The Purpose of Spiritual Practice

I read the following and felt that it illuminates the purpose of spiritual practice in a most clear and succinct way possible =)

The heart of practice is to generate our own presence in such a way that we can touch deeply the life that is here and available in every moment.  We have to be here for ourselves; we have to be here for the people we love; we have to be here for life with all its wonders.  The message of our practice is simple and clear: "I am here for you."

~Thich Hhat Hanh

May all of us continue to enjoy our practice and be well and happy.
Amituofo. =)

Focus

I also shared that:

There are things in life that are important and unimportant.

There are things in life that are out of our control, and those that are within our control.

We spend a lot of time & energy worrying over things out of our control and unimportant

Instead, if we focus our time & energies on things that are both (1) important and (2) within our control, we can potentially be a lot more effective in our life as well as being more calm & peaceful...

Pause

Had a sharing yesterday with my colleagues at work.

That we are often feeling stressed at work.

Shared how we can take little 'pauses' at work.

'Pauses' can take the form of following the breath, just for a couple minutes, where we put down all our concerns and worries and just breathe...

breathing in...

breathing out...

feeling calmed, relax, and peaceful...

when we are recharged, we can return to our work =)

May all of us continue to enjoy our practice and be well and happy.
Amituofo. =)

Back at work

back at work this week...

even before actual work starts accumulating and the pace has yet to pick up, it is interesting to note that expectations (that in near future there will be a lot of deadlines to meet, presentations to make, etc etc) is more than enough to trigger old habits of fear and anxiety...

recognising anxiety...
remembering to refrain from following storyline...
breathing in... breathing out...

returning to dwelling in the present:

feeling the tension in the body...
MRT screeching in the background...
hands typing this blog entry...


May all of us continue to enjoy our practice and be well and happy.
Amituofo.  =)