Practising Mindfulness

Category: peace

  • Mindful of the Enemy

    When I ask myself if I have any enemies the answer immediately comes back that I don’t

    As a child I had plenty of enemies. Some of them were the adults I encountered and some of them were kids of the same age. Now that I’m grown, I suppose I could still class those people who would like to take advantage of me, as enemies. And yet, ultimately, it’s only me that allows others to take advantage. I’m old enough, with plenty of life skills and experience behind me, to be fully able – when mindful of others – to easily defend myself against this. As such ,they’re not really enemies.

    So this brings me to the realisation that if I have any enemies at all it’s me! I am my own worst enemy

    As an adult it’s my forgetfulness that’s my real enemy. My forgetfulness to remain vigilant of my own thinking. It is my judgments, thinking, beliefs and opinions (borne from these beliefs), that create the enemy within. By remembering (being mindful) of impartiality, and where appropriate, indifference to the behaviour of other human beings, I cease the negativity that we all tend to be bias toward.

    In the grand scheme of things none of us have true enemies. Even as a child, if I’d been equipped to think differently, many of my enemies could well have become dear friends

    War-mongers are those who are at war with themselves. There is no peace within the minds of those who choose to wage war. Their suffering will always become as great, if not greater, than those they wage war against. All that remains for us to do now is become aware of our own thinking. To become more aware of the beliefs that drive our thinking. To be aware of the unthinking behaviours that are the result of our conditioning. Only then will we have peace.

  • Calm and Untroubled Because I am Mindful

    What is it that causes anxiety? What is it that causes fear? How is it I fret and worry?

    It is my mind. It is my thoughts. For when my mind is still, there is no fear. There is no anger, worry, or anxiety. What remains is a beautiful feeling of serenity. Heaven on earth. A place I’ve found from within.

    It may take some time to reach this place, and when you do, you may wonder why it has taken so long to find such a simple solution. Stop questioning even this. Dismiss it as unimportant. What matters is that you are finally here.

  • Easing the Conflict

    I recently heard that there’s something like sixty five conflicts (impossible to confirm, could be more could be less, but you get the point) currently ongoing in the world. That’s right, sixty five! We can easily be indifferent to this through saying: “oh well, that’s just human nature and there’s sod all I can do about it.” And to a degree I would advise doing just that . . . be indifference toward things you can’t possibly have any influence over. However, there is something we can learn for ourselves, through simply being aware of the conflicted nature of our fellow man.

    When we have unrecognized conflict within ourselves this will always need to be expressed in some way. We humans often enjoy witnessing conflict. Be this in wars, soap operas, and politics.

    On a personal level, I remember my mother saying, on several occasions, how arguments “cleared the air.” My mother was a very conflicted person who seemed generally unhappy with the cards she’d been dealt. I feel she often needed an outlet for her frustrations. I wonder now if she imagined herself with a different life to the one she had created? Was this her conflict? It’s certain that constant arguments, with whoever was at hand, had the effect of temporarily easing the anger she felt as a consequence of her conflicted mind.

    Perhaps what she lacked was control over her situation. It is important to bear in mind, we can only effect positive influence over our external environment, once we have full control over the self. Mindful awareness is key.

    The antidote, to easing our troubled minds, is awareness. The need to experience the friction of conflict externally is there because we lack awareness. Acknowledge this.

    When we ask: What do I want? and find the answer to this question to be in opposition to what we’re actually getting, there is obviously discord. We must then find a way to become accepting of our current situation and then plan a peaceful means (draw up a peaceful plan) of getting what we want. It may take time for our plan to come to fruition and acknowledging that time is all we have helps us to become patient. After all it is not the destination that counts.

    Intention, that creates the energy needed for change to happen, is very different to the negative forces created by conflict.

    When we fail to see how conflicted we are, all we’re left with, is a sense of powerlessness. Expressing this through external means (war, arguments, soap operas, politics etc) creates the illusion of power and ultimately keeps us stuck. What’s needed is power over the self and this is gained through awareness. The awareness of our internal conflict. Do those who wage war have power over the self? Are they aware of their internal disputes? They are not.

    There is no conflict, only a short distance between where we are now, and where we want to be in the future.

  • What to Believe to Make the Change

    My curiosity constantly draws me into seeking to understand what drives people. I’m curious as to what it takes to make a person want to live well. Why should we search for peace? Why should we question our addictions? Why should we care?

    I feel the answer to these questions lies entirely in the level of compassion that’s been instilled in us from a very early age. Self-compassion, or compassion for the wellbeing of others, I believe is something that starts very early. It’s those parents who buy their child a rabbit, with the intention of helping that child build love and compassion for other beings, who raise a human that’s likely to care. The caring and taking responsibility for another being, from an early age, helps the child understand the two way nature of the relationship. Pleasure is awarded the child whose rabbit is healthy because they’ve taken proper care of it. Also, when the rabbit eventually dies, the child learns from their suffering. They learn that happiness and suffering go hand in hand.

