#407 Sympathetic Joy instead of Adversarial Relationship

     "If we approach life from a place of scarcity, a mind-set that emphasizes what we lack instead of what we have, then anyone who has something we want becomes the enemy. But when we can rejoice in other people's happiness, we realize that joy and fulfillment are not finite quantities we have to grab while we can. They are always available because they are internal qualities that flow naturally if we allow them to."

       Salzberg S, Thurman R. "Love your enemies: Hot to break the anger habit and be a whole lot happier." Hay House, 2013.

Toby Smith  

http://pdn30.pdnevents.com/gallery/2013/index.php?contest=smith

#406 Good People, Doing their Best, Rolling Down the Line

     At the start of each 8-week MBSR-style Mindfulness Training workshop, each participant is asked to share a bit about themselves, including what brought them to Mindfulness. Even though most participants don't know each other in the group yet, there's a remarkably touching honesty in their stories.
     The common theme is that they're working hard, often too hard, are suffering, and are looking for a way to decrease their suffering ("better manage stress"), and perhaps regain (or find for the first time) joy in life. At some point, I suspect most of us reach this realization, though unfortunately, many simply resign themselves to this sorry state of "ordinary unhappiness". They assume that, like a huge moving train, the momentum of their lives can't be re-directed.
     Fortunately, those who take Mindfulness training learn practical, evidence-based skills that help develop underutilized natural capacities for dramatically shifting their "operating system" - their trajectory, from dissonance, struggle & suffering, towards congruence, ease & joy. These folks must also deal with the momentum of their lives - a lifetime of conditioning, but have an open mind and are willing to use intelligent effort to intentionally, gradually, change towards a wiser way of life.

     "Wisdom is a function of deep insight into, and mature understanding of, the central existential issues of life, together with practical skill in responding to these issues in ways that enhance the deep wellbeing of all those who the responses affect." 
       Walsh R. The varieties of wisdom: Contemplative, cross-cultural, and integral contributions. Research in Human Development 2011; 8(2): 109-127.

Ireland

#405 Momentum of our Lives & Growth

     It's fair to say that we tend to develop characteristic ways of dealing with situations, making us fairly predictable (& boring). When we encounter a situation, we tend to see it not as the unique situation that it actually is, but as a "type" or category we've seen before, and so we tend to react to it more or less the same as we reacted to this type before. 
     In other words, "we see things not as they are, but as we are" - the current event a mere trigger that reactivates our "baggage" and so we replay "the story of my life" yet another time. Our story line has the momentum of a long moving freight train. 
     Seeing something with fresh eyes, clearly, for what it is, with "beginner's mind" allows us to respond to it appropriately, according to the present context (without our old stuff spilling all over and distorting the picture).
     The more we practice mindfulness, the cleaner the distinction between the past, present and future. If one paints with watercolors, the longer one keeps using the same jar of water to dip one's brush, the darker and murkier the water gets, and thus increasingly interferes with the purity of color of any paint one tries to apply to a fresh piece of paper - the brush is already colored. Mindfulness practice allows us to use clearer and clearer water (our consciousness) each time - and every new painting has more and more remarkably true & vivid colors.
     See also: http://mindfulnessforeveryone.blogspot.ca/search?q=helicopter

Ireland

#404 Bringing the Spotlight Back, Again & Again & Again

     The focus of our attention is much like where a spotlight shines in the dark. We mainly see only where the spotlight is shining. Our attention is known to flit about quite rapidly & randomly - as if the spotlight were on a swivel and there's a windstorm raging. It's like a small active puppy running all over the place, or monkey jumping around the branches of trees - "monkey mind."
     If we're learning to focus our attention steadily on one object ie stabilize our awareness, we have to quickly notice when attention has drifted off target, and quickly bring it back on target. So we train to notice when the spotlight is off on something other than what it's supposed to be on, then we gently take hold of the spotlight, and point it back onto the object of our attention, again, & again, & again, & again ... We build the "muscles" - really the awareness & intention - that bring attention back. This is how we gradually, progressively stabilize awareness.

