#718 How Can We Best Let Go near Life's End?

     How can we let go of clinging to life, near the end of life?

     “Be happy in every moment. … You don’t need to change anything. Let everything happen just as it comes. Just flow with it. It’s the process; everything dissolves into you, so change with whatever happens.” 


      “What practice makes it easier to let go of this life?”

      “The best practice, is calm abiding. Remain with the breath. Develop calmness inside. Join awareness and the breath. Trusting these. Trusting the knowing. Trusting the calmness. Not pushing yourself to make any changes. And not paying attention to what others say about it.” 
            Khandro Rimpoche in: Olivia Ames Hoblitzelle. “Ten Thousand Joys & Ten Thousand Sorrows. A Couple’s Journey through Alzheimer’s.” Penguin, NY, 2008.



     “If you accept life and death without any conditions, your life will become supple instead of rigid. You will not create strife."
            Katagiri D. “You have to say something. Manifesting Zen insight.” Shambhala, Boston, 1998.  

 

#595 Surfing the Breath

     What does the meditation instruction to "surf the breath" mean?

     Breath can be experienced as air, the combination of gases (mainly nitrogen, oxygen & carbon dioxide); air, the space that surrounds matter; and also as the energy involved in the process of breathing.
     In all cases, there's movement, which again speaks of energy - life-sustaining energy. While we can breathe intentionally, mostly breathing happens on its own, much like the ocean's waves rhythmically coming to shore.
     Like surfers (or sailors), we can become attuned to the rhythmic energy of breathing, develop an ongoing attentive relationship, and learn to skillfully ride on, or flow with, this vital energy.

     We can gradually learn to surf every type of breath, on sunny and stormy days, dancing nonjudgmentally with mystery - life.

gordzam   www.dpreview.com

#363 Mind - Emotions - Body: Thoroughly Interconnected & Trainable

     Through mindfulness training, as well as other practices (see below), direct experience tells us that we are infinitely more trainable that we had imagined. This includes not only our bodies, but also our emotions, minds, and even our autonomic nervous system.

      “you cannot be anxious if you breathe slowly and regularly and do not tense your muscles. When you are anxious, the ‘natural’ response to the feeling of apprehension is to tense your muscles and breathe faster – this is a response of the sympathetic nervous system. But if this is the natural response of your body, how can you possibly change this pattern of response? Perhaps this is easier said than done, but in fact this approach is regularly taught in pre-birthing classes for expectant parents. It may not be the ‘natural’ response, but practice can change this. Breathe slowly and regularly, and when you feel tension in your muscles, you should unclench those muscles, and you will start to feel more relaxed. There are three interesting and important implications of this bit of advice. First, our ‘natural’ bodily responses are not fixed & immutable. The things we take for granted about the way our bodies work are not set in stone. Practice can change what seem like reflexive responses.
     Second, the same is true for our mental processes and responses. But in addition, you can change your emotional state by changing an aspect of your physical state.”

     Read the rest of this article by Howard C. Nusbaum: http://wisdomresearch.org/forums/t/1209.aspx#

 

RuthC   www.dpreview.com

A psychiatrist once told me that it is possible to reduce the symptoms of anxiety without medication or long therapy. In short, you cannot be anxious if you breathe slowly and regularly and do not tense your muscles. When you are anxious, the "natural" response to the feeling of apprehension is to tense your muscles and breathe faster--this is a response of the sympathetic nervous system. But if this is the natural response of your body, how can you possibly change this pattern of response. Perhaps this is easier said than done, but in fact this approach is regularly taught in pre-birthing classes for expectant parents. It may not be the "natural" response, but practice can change this. Breathe slowly and regularly, and when you feel tension in your muscles, you should unclench those muscles, and you will feel start to feel more relaxed. There are three interesting and important implications of this bit of advice. First, our "natural" bodily responses are not fixed and immutable. The things we take for granted about the way our bodies work are not set in stone. Practice can change what seem like reflexive responses. - See more at: http://wisdomresearch.org/forums/t/1209.aspx#sthash.bWOBmMxB.dpuf

A psychiatrist once told me that it is possible to reduce the symptoms of anxiety without medication or long therapy. In short, you cannot be anxious if you breathe slowly and regularly and do not tense your muscles. When you are anxious, the "natural" response to the feeling of apprehension is to tense your muscles and breathe faster--this is a response of the sympathetic nervous system. But if this is the natural response of your body, how can you possibly change this pattern of response. Perhaps this is easier said than done, but in fact this approach is regularly taught in pre-birthing classes for expectant parents. It may not be the "natural" response, but practice can change this. Breathe slowly and regularly, and when you feel tension in your muscles, you should unclench those muscles, and you will feel start to feel more relaxed. There are three interesting and important implications of this bit of advice. First, our "natural" bodily responses are not fixed and immutable. The things we take for granted about the way our bodies work are not set in stone. Practice can change what seem like reflexive responses. - See more at: http://wisdomresearch.org/forums/t/1209.aspx#sthash.bWOBmMxB.dpuf