    There must be sufficient reward for caring. There must always be something in it for us and we must never be ashamed to know and admit this. Our survival is paramount and we must be taught that when we make our survival the priority, we inadvertently lift everyone else

    Consider the late spiritual leader Thích Nhất Hạnh. Many have described his greatest achievement as the communities he created; the Sangha. We must ask what was his motivation? The first driver will have been his belief. His faith. He believed in Buddhism with every fiber of his being. He also believed he had the medicine to help people out of their suffering; that Buddhism had some of the solutions to humanities plight. The second driving will have been his compassion. He wanted all of us to better deal with our suffering, through living lives, that had more of an acceptance of how – according to Buddhist understandings – we generate our suffering. The third, and by no means last motivation, will have concerned the pleasure he received as a result of helping others prosper.

    The communities he created are currently hard at work looking to spread the word. They’re looking to spread the word of mindfulness and the importance of love and compassion in the world. It’s my understanding, that the current they will always be swimming against, is that of the conflicting beliefs our children are still being taught.

    We must understand that the rewards we receive concern the easing of our own suffering. The child must be taught to understand, how it’s the process of helping other beings prosper, that in turn creates their own prosperity

    It starts with: What do I want? Thích Nhất Hạnh saw the image of a Buddha as a child and decided: “That’s what I want to be” it started with what he wanted and the comfort that there will be some benefit to him. His compassion for other beings then drove him to want this for others too. His communities were his masterpiece and what piece of mind this must have offered him.

    If you want piece of mind, if you’ve finally had enough of our destructive patterns of living, ask yourself what you believe is the best way to live well. To give or to take? I would suggest neither. I would suggest that through reaching for the child within, who wanted the rabbit to thrive, we get closer to finding the truth. We are neither giving or taking, just simply being compassionately and mindfully there for another being, and in turn it will be there for us. Make your driving a deep desire to help others prosper and make the miracle happen.

  • All the things to Cultivate

    There are certain conditions that will make it hard to cultivate the following:
    • Love
    • Compassion
    • Generosity
    • Empathy
    • Kindness
    • Gentleness
    • Understanding
    • Acceptance
    What I find fascinating is, it’s the very condition of being human, that would have prevented me from seeking more of these things as a younger man.
    In fact, I wouldn’t have had a reason, to seek these things. The methods taught me to survive and cope with the madness were working. For so long, wrapped up in the western world’s belief in what from happiness should take, and how to find it.
    Perhaps, now that you’re reading this, you are ready to cultivate the things that really matter in life. If not, there’s every chance it will be a while, before you come back here. Don’t leave it too long.
    As a consequence of understanding how my condition would have prevented me seeking more of the contents of my list, I know that the most powerful way of helping others, to live with less pain and suffering, is to simply be the very example of what I now seek as an older man.
    If you’re ready to find more of these things, and would like to become a shinning example to others, this podcast is a good place to start. Be clear: there is no suggestion that we should all become Buddhist monks. No. The suggestion is that we begin to listen, and become further examples, of those who believe, not just in the power of love and compassion, but in all the things on my list.
    Begin to cultivate the things that really matter

  • A Great Device for Helping with your Mindfulness Training

    A physical reminder of what exactly you’re supposed to be doing works wonders

    I am a bit of a G-Shock fan and do have a small collection. And as a result of trying out several types of vibrating watches, I’ve come to the conclusion, that the Casio G-Shock GBX-100, is the best at helping with my mindfulness training.

    With the GBX being a smart watch you can link it up to the Casio ‘G-Shock Move’ app and alter all kinds of setting

    You can obviously set alarms and keep the time accurate and this watch also has a useful tide graph that tells you the high and low tide times on any coast line you might choose (I’m a keen open water swimmer so like to know what the tide is doing near me). More than anything though, this watch has a training program that counts down time intervals, with a gentle vibration between each one. As you can see from the image above I currently have this watch set to five minute intervals. After each five minutes, the watch vibrates once and allows the wearer to know when each interval has passed. I find meditating for a total of twenty five minutes each day is sufficient for me. The final alert is more sustained so it’s clear when time is up.

    Mindfulness training never stops being a challenge for some so we must use anything that helps

    The physical vibration every five minutes is very powerful at bringing my mind back to my point of focus. Sometimes, I’m so distracted, that the moment I sit and close my eyes, my mind is off and running like a wild racehorse. I actually forget the reason I’m sitting with my legs crossed on a meditation cushion! The physicality of the vibration reminds me of my purpose so I can then bring my attention back to my chosen point of focus. I get on with my practice and improve my mental fitness.

    If you would like to purchase one of these watches they can be found here (UK) or if you’re on a budget and like my NATO strap conversions (I also include the original strap) and would like help setting up your watch I might – from time to time – have one for sale on my ebay site here! (worldwide delivery). I’ve converted all my GBX-100’s to take NATO straps as I find them much more comfortable than the original.