"In the garden of gentle sanity, May you be bombarded by coconuts of wakefulness". Daily meditation - All Welcome

[mangosTrickyrice]

Quote is from Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, whoever he may be. I found it in Pema Chodron's Places that Scare You and it made me laugh.

This thread is for anyone at all who's interested in mindfulness and meditation. We had posters on the last thread from various Buddhist traditions, Christians lapsed and practising, plus your wishy-washy agnostics . Some of us aim for 10 minutes of meditation practice each day, others focus on mindfulness in daily living, and still others focus on naps horizontal meditation. So really anything goes. The original thread is here if you have a month or 2 spare to read, otherwise just jump in below.

Mango - LOVE the thread title - what a star you are to set it up. Looking forward to many many coconuts of wakefulness.

It's very vivid,isn't it?

hurrah - new thread, fab title, thanks mango. i promise faithfully to post here from now on and hereby foresake our original and much-loved thread in the name of renewal, and Letting Go, and non-attachment, and general coconut-related reasons, in short. am posting while half-watching 'happy feet' with the kids - mindfulness thy name is kk123 . love that quote by the way. off to do homework with the kids ... hope to see lots of 'faces' here shortly, new and old! X

Great thread title

Today hasnt been great so far but I am indeed trying to be mindful.. I shall look forward to my few mins in a little while.

Really want to start running again, (looks like that group thing isnt going to happen just yet, in any case its a good lesson - I can only really rely on myself cant I) told myself I could in an hour when dp gets home but Im very self conscious and as you know, might not make it out of the door. If I tell myself I'll do it tomorrow morn then I'll wake up an not want to cos its a bit dark and scary Sorry Im going off on one again.

Hope you all have a mindful evening

Ah Dilly, can you try to make it a bit easier on yourself? Do it tonight, but set yourself an easy route, not too far from the house and only 20 mins or so? (If you feel good after 20 mins you can always do another circuit!)

You know, thinking is the enemy when it comes to this stuff -- how about if you get changed into jogging gear before dp gets back, so as soon as he's in the door he gets a hug and a kiss and a see you later and you're out before you have time to think yourself out of it? And if you only go to the end of the road and back, you've still gone out without the kids

I didnt, but I'll try again! Thankyou mangosTrickyrice love your name!

Thank you mangosTrickyrice for a fabulous thread title!
I pray you may all have many coconuts land on your head iykwim.
FINALLY silence from 4 year old (one would have thought school plus swimming would have been enough to tire him out no?) so I will go and do my Jo Malone thingy.
In my defence it was actually a Christmas present.....

I missed practice last night so did 10 minutes this morning while baby was napping...head full of complete rubbish as usual but afterwards I felt as refreshed as if I had slept but alert without that groggy after-nap head.

Justabout-very funny post! I usually give in and make fairy cakes or chocolate cake and let them have cake for breakfast - cake/muffin what's the difference really? and it is home-made after all.....

I can't remember where I read this now and I hope others will enlighten/correct me but apparently in Buddhism the purpose of meditation is to increase your concentration/attention/willpower in order to have the strength of mind to follow the rest of the Eightfold Path with it's emphasis on non-attachment, emotional serenity etc. I had always thought of meditation as being a sort of 'zoning out' but like the idea of it being a 'strengthening' of your mind as well (Lord knows after 2 children and with 40 fast approaching I need it...)

I think I need to trail back through the other thread and get a book list together.

hey lady G! i definitely meditate for the strengthening aspect, and for patience and tolerance and compassion
and to try to be at one with the fact that i turn forty next year
back soon X

Dilly, I was thinking the exact same thing about a book list - we ought to have it posted somewhere to refer people to. Don't know how to do it though.

Cake for breakfast - someone linked to this Bill Cosby sketch recently: eggs! milk! wheat! Nutrition!

