"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.

Hello, just marking my place as I need to take up meditation again but with a 6 week old it is a little harder to grab a reliable time slot!

Love the thread title.

hello everyone, and sorry about your tsetse fly bite peanut (er, is that what gives you sleeping sickness...rushes off to check dusty medical tomes...)
so listen my friends, Very Exciting News.
i just got back from the most utterly gorgeous three-hour saunter in the hills nearby...ochre grasses, purple heather, wild ponies, sheep, a couple of crows, the odd skylark and me. it was divine. i tried to really listen to the silence - since i am still immersed in sara maitland's 'book of silence' and finding it quite the most thought-provoking (non-buddhist!) book i have read in ages.
and came home to find a package in my letterbox from australia...sender s. naphthali!
and opened it to find her third book 'buddhism for mothers of schoolchildren - finding calm in the chaos of the school years', along with a little card of thanks for the thank you card i had sent her months back - and saying how writing is very isolating, and it is lovely to know that what she is doing is appreciated by us, and maybe doing a little good in this world.
how much do we love this woman?!
must not be late for the kids' harvest festival. back soon! xxx

WOWO Sarah guru wrote to you....

that's so sweet of her! Aaw. Feel all gooey.

Lady G - night-time accident sounds very stressful, glad no injuries, hope everything is back to normal

peanut - are you pg? I too am sleeping at the drop of a hat, and pacing pointlessly in the early hours

small - welcome, come back whenever you like (don't feel like you have to wait till you've actually sat or anything)

pink/all - given that I'll definitely have a newborn by Nov 18, I think it's not the best idea to try to do a group meditation to suit me. I'm 7 hours ahead of you - but maybe 2am after after a feed will work perfectly- there's just no way of knowing. So can I pass the ball back to you lot, and say I'll certainly try to fit in with whatever you decide?

Ohhhh how I wish we could persuade Guru Sarah to come over here and speak at a literary festival... whilst we all sit under the coconut tree and listen in awe. (BTW I've always wondered how people get in touch with authors - do you just write to their publishers and hope the letter will get passed on?)

What's the new book like ? I know it's due out here in December so will be hoping that Santa puts it in my stocking. (Knowing my luck with my aetheist husband I'll just get Dawkins God Delusion )

Thanks for recommending the Sara M book - I've added it to the list and will check it out from the library. (Not purchasing it as have curbed my Amazon addiction)

Small - hello.

Mango - maybe we should all have a group meditation when the babe arrives to welcome him / her to the coconut tree ? And of course whatever time we choose there's a high chance you'll be awake dealing with new babe.

PB - hope you're feeling better and less sleepy!

Feel as if I'm pregnant myself having just scoffed a curry and too many slices of lemon meringue pie. Must remember to eat in a mindful way tomorrow - rather than in Homer Simpson kind of way.

Metta to all.
XX PFS aka THE PINK FAT SLUG xx

hello homer the slug - you did make me laugh!!
my 6 yr old DS dropped daddy's NEW MACBOOK LAPTOP on the stone floor an hour or so ago - it is truly and utterly f*cked. screen smashed. dead as a dodo. so that's been the main event of the evening chez 123! oh dear. luckily daddy (currently abroad, phew) took the news reasonably well on the phone. grimly, but without freaking out at least. i said to him jokingly that this was 'good spiritual practice' - ho ho ho - he wasn't impressed . realising i was taking foolish, insane risks, i stopped making buddhist wisecracks at that point!
yes pinkfluffy, literary festivals are a great plan for guru sarah - i am going to one next weekend, in fact, so will be sure to have a word with the organisers
...we can dream!
big hugs to you all
xxx

Oh Katie you have my sympathies re:-the macbook incident. My DH is a Macbook lover so I know you're dealing with a rare breed. Yes Buddhist quotes aren't really appropriate at these moments -but I know I'd have done the same thing. I'm well known for my inappropriate comments at the wrong time! Wonder what Guru Sarah would have said..?

