#714 Cultivating Attunement

     “When we cultivate our capacity for balance and attunement, 
     we can experience joyful inner liberation, 
     no matter what the outer circumstances.”                                           Jack Kornfield


     "Love is omni-inclusive,
     Progressively exquisite,
     Understanding and tender
     And compassionately attuned
     To other [and] self."                                             R. Buckminster Fuller  [I replaced "than" with "and"]



     attunement:  
             • bringing into a harmonious or responsive relationship;
             • causing (a person, company, etc.) to have a better understanding of what is needed or wanted by a particular person or group; 
             • becoming aware or responsive;
             • a feeling of being "at one" with others.

 

#541 Letting Go AND Gaining

     It's easy to become focused almost exclusively on letting go of unskillful habits & tendencies. Peeling away layers upon layers of the onion of our "self" is natural and healthy, but it can start to feel like subtle diminishment or loss. Mercifully, it's only one aspect of mindfulness practice.
     The counterbalancing image (to peeling away layers of an onion) is that of Russian nesting dolls - starting from tiny ones, then progressively enlarging, until the doll is the size of - becomes - the entire universe. This imagery refers to our expanding awareness & growing empathic interconnection ("interbeing").
     As our fear-based self-centeredness diminishes, we progressively open our heart-mind, ever more completely, to embrace all of reality. No loss, real gain.

Nurishing rain, Umbria, Italy

#525 Bare Attention Cultivation

     "... keep your attention focused on the tactile sensations of the breath, which change from moment to moment. ... let your mind be as conceptually silent as possible ... during the out-breath, release any involuntary thoughts that have cropped up. ... arouse your attention (counteracting laxity) during the in-breath, and relax your attention (counteracting excitation) with each out-breath. But don't relax so much that you become spaced out or dull. In this way, with each complete breath, you remedy the two major defects of attention.
     Meditation is a balancing act between attention and relaxation.
     The kind of awareness cultivated here is called bare attention, in which the mind is fully focused on the sensory impressions appearing to it, moment to moment, rather than getting caught up in conceptual & emotional responses to those stimuli."
 
       B. Alan Wallace. "The Attention Revolution. Unlocking the Power of the Focused Mind." Wisdom, Boston, 2006.  

     Wondering about your ability to meditate? See: http://mindfulnessforeveryone.blogspot.ca/2014/04/519-feeling-of-im-no-good-at-meditating.html

 

Jimmy Chin, National Geographic   http://photography.nationalgeographic.com

#380 Everything Hinges on the Quality of Our Individual Inner Lives

     "Life itself is a balancing act. We are each of us perched upon a precarious pole, trying to stay centered in a swaying, breezy world. It is difficult enough staying safe ourselves, let alone trying to keep track of all the things stacked upon our shoulders. Mindfulness is a tool for looking inward, adjusting our balance, and staying focused on that still center point upon which everything else is poised. The quality of the present moment of awareness - that bamboo pole upon which we all are perched - can be calm, stable, and focused. And when it is, our well-being and that of all those who depend upon us is well protected. When it is not, no amount of pointing to the doings of others can compensate or restore our balance."            Andrew Olendzki PhD

 

Hart House, University of Toronto

#341 Not Constantly Up, Happy, Energized?

     "unless plagued with a mood disorder, our evaluation of the future depends largely on the situation. Yet, there is this psycho-spiritual pressure in the air of having to be positive, jovial, and enthusiastic all the time. ... this Zeitgeist (was) in part created by positive psychology. ... (this) artificially created positive mentality has contributed to the housing and banking crisis. Everybody involved seemed to have thrown caution – and ultimately bushels of money -- out the window. Usually well-balanced people were part of a groupthink: 'I believe, and therefore it will be.' "
     From a mindfulness perspective "happiness is not synonymous with or dependent on positive feelings. Instead happiness is having a good relationship with the whole of life, with the light and the darkness, the good and the bad, the concrete and the indefinable. How could there be lasting happiness if we exclude a part of life that is real and that serves a purpose. This understanding should inoculate everybody against the pressure of having to feel optimistic all the time."

       Andrea F. Polard Psy. D. http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/unified-theory-happiness/201306/cognitive-optimism-versus-zen-wisdom

 

Uloo   www.dpreview.com

#326 Classical Japanese Centeredness & Mindfulness

      Profound awareness of, being fully at home and thoroughly grounded in one's own body, anywhere, under any circumstance, is relatively rare these days, perhaps even in the East. Nevertheless, this mind-body-universe integrity is an important quality to regain, and mindfulness practice is an excellent way to do so.

     “Japanese women … their way of sitting still – knees together, resting on their heels, withdrawn into themselves and yet completely free and relaxed. If with a swift and supple motion they rise from this position to do something such as pouring out the rice wine, they return immediately and without loss of poise to the quiet sitting posture, upright and attentive, completely there, yet not there at all, and just wait until the next thing has to be done. … but so also sits the ballad singer, and the singing geisha, and so sits the male choir in the Kabuki, the classical theater, and so the Samurai – so they all sit and stand like symbols of life, collected and ready for anything. And as they sit and stand, so also do they walk and dance and wrestle and fence, fundamentally motionless. For every movement is as though anchored in an immovable center from which all motion flows and from which it receives its force, direction and measure. The immovable center lies in Hara.”

       Durckheim KG. “Hara – The vital center of man.” Inner Traditions, Rochester VT, 1975 (originally published 1956). 

     For more on Hara see: http://www.johnlovas.com/search?q=hara

Tai Chi on Samish Island, WA