Experience Life in Its Pure Glorious Form

Every moment we come across an infinite number of new phenomena perceived by the senses. But are you awake enough to experience them in their pure glorious form?

Think about it - the scenery before your eyes changes every moment. The sounds alternate in your ears. The scents bring you smell. Tactile sensations are felt throughout the body. Flavors let you taste. And the constant thoughts and mental perceptions fly through your mind.

It's easy to get stuck worrying about the past or future, but then you lose out on all this beauty in and around you.

Today - practice bringing your attention back to the present moment and open up to the sensory experiences. Avoid labeling these as "pleasant" or "unpleasant". The phenomena just comes your way regardless of how you feel about them. Might as well see and embrace them in their true form.

Yuriy

www.meditationcorner.com

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Practice Loving-Kindness and Interbeing to Dispel Fear of Public Speaking

"When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it is attached to the rest of the world."

John Muir

Public speaking was never a favorite pastime activity of mine. I would tremor in business school ahead of class presentations and cut out from Toastmaster invitations.

But at work, public speaking became mandatory and routine. First presenting in front of internal meetings, then facing company execs, and more recently at annual conferences in front of hundreds of people. Ouch!

A Mindful Nation by Congressman Tim Ryan

"Too much and too long, we seem to have surrendered community excellence and community values in the mere accumulation of material things. Our gross national product counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, ... yet does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages. ... It measures neither our wisdom nor our learning; neither our compassion nor our devotion..." - Robert F. Kennedy, March 1968.


This quote I learned from Congressman Tim Ryan last week at the Interdependence Project meditation center on Bowery street, New York. I sat 10 feet away from him, meditated together, and listened as he delivered one of the most inspirational speeches I have heard. ("A Mindful Nation" is the related book he published).

Can You Sustain Mindfulness and Meditation While Traveling?

"I have on occasion suggested that some students actually enter challenging situations in order to refine equanimity. I recommend avoiding car accidents, but favor foreign travel as one excellent way to develop equanimity off the meditation cushion."

- Shaila Catherine

My recent volunteer trip in the Amazon rainforest has taught more more insights. Like many would, I arrived expecting to easily meditate in pristine nature and practice compassion everywhere I go, but that was a bubble ready to be burst =)

Cultivate Cooperation not Competition!

I just returned from a volunteer trip in the Shawakucha community of the Amazon rainforest in Ecuador (see my travel blog). It was an adventurous and meaningful journey, with plenty of insights I still contemplate on.

One observation was how different people in this community behave towards each other as compared to what I typically see in New York. They work together, they don't compete.

Kindness Deepens Mindfulness in Meditation and Daily Life

"Observe how adding kindness, love and compassion to the mix actually relaxes and warms the mind .... Insights and wisdom then naturally spring up from just abiding there and going out into the world and practicing it."

- Yuriy

I was inspired by a recent talk Ajahn Brahm gave on "Kindfulness". It resonated because I've always felt that mindfulness and concentration practices alone are inefficient at deepening our meditations and awakening our heart. It helps to add kindfulness and compassion to the mix!

Mindfulness And Wisdom Are Linked and Inseparable

"You can only see what your mind is awake enough to see."

Our ability to be mindful is limited by the depth of wisdom we have developed so far. And as we gain wisdom in life (i.e. be it through concentration and awareness practices or through kindness, great teachings and faith), our mindfulness naturally widens as well.

Agitation Gets You Nowhere; Try A Peaceful Mind Instead

If the mind is not contrived, it is spontaneously blissful, just as water, when not agitated, is by nature transparent and clear.Sogyal Rinpoche

I recently became acutely aware that we reinforce our feelings of agitation when we cling to something that can't be fixed.

Being the mindfulness junkie that I am, I decides to really meditate on and observe what is actually happening in my mind during such an experience.

Mindful Eating - Simple or Darn Difficult?

"What's better, the food in your mouth or the one still on your plate?" I love to ask people new to mindfulness and meditation.

"The one in my mouth.." they reply hesitantly.

"Then why do we so quickly reach for that other spoonful without having finished our first bite?"

Interdisciplinary Wisdom Dialogue - Mormon Christian, Buddhism and Psychology

I had a very pleasant work trip with my coworker Ian last week. Ian is a traditional Mormon Christian from Utah, now living in Staten Island and an active member of his Church. Me - you already know, a non- sectarian mindfulness and meditation practitioner inspired by Buddhist wisdom, psychology and inter-faith dialogue.

Both quite involved in our practices, the conversations grew mutually rewarding!