“People talk endlessly about their suffering and their joy. But what is there to suffer or be joyful about? Joy from sensual pleasure always leads to pain, and suffering while practicing the Way always brings joy. Wherever there is joy, there is suffering. If you want to have no-suffering, you must accept no-joy.”
~ A Vietnamese poem quoted by Thich Nhat Hanh [from his book ‘The Heart of the Buddha’s Teachings’]
This is Monday’s topic for contemplation, reflection and sharing at the online virtual ‘Sit-and-Share’ meditation meeting via Skype from 7:45 pm ready for a prompt start at 8 pm (UK time).
We dedicate the merits of this practice to all suffering beings.
May everyone be free of suffering, and the causes of suffering.
May everyone enjoy happiness, and the causes of happiness.
Keep sitting; and keep smiling.
“The single most important piece of meditation advice you can hold with you as you dive in is this: Thoughts are not the enemy. Remember that the mind thinks involuntarily just like the heart beats involuntarily, so please don’t try to give your mind a command to be silent. Instead, know that thoughts are okay—they’re actually a useful part of this process and now you have your trusty anchor, one, to come back to when you notice you’ve taken a mental field trip.”
This is Monday’s topic for contemplation, reflection and sharing at the online virtual ‘Sit-and-Share’ meditation meeting via Skype from 7:45 pm ready for a prompt start at 8 pm (UK time).
We dedicate the merits of this practice to all suffering beings.
May everyone be free of suffering, and the causes of suffering.
May everyone enjoy happiness, and the causes of happiness.
Keep sitting; and keep smiling.
Lojong # 13 Be grateful to everyone. Commentary: Others will always show you exactly where you are stuck. They say or do something and you automatically get hooked into a familiar way of reacting–shutting down, speeding up, or getting all worked up. When we react in a habitual way, with anger, greed, and so forth, it gives you a chance to see your patterns and work with them honestly and compassionately. Without others provoking you, you remain ignorant of your painful habits and cannot train in transforming them into the path of awakening.
~ Pema Chödrön’s Compassion Cards: Teachings for Awakening the Heart in Everyday Life
This is Monday’s topic for contemplation, reflection and sharing at the online virtual ‘Sit-and-Share’ meditation meeting via Skype from 7:45 pm ready for a prompt start at 8 pm (UK time).
We dedicate the merits of this practice to all suffering beings.
May everyone be free of suffering, and the causes of suffering.
May everyone enjoy happiness, and the causes of happiness.
Keep sitting; and keep smiling.
‘Modern psychology has not been able to define emotion. Decades of brain research have failed to pin down what an emotion is. It fluctuates constantly; it is indefinable. So we may be sitting calmly in meditation, surrounded by a lot of other people, but when somebody else comes into the room our sense of calm changes. We are aware of a new feeling tone, perhaps an emotional charge in the body and we soon realize that letting go of it requires more than just awareness and willingness to let go. It also calls for wisdom, for understanding, so as to see deeply its true characteristics of anicca–dukkha–anatta – that it is impermanent, unsatisfactory, and not-self.
The terms ‘wisdom’ and ‘emotion’ seem to be foreign to each other. We don’t usually associate emotion with wisdom. Interestingly, emotions are closely connected to the water element. A well-known teacher in the Forest Tradition has pointed that we are very concerned about ecology and the purity of the elements on the planet, but we rarely consider how polluted our inner water element can be. When we are not mindful of our emotions, they can become septic. Unfortunately, through that lack of awareness, they can also become extremely powerful and affect our whole inner environment, just as water can filter through and pollute its natural environment.’
~ From Ajahn Sundara – The Wisdom of Emotions
This is Monday’s topic for contemplation, reflection and sharing at the online virtual ‘Sit-and-Share’ meditation meeting via Skype from 7:45 pm ready for a prompt start at 8 pm (UK time).
We dedicate the merits of this practice to all suffering beings.
May everyone be free of suffering, and the causes of suffering.
May everyone enjoy happiness, and the causes of happiness.
Keep sitting; and keep smiling.
“Sensual pleasures are like salt water; The more you partake of them, the more your craving will increase. Therefore, when something arouses attachment, To abandon it immediately is the practice of a Bodhisattva.”
