#348 Heart of Mindfulness Practice - Perseverance, Embracing "Difficulties"

     I was very excited to read the paper below on strengthening resiliency. It nicely describes "heart" as a collection of critical qualities that can be developed in a number of ways, such as sports and enduring a difficult childhood, but perhaps the most efficient laboratory-like conditions for creating heart is mindfulness practice. See: http://www.johnlovas.com/2013/06/heart-can-should-be-cultivated.html

     "Kokoro is the Japanese word for heart or fighting spirit. The Koreans refer to kokoro simply as the 'indomitable spirit.' ... it is something housed in all of us, and all we need to do is simply find ways to release it. ... Heart only needs to be tapped into and enriched.
     In martial arts, confidence, which can be defined as having trust in one's abilities, is recognized as being 'a product of one's previous experience.' Thus, training an individual by exposing him or her to supervised challenges that require 'reaching down inside' for heart teaches the student to have confidence in the ability to draw on fighting spirit when severely challenged. To be internalized, such training must be continually practiced and rehearsed. Such training is invaluable ... as everyone runs the risk of being exposed to traumatic stress."
       Bell CC, Suggs H. Using sports to strengthen resiliency in children. Training heart. Child Adolesc Psychiatr Clin N Am 1998; 7(4): 859-65.

     Heart allows one to PERSEVERE, and by experiencing a sequence of mini triumphs - daily meditation practice, sitting still for the predetermined time, despite urges to do stuff, itchy nose, stiffness, sleepiness, anxiety, boredom, plans, worries, etc, etc, etc one remains like-a-mountain sitting still - one builds internal strength to PERSEVERE, gradually transcending "ordinary unhappiness," finding greater and greater ease, equanimity, joy.

Anne Bastedo   http://www.serenityimages.ca