No meditation for me today, unless you count the nap time in shivasana after yoga, but yes, you can use it for just about anything - coping with stress/ pain, and just developing your capacity to be instead of having to do all the time being 2 of my favourites. 'S like magic, innit?

mango i agree - when did it become so important to be DOING all the time?! my mother is a doer, and really can't understand why anyone would want to 'be' - she is terrified, i think, of what she might be confronted by if she just stopped and looked within for a few minutes. granted, it's not always a pretty sight but it does seem to reap benefits.
ah shivasana...it's the highlight of my week, that 5-minute bliss-out!!!
have a lovely day girls

ps (am at work, pondering the ever-increasing prevalance of anxiety and stress in this modern world of ours) there are now several mindfulness courses up and running which people can access through our local mental health services here - encouraging, no?!

hello all

i've been reading the old thread in bits and pieces, i think i introduced myself on it once (under one of any number of previous guises) in the hope that would get me sitting regularly, but it didn't seem to do the trick then.

i have done a couple of sessions the last few days, inspired by reading the thread, just a few minutes here and there, which is a better start already

if you fancy a virtual running partner dillinger i'm trying to get going again too. i started earlier in the year and it did me a power of good, but i got out of the habit over the summer. have it pencilled in for next week (last was giving up smoking, this is cutting down the booze, is it obvious i'm on a self-improvement kick? heh, at least i'm pacing myself... )

Hello everyone...
Isn't it fun gathering here under Mango's coconut tree waiting to be hit on the head with a dose of wakefulness!!
Yep - great title Mango. I've just got to re-do my bookmarks on the computer so I can get here quickly without wandering around the whole of MN looking for you all and then I'll be sorted!

Glad that you like the idea of a group meditation. Mango you started the original thread on the 18th Nov - that's a week day - do you want to do a sitting on the exact anniversary if so what time of day suits everyone ? Sometime after the kids have gone to bed or first thing in the morning.

Re: book list - yes I know I said sometime in the spring that i was going to put a list together but do you know what? it takes AGES as you end up being distracted by all the comments. I started the list and got up to reading up to December and haven't progressed beyond that.
ANyway this is the list so far:

Buddhsim for Mothers ? A calm approach -Sarah Napthali
Eat, Pray, Love - Elizabeth Gilbert
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ommani_padmehum

John Kabat Zinn (sp?)Mindfulness?
Thich Naht Han
Nothing Special: Living Zen' by Charlotte Joko Beck
Pema Chodron? She has a book called The Places That Scare You

john o'donohue ? (Celtic spirituality)

buddhism for dummies

someone recommended a beautiful singer called snatam kaur

Buddhism for Mothers - Lingering questions - Sarah Napthali.

Momma Zen -- Karen Mazen Miller

------

Katie - thank you for all your stories about your DD - v amusing. (Ok not for you!)
Today - I went on a computing course and was feeling rather jaded afterwards so went along to the Quakers who have a lunchtime meeting on Wednesdays. Ok so I was a few minutes late - but a couple of people smiled at me and really made me feel welcome. SOmeone spoke about the importance of practice by yourself but also together in a group. (It was from the Quakers book Advices and Queries)Anyway it seemed v relevant and I felt SOOOO much better than if I'd just gone back to work and grumbled about being the dunce on my course

Dilli - I had this thought today of how we are all there for you when you want to go out for a run. Imagine us all together encouraging you. Nice thought! I hope when the rain stops you can take that first step. BTW if anyone does look at you , they're probably thinking envious thoughts - I wish I was that fit / motivated to get off the sofa- / guilt. guilt guilt. (Those are the sort of things I always think when I watch people run past me)

OK must away and incinerate something for DD's supper.

Metta to all.

PFS xxxx

Love the Bill Cosby thing-although as DS is coeliac we are a wheat-free cake-eating candle-gazing household here. Thank you for book list PFS will add to my amazon wish list-now wondering whether to 'out' myself to family etc in order to get presents I really want for Christmas?

others I have read and enjoyed so far are -
The Buddha in the world by Pankaj Mishra-bit of a history of the Buddha crossed with a travelogue crossed with a memoir

Happiness by Mathieu Ricard-a French scientist who became a Buddhist monk.
Must go and do some work now but love and light to all xxx

thanks for starting the book list PFS

I'm reading when things fall apart by pema chodron at the moment and think it is wonderful, it's really helping me get through this breakup with DH much better than I would have dreamed possible. I keep it with me at all times so that I can dive into it when a wobbley moment strikes...