~ The Thirty-Seven Practices of Bodhisattvas [#21] by Gyalse Tokme Zangpo
The practice of all the bodhisattvas is to turn away immediately From those things which bring desire and attachment. For the pleasure of the senses are just like salty water: The more we taste them, the more our thirst increases.”
~ Alternative translation : The Thirty-Seven Practices of Bodhisattvas [#21] by Gyalse Tokme Zangpo
This is Monday’s topic for contemplation, reflection and sharing at the online virtual ‘Sit-and-Share’ meditation meeting via Skype from 7:45 pm ready for a prompt start at 8 pm (UK time).
We dedicate the merits of this practice to all suffering beings.
May everyone be free of suffering, and the causes of suffering.
May everyone enjoy happiness, and the causes of happiness.
Keep sitting; and keep smiling.
“It is easy to forget how unstable and unpredictable our life is. We often live carelessly, as if we were going to live forever. We waste precious moments as if they were as cheap and plentiful as grains of sand.”
~ Ajahn Jayasaro
This is Monday’s topic for contemplation, reflection and sharing at the online virtual ‘Sit-and-Share’ meditation meeting via Skype from 7:45 pm ready for a prompt start at 8 pm (UK time).
We dedicate the merits of this practice to all suffering beings.
May everyone be free of suffering, and the causes of suffering.
May everyone enjoy happiness, and the causes of happiness.
Keep sitting; and keep smiling.
“When we say that the mind goes here or there, it’s not really the mind that goes. Only concepts go. Concepts are like shadows of the mind. If the body is still, how will its shadow move? The awareness that forms the present: that’s the true mind. The awareness that goes chasing after concepts is just a shadow. Real awareness – ‘knowing’ – stays in place. It doesn’t stand, walk, come, or go”.
~ Ajahn Lee
This is Monday’s topic for contemplation, reflection and sharing at the online virtual ‘Sit-and-Share’ meditation meeting via Skype from 7:45 pm ready for a prompt start at 8 pm (UK time).
We dedicate the merits of this practice to all suffering beings.
May everyone be free of suffering, and the causes of suffering.
May everyone enjoy happiness, and the causes of happiness.
Keep sitting; and keep smiling.
“If you look for the truth outside yourself, It gets farther and farther away. Today walking alone, I meet him everywhere I step. He is the same as me. Yet I am not him. Only if you understand this way Will you merge with the way things are.”
~ Tung-Shan (807-869) quoted in the book ‘FALLING AWAKE: How to practise Mindfulness in Everyday Life.’ by Jon Kabat-Zinn.
This is Monday’s topic for contemplation, reflection and sharing at the online virtual ‘Sit-and-Share’ meditation meeting via Skype from 7:45 pm ready for a prompt start at 8 pm (UK time).
We dedicate the merits of this practice to all suffering beings.
May everyone be free of suffering, and the causes of suffering.
May everyone enjoy happiness, and the causes of happiness.
Keep sitting; and keep smiling.
“Even if others whom I have cared for like children of my own, Should turn upon me and treat me as an enemy, To regard them only with special fondness and affection, As a mother would her ailing child—this is the practice of all the bodhisattvas.”
~ by Gyalse Tokme Zangpo [The Thirty-Seven Practices of Bodhisattvas – Verse #16]
This is Monday’s topic for contemplation, reflection and sharing at the online virtual ‘Sit-and-Share’ meditation meeting via Skype from 7:45 pm ready for a prompt start at 8 pm (UK time).
We dedicate the merits of this practice to all suffering beings.
May everyone be free of suffering, and the causes of suffering.
May everyone enjoy happiness, and the causes of happiness.
Keep sitting; and keep smiling.
“How many obscurations and how many afflictions have been subdued or cleared away? This is the true test of meditation, not what wonderful or special experiences we might have.”
~ 17th Karmapa from the book “Traveling the Path of Compassion: A Commentary on The Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva”
This is this week’s topic for contemplation, reflection and sharing at the online virtual ‘Sit-and-Share’ meditation meeting via Skype from 7:45 pm ready for a prompt start at 8 pm (UK time).
We dedicate the merits of this practice to all suffering beings.
May everyone be free of suffering, and the causes of suffering.
May everyone enjoy happiness, and the causes of happiness.
Keep sitting; and keep smiling.