I've had a similar experience; last year a friends 2 year old took DH's brand new fancy laptop and scraped it over the stone floor thereby engraving the kitchen floor onto it. DH was livid - and had the standard Macbook-lover-sense-of-humour-failure.) Friend has never dared bring kid back again.

Well done for "fessing up though. I was sent this Buddhist quote this morning which seems to speak to your situation:

Always speak truthfully, and don't lie. Be honest and frank. Don't be afraid that someone will scold you or hit you. Even if they do, you want to speak the truth. Even if someone wants to kill you, what is there to be afraid of? What worries are there after true liberation? What is there left to fear?

~~---~~--~--~-~~----~
Quotes from the Venerable Master Hsuan Hua or other Buddhist sources.

Welcome to: www.dharmabliss.or

Have a good day everyone.
X

May another one join? I on and off watched the last thread but found it rather overwhelming. However, just last week at a psych therapies assessment the psychotherapist recommended "meditation" and "mindfulness" as a possible way of helping myself whilst I endure the NHS waiting list for treatment.

To this end I've just started listening to John Kornfield's "Path with Heart" on audiobook. I've also got a Charlotte Joko Beck book, the title of which escapes me atm. Funnily enough I bought both of them for DH years ago after he picked up one of my Dad's books, "Way of Zen" iirc.

I guess what I'm trying to say is I'm taking the plunge into this group and am looking forward to my journey.

Hi SwissMiss,

Welcome to our happy little band. Pleased that you could join us. Sorry to hear that you're having to endure NHS waiting lists - I hope you find some support /friendship here under the "coconut tree".

If you go back on this thread you may find some other books which you might find helpful. A number of people on the original thread recommended "Mindful ways through depression" by Jon Kabat-Zinn and co.. It's got CD's for guided meditation. This is the link to Amazon - and it has some good reviews.

www.amazon.co.uk/Mindful-Way-Through-Depression-Unhappiness/dp/1593851286/ref=sr_1_1?ie=U TF8&s=books&qid=1255466724&sr=8-1

Take care
PFS

swissmiss i am so sorry you felt the other thread was overwhelming. i feel strong retrospective guilt for talking too much. especially now i am reading a book about silence
...please do forgive me/us for being exhausting at times in our verbosity. and welcome!

Dear all, hope you have had a wonderful Tuesday. After a slightly ropey weekend with a hangover following very drunken night out with girlfriend Friday I am now back on the straight and narrow. Really enjoying my nightly 10 minutes of zazen's candle meditation and feel unsettled if I miss it now.
Oddly this has not immediately translated to calm serenity when getting children ready/doing the school run, cooking for and cleaning up after 4 year old and 1 year old (who has transformed overnight from angel baby into demon toddler and food thrower). Funny that.

Deeply impressed by your personal message from guru Sarah katiek123 and sympathies re laptop.

MangosTricky rice-how about 10 pm our time so you can join us 'during' that 5 am feed if you happen to be awake?? Or is that too late for everyone else?? In any case we will send you lots and lots of love and light. I found going from 1 to 2 just as transformational (if that's a word?) in its own way as having the first one.

'Outed' myself and my recent spiritual seekings to a group of schoolmums today and found out that one of them is going on a Buddhist silent retreat in two weeks recommended by her Reiki practitioner! Decided to cop out and ask for Amazon gift card for upcoming scary birthday from family to avoid them all checking out my wish list ....

welcome swissmiss - I've just come out the other end of the NHS waiting list and had my first proper psychotherapy appointment last week. Every week from now tilAugust is booked in, same time, same place, same 50 minutes, same fresh faced youngster in skinny trews and chelsea boots waiting to hear my woes

I am another who would heartily recommend the jon kabat-zinn et al book - I can quite honestly say it changed my life and teh way I think about things, it's the book that's "led me to this path" if you like and helped awaken a sort of personal spiriuality that I never ever thought existed (having had a convent education I thought all elements of the spirit were well and truly erased for good!)

