#572 What is the Most Important Meditation We Can Do Now?

“Critical thinking, followed by action.
Discern what your world is;
notice the plot, the scenario of this human drama;
and then figure out where your talent might fit in to make a better world.
And each of us must do something that makes our heart sing,
because nobody will want to do it with us if we’re not passionate & inspired.”                       Dalai Lama

From the inspired 2010 documentary movie: "I Am" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1741225/

#331 Thoughts, Energies, Actions - Choices, Choices, Choices

     A sponge is porous, all of the stuff in the water passes through a sponge immersed in the water. Likewise, each of us is immersed in the thoughts and energies of our current global culture. It ALL passes through each of us, whether we realize it or not, want it or not. Humans are completely interconnected at ALL LEVELS (thoughts, emotions, energies, communications, financially, ecologically etc).
     A massive problem is the fact that our human family is so diverse in terms of psychosocialspiritual development - from stone-age blood feuds to the Dalai Lama's message AND embodiment of forgiveness of current persecutors. We are in the age of BOTH the basest of child-soldier massacres AND Nelson Mandela's soaring example of what a human being can and MUST evolve to. 
     ALL levels of thoughts and energies pass through each of us - hideous & inspired - WE CHOOSE which ones to cultivate, which ones to enact in our lives, in this our one and only world. WE ALONE CREATE OUR REALITY, moment-by-moment. We must take great care about what we choose to occupy our minds, and what activities to feed with energy.

     “Wisdom traditions, the paths followed by our patients and our own experiences suggest that a sense of integrity comes through establishing healing connections. That’s not quite it. It wasn’t that the wave needed to establish connections. It was connected — part of a greater whole. Its challenge was to recognize the connectedness that was already there.”     Mount BM. The existential moment. Palliat Support Care 2003; 1(1): 93-6.

     Movement on the quality of life “continuum toward an experience of integrity and wholeness may be thought of as healing, and toward suffering and anguish as wounding.”
     Mount BM et al. Healing connections: on moving from suffering to a sense of well-being. J Pain Symptom Manage 2007; 33(4): 372-88. 

     “The key to self-development … is the experience of … a state of relaxed concentration in which the individual neither freezes out of fear nor clings due to desire. … the free flow of vital energy within the body and between the body and the universe.”     Sayama MK. “Samadhi. Self-development in Zen, swordsmanship, and psychotherapy.” State University of New York Press. 1986.

Dale Chihuly   http://www.chihulygardenandglass.com/

#329 Judgmental : Grateful Ratio - Impacts your Quality of Life

     It's good to learn to be aware of when we're being judgmental - harshly critical of ourselves, first & foremost. Why? Because when we're hard on ourselves, we're almost certainly hard on others as well. And we may not be aware at all of our self-criticism, and it may be "business as usual" when it comes to criticizing others. How often are YOU harshly judgmental of others?
     It's also a good idea to become aware of when our hearts are open, and aware of the fact that we owe a massive debt of gratitude to so many people for being alive, for all that we have, etc. None of us can cause ourselves to be born, to grow up, to survive. This is a thoroughly interconnected incredibly complex web of life - we depend on each other far more than we can possibly realize. Gratitude should be common, normal, dominant emotion for all of us. How often are YOU overwhelmed by loving gratitude?
     What's the ratio of times when you're judgmental vs when you're grateful? Which is more realistic ie more appropriate to or in tune with reality? Which of the two is going to make you deeply satisfied, filled with joy? Think deeply about this. You have far more control over your quality of life than you realize!

Fredrik Lonnkvist   http://travel.nationalgeographic.com