another one I love is peace is every step by good old Thich Nhat Hanh which is like a handbook for mindfulness in the everyday.I don't get to "sit" officially all that often or for all that long but I find that bring mindfulness into the everyday is a huge part of my practice anyway and this has really helped

oh the other book that mango and loads of us on here have used to get us over serious humps (and speaking personally it has revolutionised the way I think about myself, others,situation) is mindful ways through depression by Jon Kabat-Zinn and the gang

metta to all X

Namaste

all very inspiring, chaps, well, chappesses - fluffy, wasn't it you who told us about 'happiness' before? my mum's friend is reading at the moment and really rates it. (needless to say, my mum herself isn't )
i am really loving 'when things fall apart' peanut and am also enjoying 'a book of silence' by sara maitland.
must go on skool run - eek!!! just saw the time. i am doing SO badly on the mindfulness front. i may sit regularly but otherwise am pants at this buddhism in every moment biz. SIGH xxx

ps LOL at 'outing' yourself lady G. when i told my mother, cynical atheist type, about having started to hang out with the quakers about a year ago she (as i knew she would) said 'for god's sake - what next?' - BUT i was helped by the fact that by a serendipitous stroke of fate, she had just finished 'notes from an exhibition' the novel by patrick gale, which is excellent and had a strong quaker theme

Katie, do we share a mother? I mentioned meditation to mine this summer and was treated to a 10 minute monologue about how boring and pointless it is and how she'd much rather listen to something on the radio or do some gardening or.... (and I hadn't suggested she try it, just said that I was finding it useful)

Ah well.

My additions to the book list -
The Places that Scare You - Pema Chodron
Full Catastrophe Living - Jon Kabat Zinn (similar to the Mindful Way Through Depression, but aimed more at people who suffer chronic physical pain)

Group meditation - I'll be 7 hours ahead of you by that time, could be tricky.

mango i am SO heartened to hear that you are my long-lost sister. yep, that's the conversation we have too if ever meditation is mentioned
...although she does seem to have softened her stance over my 'quaking' - i guess it's been over a year now, and she can see i still love going and that it wasn't just a passing phase. but soulful heart to hearts re matters of the spirit...er, no. i've lost some of my 'attachment' to that particular ideal in recent years, at least, which i guess is part of growing older!
morning from hell with DD, i lost it when she blew up over not being able to tie her shoelaces (DH had helpfully agreed to buying her laced shoes, notwithstanding this small detail, and her propensity for grenade-esque explosiveness in such situations - thanks mate) and took a long time to calm down after she had been dropped at school. part of that was my own inability to NOT get affected by the atmosphere she sometimes creates. where are you, o buddhist equanimity, when i need you?! however things were a lot better this afternoon and we had a charming little meditation session just now and she was an adorable little zen companion. it's astounding to me the different personas (personae?!) contained within one small package. i suppose that applies to us all!
okay must go, metta to you all

Hi everyone,
THanks for all the book recommendations, I'm compiling a V big reading list that I will send out whenever anyone requests it.

Mango - since you were the founder of this thread would you like to suggest a day / time of day where we can all gather under the coconut tree for our group meditation to celebrate our first anniversary?

Katie - delighted that you found your long lost sister on this thread, and I thought you only shared knickers, now it seems you share mothers as well!
Sorry to hear that DD has been exploding again- I can imagine my DD growing up to be like yours. It sounds exhausting for both of you but at least she's full of character

Would like to say I've been meditating and feeling v mindful this evening but I've had a bothersome telephone call with my brother and am feeling too annoyed to be nice. !!

Love PFS aged 3 sulking under the coconut tree

Not a mindful start today involving accident with mums car in middle of night (thankfully noone hurt) necessitating me doing school run, coming in to work late and tired and getting behind with everything! Must practice gratitude that noone injured have job (for now anyway) etc etc etc! Off to see an old friend tonight so will try and enjoy very rare night off and not dwell too much! Might have to try a bit of gentle meditation on tube home but will try not to fall asleep and miss my stop...

Lady G - what an awful start to a day.... hope the night out was restorative oh yes and " mindful"!

Dillinger - are you out there .... hope you're ok.

greetings all - hope you all well

suffering rotten cold and sleeping sickness here - honestly - I slept 12 hours on Friday (missing big booze up at work, thankfully!) and needed another 3 hours on Sat afternoon. Tried to sit last night and kept drifting off. meditating while suffereing from sleeping sickness is a tricky one I find.

Am in work today but really wishing had stayed home to sleep.

Zzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz