Currently reading the Tibetan Book of Living & Dying by Sogyal Rinpoche.
It is truly a spiritual classic that even before finishing the book, I made intention to re-read this book in the near future to reinforce my understanding of the wisdom contained within.
Reflecting on death is one of the central theme in this book and I must say the effect on me is that it serves as a gentle (or maybe not so gentle...) admonition to make that extra effort to do my spiritual practice while I am still alive!
From the book, a Tibetan saying goes, "We do not know, if tomorrow comes first or next life comes first." What an admonition!
Overall, I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in finding out more about the meaning of life & death. It is truly inspiring, offers a wealth of wisdom and plenty of practical & compassionate advise on spiritual practice, living & dying.
May all of us continue to enjoy our practice and be well & happy =)
He's on his way back home
Tuesday, January 21, 2014
Tuesday, January 14, 2014
Our Spiritual Journey
A very beautiful quote from Pema Chodron that I find a lot of inspiration from:
Often the powerful moment on the spiritual journey is the moment when pain is getting very strong, and we feel we've met our edge and there's no way to pretty up. Usually we think spiritual practice is about getting rid of that moment - but actually, that is the moment from which all the patterns of concretizing, of grasping, of spinning off into all these habits to try to get ground under our feet - they all come out of that moment. So at that very moment, we can do something different. And by doing something different we can liberate ourselves.
In the practice I'm recommending, doing something different means staying with that moment. I talked about this in terms of meditation practice, how we must let the thoughts and words go and feel whatever is happening. We must change our whole view about pain and difficulty and realise that pain is a prime time for spiritual practice. You might say, "This is prime time?!" But it is prime time because at that moment, you can either harden into an old pattern or you can soften and do something different. And often doing something different, as I say, is really just staying.
May all of us continue to enjoy our practice and be well and happy =)
Often the powerful moment on the spiritual journey is the moment when pain is getting very strong, and we feel we've met our edge and there's no way to pretty up. Usually we think spiritual practice is about getting rid of that moment - but actually, that is the moment from which all the patterns of concretizing, of grasping, of spinning off into all these habits to try to get ground under our feet - they all come out of that moment. So at that very moment, we can do something different. And by doing something different we can liberate ourselves.
In the practice I'm recommending, doing something different means staying with that moment. I talked about this in terms of meditation practice, how we must let the thoughts and words go and feel whatever is happening. We must change our whole view about pain and difficulty and realise that pain is a prime time for spiritual practice. You might say, "This is prime time?!" But it is prime time because at that moment, you can either harden into an old pattern or you can soften and do something different. And often doing something different, as I say, is really just staying.
May all of us continue to enjoy our practice and be well and happy =)
Thursday, January 2, 2014
Recognize, Refrain, and Return
Recognize what’s going on; second, we Refrain from getting pulled into the story or mental chatter; and third, we Return to being present—letting our experience just be.
Quote by Ezra Bayda
I find the 3 Rs to be a very good summary of the basic meditation process. We become aware of our unconsciousness, avoid getting ourselves sucked into the drama that the thoughts or emotions is creating and then come back to our method or just coming back to the present moment.
May all of us continue to enjoy our practice and be well & happy =)
Quote by Ezra Bayda
I find the 3 Rs to be a very good summary of the basic meditation process. We become aware of our unconsciousness, avoid getting ourselves sucked into the drama that the thoughts or emotions is creating and then come back to our method or just coming back to the present moment.
May all of us continue to enjoy our practice and be well & happy =)
Wednesday, January 1, 2014
Forgot to pull out the trash for the garbage truck!
This morning, horror of horrors, I forgotten to pull out my house's garbage for the weekly garbage truck run to clear the trash.
The next run is 7 days from now and terrible thoughts of the filthy, overfilled garbage bin (in summer, worse! think maggots!) for the coming week and so on filled my mind...
Before I know it, I was overwhelmed with emotion and an emotional drama that was blown way out of proportion...
Suddenly remembering my practice to work with my emotions, I recognised what is going on, dropped the storyline, breath in with my emotions and feel it.
Tuning into my physical body, I feel very vividly the sharp painful sensations in my heart.
But in just a few moments, the feeling subsided...
Becoming more present & grounded, there was a quiet joy...
I realised very clearly in that moment, that the storyline was escalating and driving the emotions, dropping the storyline, I sorta pulled the plug on the whole drama, and it fizzle out...
But I also realised the job's not done, I gotta maintain mindfulness, as the storyline can creep back in rather quickly, e.g. thinking about the maggots will do the trick... and the emotion will follow like its shadow...
Will continue working with my emotions...
May all of us continue to enjoy our practice and be well and happy =)
The next run is 7 days from now and terrible thoughts of the filthy, overfilled garbage bin (in summer, worse! think maggots!) for the coming week and so on filled my mind...
Before I know it, I was overwhelmed with emotion and an emotional drama that was blown way out of proportion...
Suddenly remembering my practice to work with my emotions, I recognised what is going on, dropped the storyline, breath in with my emotions and feel it.
Tuning into my physical body, I feel very vividly the sharp painful sensations in my heart.
But in just a few moments, the feeling subsided...
Becoming more present & grounded, there was a quiet joy...
I realised very clearly in that moment, that the storyline was escalating and driving the emotions, dropping the storyline, I sorta pulled the plug on the whole drama, and it fizzle out...
But I also realised the job's not done, I gotta maintain mindfulness, as the storyline can creep back in rather quickly, e.g. thinking about the maggots will do the trick... and the emotion will follow like its shadow...
Will continue working with my emotions...
May all of us continue to enjoy our practice and be well and happy =)
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