions. By staying with the breath (Shamatha) whilst being mindful of what happens, we do not loose ourselves in that which we see, hear or feel. We don’t get caught up in the stories, but instead become like mountains, unwavering but also fully accepting. The breath becomes an anchor which holds this quality of attention. This is the same kind of attention that children need for becoming healthy human beings, but also what can make a painting or a meal so delightful, because it is made with so much care. This is the quality of attention that we practice in mindfulness and this is also the quality of attention the world needs today.
Saturday, April 23rd, 2011
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Usually during the year we take off a few days from our work by taking a holiday, which is very important and vital for us. We can recharge our battery, get our minds off work and hassle and enjoy good food, good weather and nature. The question, however, is how do we spend this holiday? We can use this holiday to just space out, numb ourselves with alcohol or drugs, party at night, sleep at day, but often when we get back home, we will feel even more tired than before. There is not necessarily anything wrong with that, it just often doesn’t have any lasting positive effects. Or, we can take a holiday, still very much enjoy the nature, the beach and good food and drinks, but actually pay a little more attention to our bodies and minds by mindfulness and contemplation. we can reflect on our patterns, our stress levels, our harshness towards ourselves and use the holiday to actually become softer, milder and more compassionate, healing both our bodies and minds. Then a holiday does not necessarily become a flee, but actually something more like a retreat which is not disconnected from our daily lives, but actually makes it more healthy.
Wednesday, April 20th, 2011
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Sometimes the hastiness and pressure of our lives can become a real burden in our spiritual practice. You try to be compassionate and mindful, but your just being snappy and agitated all the time, no matter what you try. Sometimes the pressure of our lives can become so intense that spiritual practice alone doesn’t cut it, in fact, it can even worsen it!. Sometimes, then, we just have to let go of it all and relax, just be, letting our body take care of itself. A trap in spiritual practice can be that we think we can take it all. We have practiced our minds, making them very strong and versatile and therefore we need lees sleep and get much more work done. Whilst this might actually be true up untill a certain point, we still are limited to our physical bodies, which we have to honour and listen to. Once we start respecting that, creating a balance between work and just relaxation, then the spiritual practice becomes fully integrated and there is balance between the relative and the absolute, heaven and earth. Life becomes both mundane and magical at the same time.
Friday, March 11th, 2011
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Meditation is about strengthening the mind. Neuropsychological findings actually show that mindfulness meditation strengthens brain areas that have to do with self-control, attention and concentration. It is exactly this area which usually malfunctions with people who have ADHD, depression, borderline personality disorder and what not. And it is also for this very reason that mindfulness is now incorporated into the standard treatment of all these disorders. But also like training your muscles, the credo is; easy does it. That means, that after training our muscles/brain, we also let go of it, we don’t overstrain anything. Than we can build up a steady practice and strengthen our minds more and more. In meditation we gain sharpness, wakefulness. But if we cling onto this too much, it can turn into harshness and this kind of dogmatic zen master attitude. Instead if just just relax with it, blend it with humor, then it becomes a dance.
Friday, February 25th, 2011
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It really does not matter much what you do in life, how you do it is what matters most.
Wednesday, February 9th, 2011
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Sometimes, especially in work-related situations, you have to think and decide real fast. I still believe, however, that taking just a mini moment to let things settle in can make a big difference. Sometimes the case requires a simple yes or no and many times there is the quick impulsive reaction, which is based on our automatic pilot (which sometimes might be the best answer) and there is the more thought through answer, which sometimes might actually be the less good option because it misses spontaniety and bravery. It is however possible to, for just a split-second, let the whole case just be, even if it’s confusing. then, as some sort of alchemy, the right answer usually comes out naturally, without us having to manipulate that or analyse it. So a situation occurs, there is different ways of responding to it, we let it just be for a second or two and than we act naturally as if we cut with our sword, with no doubt what so ever.
Wednesday, February 9th, 2011
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Never act from a confused mind
Friday, January 14th, 2011
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The purpose of meditation is to learn to just be. This sounds so simple, but actually this is quite hard for us. Often people are critical about the Buddhist view that human nature is good. The how come there is so much evil in this world? But through a simple deduction we can scientifically proof that this is true. If you would have to define the nature of water, would natural clear water come closer to that definition, or cloudy muddy water? Of course; clear clean water comes closer to that. The same goes for our mind which is filled with conditioned thoughts, fears and concepts which can cause us to act fearfully and aggressively. But this is not who we really are, this is not our true nature; meditation is proof of that. In meditation we let go of all these fearful concepts; I am this, he is that, this is good or bad. What you see, and one can truly examine this for oneself, is that when the mind becomes clear again there is actually a lot of wisdom, positive emotions and compassion. We do not only know this from 2500 years of experience but also through state of the art brain scans; that when the mind is in a wakeful but deeply relaxed state, brain parts that stand for these qualities become more active. Not only is this healthy for the mind, dozens of researches show that it has major advantages for our immune system and health (for instance psoriasis heals 4 times quicker when the standard UV treatment concurs with meditation practice). But for us Westerners this has become difficult, it is hard to just be. We feel as if just being human isn’t worthy enough and it is exactly this distrust in our selves that causes so many problems. We have to start trusting our selves as the source of wisdom and compassion we so desperately need in this world, let go of the distrust of just being.
Tuesday, January 11th, 2011
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Often in our childhood we get the feeling as if certain parts of ourselves are not allowed to be there. We are being conditioned to always avoid or push away certain feelings. If our emotional spectrum would be a cake, we always miss one, two, or even more pieces. We take this with us in our lives later on, causing a constant struggle against the emotions we were being taught not to experience, wether they are insecurity, sexual feelings, anger or affection. Not only does this have it’s resonance on our social and romantic lives, also it heavily influences the way we judge other people. If certain parts of ourselves can not be there, than sure as hell other people also shouldn’t have those emotions, let alone our own children (which explains why this is being transferred from one generation to another). I believe that in any point of our lives we can learn how to become whole again, to accept our own minds and beings unconditionally. There is often an irrational fear lying underneath why we don’t do this. We think; ‘Oh if I allow insecurity or anger into my being, the consequences will be immeasurable’. In fact is the other way around; it is exactly because we don’t trust ourselves in allowing those experiences that we continue to show behavior that is damaging to ourselves and others. So how do we become whole? By becoming aware and unconditionally accepting what happens to us at moments we find difficult, without judging ourselves for that. It is often because we tend to fight against our insecurity or anger or whatever that we actually become insecure or aggressive. By allowing it instead we can start communicating with our environment and there can be a connection. Often we copy the way our parents raised us and use it as a blueprint of what we accept about ourselves and what we label as wrong and right. We can become our own parents, we can learn how to unconditionally love ourselves. When we have done that, we can start loving the world unconditionally.