Shad Bay area, Nova Scotia, early morning, September 28, 2013

#403 Mindfulness & Wisdom

      "Mindfulness fosters a present-centered, non-judgmental awareness in which thoughts, feelings, and sensations are paid attention to, experienced, and then let go. This dispassionate state of mind is thought to enable a reflective mental space between perception and response to sensation, which leads to increased thoughtful decision making, greater compassion and altruism, as well as increased insight. These outcomes are all reminiscent of ancient Greek, Indian, and Chinese definitions of wisdom."

       Williams PB. Practicing Wisdom by Mindfulness   http://wisdomresearch.org/forums/t/1242.aspx#

     See "Wellness through Wisdom": http://healthyhealers.blogspot.ca/2012/10/wellness-through-wisdom.html

Practicing Wisdom by Mindfulness

By Patrick B. Williams

- See more at: http://wisdomresearch.org/forums/t/1242.aspx#sthash.86mACe4l.dpuf

Practicing Wisdom by Mindfulness

By Patrick B. Williams

- See more at: http://wisdomresearch.org/forums/t/1242.aspx#sthash.86mACe4l.d

Practicing Wisdom by Mindfulness

By Patrick B. Williams

- See more at: http://wisdomresearch.org/forums/t/1242.aspx#sthash.86mACe4l.dpuf

Practicing Wisdom by Mindfulness

By Patrick B. Williams

- See more at: http://wisdomresearch.org/forums/t/1242.aspx#sthash.86mACe4l.dpuf

Mindfulness fosters a present-centered, non-judgmental awareness in which thoughts, feelings, and sensations are paid attention to, experienced, and then let go (Kabat-Zinn, 1990, 1998; Teasdale, 2000; Segal, et al., 2002). This dispassionate state of mind is thought to enable a reflective mental space between perception and response to sensation, which leads to increased thoughtful decision making, greater compassion and altruism, as well as increased insight. These outcomes are all reminiscent of ancient Greek, Indian, and Chinese definitions of wisdom - See more at: http://wisdomresearch.org/forums/t/1242.aspx#sthash.86mACe4l.dpuf

Mindfulness fosters a present-centered, non-judgmental awareness in which thoughts, feelings, and sensations are paid attention to, experienced, and then let go (Kabat-Zinn, 1990, 1998; Teasdale, 2000; Segal, et al., 2002). This dispassionate state of mind is thought to enable a reflective mental space between perception and response to sensation, which leads to increased thoughtful decision making, greater compassion and altruism, as well as increased insight. These outcomes are all reminiscent of ancient Greek, Indian, and Chinese definitions of wisdom - See more at: http://wisdomresearch.org/forums/t/1242.aspx#sthash.86mACe4l.dpuf

Mindfulness fosters a present-centered, non-judgmental awareness in which thoughts, feelings, and sensations are paid attention to, experienced, and then let go (Kabat-Zinn, 1990, 1998; Teasdale, 2000; Segal, et al., 2002). This dispassionate state of mind is thought to enable a reflective mental space between perception and response to sensation, which leads to increased thoughtful decision making, greater compassion and altruism, as well as increased insight. These outcomes are all reminiscent of ancient Greek, Indian, and Chinese definitions of wisdom - See more at: http://wisdomresearch.org/forums/t/1242.aspx#sthash.86mACe4l.dpuf

Mindfulness fosters a present-centered, non-judgmental awareness in which thoughts, feelings, and sensations are paid attention to, experienced, and then let go (Kabat-Zinn, 1990, 1998; Teasdale, 2000; Segal, et al., 2002). This dispassionate state of mind is thought to enable a reflective mental space between perception and response to sensation, which leads to increased thoughtful decision making, greater compassion and altruism, as well as increased insight. These outcomes are all reminiscent of ancient Greek, Indian, and Chinese definitions of wisdom - See more at: http://wisdomresearch.org/forums/t/1242.aspx#sthash.86mACe4l.dpuf