A psychiatrist once told me that it is possible to reduce the symptoms of anxiety without medication or long therapy. In short, you cannot be anxious if you breathe slowly and regularly and do not tense your muscles. When you are anxious, the "natural" response to the feeling of apprehension is to tense your muscles and breathe faster--this is a response of the sympathetic nervous system. But if this is the natural response of your body, how can you possibly change this pattern of response. Perhaps this is easier said than done, but in fact this approach is regularly taught in pre-birthing classes for expectant parents. It may not be the "natural" response, but practice can change this. Breathe slowly and regularly, and when you feel tension in your muscles, you should unclench those muscles, and you will feel start to feel more relaxed. There are three interesting and important implications of this bit of advice. First, our "natural" bodily responses are not fixed and immutable. The things we take for granted about the way our bodies work are not set in stone. Practice can change what seem like reflexive responses. - See more at: http://wisdomresearch.org/forums/t/1209.aspx#sthash.bWOBmMxB.dpuf

A psychiatrist once told me that it is possible to reduce the symptoms of anxiety without medication or long therapy. In short, you cannot be anxious if you breathe slowly and regularly and do not tense your muscles. When you are anxious, the "natural" response to the feeling of apprehension is to tense your muscles and breathe faster--this is a response of the sympathetic nervous system. But if this is the natural response of your body, how can you possibly change this pattern of response. Perhaps this is easier said than done, but in fact this approach is regularly taught in pre-birthing classes for expectant parents. It may not be the "natural" response, but practice can change this. Breathe slowly and regularly, and when you feel tension in your muscles, you should unclench those muscles, and you will feel start to feel more relaxed. There are three interesting and important implications of this bit of advice. First, our "natural" bodily responses are not fixed and immutable. The things we take for granted about the way our bodies work are not set in stone. Practice can change what seem like reflexive responses. - See more at: http://wisdomresearch.org/forums/t/1209.aspx#sthash.bWOBmMxB.dpuf

A psychiatrist once told me that it is possible to reduce the symptoms of anxiety without medication or long therapy. In short, you cannot be anxious if you breathe slowly and regularly and do not tense your muscles. When you are anxious, the "natural" response to the feeling of apprehension is to tense your muscles and breathe faster--this is a response of the sympathetic nervous system. But if this is the natural response of your body, how can you possibly change this pattern of response. Perhaps this is easier said than done, but in fact this approach is regularly taught in pre-birthing classes for expectant parents. It may not be the "natural" response, but practice can change this. Breathe slowly and regularly, and when you feel tension in your muscles, you should unclench those muscles, and you will feel start to feel more relaxed. There are three interesting and important implications of this bit of advice. First, our "natural" bodily responses are not fixed and immutable. The things we take for granted about the way our bodies work are not set in stone. Practice can change what seem like reflexive responses. - See more at: http://wisdomresearch.org/forums/t/1209.aspx#sthash.bWOBmMxB.dpuf

#330 Mindfulness Practices - Simple but Not Easy

     "taking time out to sit in silence and bring attention to something like the breath, there is an opportunity for a degree of relaxation, or ‘slowing down’. Secondly there is a perhaps more counter-intuitive opportunity to simply notice - as non-judgementally and non-analytically as possible - the experiential flow of thoughts, feelings and sensations. In other words, there is an attempt to cultivate awareness of one’s moment-by-moment experience ... a ‘post-modern’ meta skill.
     Straight away in this two-fold description, one may appreciate why it could be said that mindfulness is ‘simple, but not easy’. The process of sitting and bringing some light attention to the process of breathing (or in other mindfulness practices it may be for example the process of walking, or eating), is not technically complicated and may feel a welcome relaxation. Alternatively, being invited simply to notice one’s experience, can feel tremendously challenging. One can come up closer to previously less noticed streams of negative, painful, or fearful thought, or at the very least one can feel unsettled by noticing for perhaps the first time, how ‘all over the place’ our experience can be, veering in the space of a few moments, from wild fantasy, to profound sleepiness, for example. It is not something we may ever have done before, in such a direct way, and it can feel anything but relaxing at times. Thus, mindfulness could be said to be a more radical practice, of learning to be with both positive and painful experiential states, in the present, without loading this with strong expectations, of an outcome."

       Moss D, Waugh M, Barnes R. A tool for life? Mindfulness as self-help or safe uncertainty. Int J Qual Stud Health Well-being 2008; 3(3): 132-142.

 

Studio 21 Art Gallery, Halifax, NS   http://www.studio21.ca/