Posts Tagged ‘mindfulness’

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Taming the bull

Thursday, February 4th, 2010

I guess if I were to have to make a call I’d say that I am taming the bull.  I’m reminded of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s approach to body building; everytime the same routine, session in, session out. It’s not about making it interesting, it’s about getting the job done. And I’m reminded of something Gil Fronsdal once said; to paraphrase: that people think my talk was boring is a good thing. After all, what we’re pointing to is interesting not the pointing itself. But it seems we are making finer and finer distinctions until there are no distinctions at all.

So, this taming, seems to be about getting some distance on the mind; the kind of distance where thoughts are seen to be external, which is I guess glimpsing the bull. Perhaps distance should be called spaciousness. Thoughts arise within a much wider space than the thoughts themselves. And because of that distance there is a measure of control, which seems to be no control at all, because when there is control it is really thoughts controlling thoughts. Call this wider space presence. (more…)

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The Great Doubt

Monday, September 7th, 2009

Pleasure and pain according to Sigmund Freud, Anthony Robbins and a whole bunch of others is the great driving principle of human behaviour. We move towards pleasure and avoid pain. It seems like

I’ve been listening to Auckland Zen Centre‘s Amala sensei’s commentary on Shattering the Great Doubt: The Chan Practice of Huatou by Sheng Yen.

It was a reminder to me of how important discomfort is. I’m between homes at the moment and am house sitting a friend’s home. The break in my habits has brought a small degree of discomfort. A reminder of the rewards of not moving away from discomfort or moving towards comfort. Neither attachment nor aversion.

It also served as a yet another reminder of the importance of mindfulness. Mindful that comfort and discomfort sit lightly within the emptiness we call awareness. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with discomfort and nothing intrinsically right with comfort, except as useful information to our awareness.

Something else that’s been happening for me over the past few days is getting to a deeper realisation that the dharma is just a raft. Yes, it gets us to the other shore, but then we throw it away. Without discussion on attaining all dharmas or evening attaining no dharma. What’s the point in that?

And then there’s the great understanding, which for me is mostly intellectual, I must admit, but nevertheless it’s a beautiful understanding. I’ve been asking myself lately “What’s meditating?” It’s a very interesting question in the light of no object and no subject. Having disproved the I, just what is meditating? All I can honestly answer right now is “Don’t know.”

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A field of mindfulness

Monday, July 28th, 2008

In a family, if there is one person who practices mindfulness, the entire family will be more mindful. Because of the presence of one memeber who lives in mindfulness, the entire family is reminded to live in mindfulness. If in one class, one student lives in mindfulness, the entire class is influenced. – Thich Nanh Hanh

While I intellectually understand that all beings arise within one’s own mind and that we vow to liberate all beings within our minds. Thich Nanh Hanh‘s idea above fits with my own experience a lot better.

And it truly inspires me as indeed did the movie “Doing Time, Doing Vipassana” ( which I managed to find at Vipassana Publications Aotearoa for only $6.50), in which a new inspector general of prisons puts officers and inmates alike on a ten day vipassana course. The transformation of the inmates lives seemed wonderful. Also inspiring were the volunteers that gave the course.

I’m not sure what it is that I want to do, but there is something around giving to the community that I’m in, wherever that may be. I find it so reassuring that my practise benefits others that it gives me the confidence to extend that somehow. Yes, I give money, but I haven’t given time.

So what will it be? I don’t know. I’ve discovered that sitting and waiting for inspiration can take some time, but doing and allowing inspiration to occur within the doing seems to work better. Something around stillness within activity.

Anyway I checked out the Auckland City Mission and it seems they’d rather have donations than volunteers and that’s fine. I guess these organisations develop their own ways of doing things and to avoid chaos people need to fit into their structures; theirs is a business hours one. They can have some money. So what is it then?

I then found Volunteering NZ, which appears to be a great resource. And I learned that over one million New Zealanders are actively involved in volunteer work. That’s almost one quarter of the population that feels it has enough time to contribute to the community. It is wonderful. Let’s see what they suggest.

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