Mindfulness fosters a present-centered, non-judgmental awareness in which thoughts, feelings, and sensations are paid attention to, experienced, and then let go (Kabat-Zinn, 1990, 1998; Teasdale, 2000; Segal, et al., 2002). This dispassionate state of mind is thought to enable a reflective mental space between perception and response to sensation, which leads to increased thoughtful decision making, greater compassion and altruism, as well as increased insight. These outcomes are all reminiscent of ancient Greek, Indian, and Chinese definitions of wisdom - See more at: http://wisdomresearch.org/forums/t/1242.aspx#sthash.86mACe4l.dpuf

Mindfulness fosters a present-centered, non-judgmental awareness in which thoughts, feelings, and sensations are paid attention to, experienced, and then let go (Kabat-Zinn, 1990, 1998; Teasdale, 2000; Segal, et al., 2002). This dispassionate state of mind is thought to enable a reflective mental space between perception and response to sensation, which leads to increased thoughtful decision making, greater compassion and altruism, as well as increased insight. These outcomes are all reminiscent of ancient Greek, Indian, and Chinese definitions of wisdom - See more at: http://wisdomresearch.org/forums/t/1242.aspx#sthash.86mACe4l.dpuf

#402 Objectification

     Much is said and written about men objectifying women - perceiving and thus treating women as if they were mere sexual objects.

     "Objectification means treating a person as a thing, without regard to their dignity. A person is objectified if treated:
          • as a tool for another's purposes (instrumentality);
          • as if lacking in agency or self-determination;
          • as if owned by another;
          • as if interchangeable;
          • as if permissible to damage or destroy;
          • as if there is no need for concern for their feelings and experiences." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objectification

     Of course it's not only women - and men - who are objectified. Don't we all, at times, have similar reductionist attitudes, and thus inappropriate behaviors, towards animals, jobs, food, homes, cars, vacations, the ecosystem - everything - even ourselves? Objectification arises from deep, unexamined hunger. This hunger limits our attention to the one specific quality of the person, animal, product, activity, or natural resource that we desperately, unrealistically, hope will quench our desire. It all starts with the "life unexamined" - instead of looking at our life as a complex, nuanced whole, we reduce it to likes & dislikes, and end up compulsively chasing desires, and fleeing aversions.

     "The robber sees only the saint's wallet."

     To perceive each person, animal and thing as they are, in the appropriate context of this time and place, awareness must be open (instead of narrowly focused) and equanimous (as undistorted as possible by the observer's needs). Practicing mindfulness helps to shift consciousness from egocentric towards allocentric & ecocentric.

     See: #398-401

#401 Expressing our Freedom - the Jar of Soil & Water Metaphor - Part 4

     In part 3 we saw how our own selective focus creates what feels like the inherent attractive or repulsive magnetic power of objects that interest us, while at the same time, most objects completely escape our attention. Since we create magnetic charges, which distort perception and cause suffering, it's entirely reasonable for us to let go of this charge-creating process and thereby decrease suffering.
     Restricting the focus of one's attention to either desirable or aversive aspects of an object is like an unethical sales pitch to oneself! Unethical because one or a few features are focused on - magnified, leaving out all the features which would balance out - neutralize - the charge or power to attract or repulse us. So how can we drop the sales pitch, and see things objectively, as they are instead of how we'd like to have them?
     One way is to examine all the features - positive, negative & neutral - of the object of interest, instead of focusing on & magnifying the positive features if attractive (idealize, idolize), or negative features if repulsive (demonize). This is not a killjoy thing, it's simply clear, objective, balanced, dispassionate observation - what the object itself is actually like, without "me, myself & I" dominating.
     Another major complimentary way is to examine all the other objects of awareness surrounding the principal object - to see it in context. What is this whole present situation about? This approach does include how I'm feeling, what I need etc. It also includes all of the atmosphere that will to various degrees color my perception.
     By remembering that the world does not revolve around my needs, we perceive more accurately, judge more wisely, behave more kindly & appropriately. Even though there's all sorts of turbid muddy soil particles drifting, sometimes ever swirling, the bigger picture is clear, still water holding all of it.

Appreciation by David Gillespie   http://www.fogforestgallery.ca/bios/bio_gillespie.html