Mango - no, am not pregnant. Ha Ha that made me laugh. Looks like H and I are in process of separating so twould be an immaculate conception if ever there were one! Friend of mine has just had gorgeous baby girl though, making me all broody. Will have to live vicariously through hers and yours and justabouts when they come

Still exhausted though. Keep falling asleep on buses. Luckily I seem to have an inbuilt sensor and never miss mt stop. Always worry about whether I have drooled mightily when I jerk to awakeness though. Ugh.

Have just started zen mind beginner's mind which I found in local oxfam. It's teh tricycle book club choice so I thought I'd read it and then see what the tricycle folk have to say. Am loving it so far. Is a set of informal (post meditation I'm guessing) talks, they are quite simple and short but hold so much. Very lovely.

10pm is fine for me to do group meditation,looking forward to it

metta to all X

hi everyone
might look out zen mind, beginner's mind peanut, i saw it was this month's tricycle choice - i did like it last time i gave it a try, but i find some aspects of the zen approach quite difficult. for instance, i find the more obscure koans frankly irritating ...hardly very buddhic of me!
back soon xxx

ack I just ignore the bits that irritate Katie what is...is...doesn't mean I have to take it with me. Not sure how buddhist that is either

10pm group meditation? Can someone tell me more?

Hello SmallSCREAMCap just an idea to mark MangoStrickyRice starting the original thread nearly a year ago. (Linked to at beginning of this thread) I am a newcomer too only a month into it and am very impressed by you attempting anything other than horizontal meditation with a six week old....

Thanks LadyG for explaining about the idea of having a group meditation to mark the first anniversary of this thread. It should be around Nov 18th but since Mango is having a baby that day we're not sure if she'll be with us (so to speak!)
Mango would you like to set a date or shall we go for Nov 18th at 10pm (UK time) as previously suggested.

Useless info: .... Wisdom Book (www.wisdom-books.com) are selling some really nice calendars. They've got calendars with qutoes by Pema Chodron and Thich Nhat Hanh and of course one with that favorite Buddhist poster boy - the Dalai Lama. and they're only £8.99 each which seems reasonable.

I'm having problems with meditating at the moment (just can't concentrate and get into it) but I'm enjoying reading Happiness at work by the Dalai Lama and Howard Cutler. For anyone who's fed up with work its a good read. I got it from Oxfam!!

Have a lovely day all.

Ok I've taken the plunge - since so many of you have recommended Mindful Ways Through Depression by Jon Kabat-Zinn and co- I"ve decided to give it a go. Not that I'm depressed at all (at the moment) but because you all recommended Buddhism for Mothers and I loved that so I thought it was worth trying this since it comes so highly recommended. . Anyways I've bought it via Amazon using the bank account which has the child benefit paid into it - so DH doesn't notice.

Is it wrong to use Child Benefit to feed one's Amazon's habit? I think not since my child benefits from have a happy well read mummy !! IS this twisted logic??

Hope you're all having a lovely day - I'm typing this downstairs listening to DD happily singing herself to sleep. Life doesn't get much better than that does it?
X

not twisted at all, fluffy, sounds absolutely above-board to me

Hello all

sorry can't explain now but had a very bad day today and a shocking event.

don't worry. but please send me good thoughts. i am trying to stay together.

best of everything to you all

oh vezzie
of course you are in our thoughts...big big big hugs to you xxxxx

Vezzzie big hugs whizzing their way to you.
Shall keep you in my thoughts today.

Hi, I have been thinking about this alot, and wondering whether to give it a go. Can someone tell me a bit more about the mindful ways through depression book - what kind of things are in it and how helpful is it. I am not at the pill popping level of depression, but have suffered from the 'blues' and sometimes a full on 'black dog' regularly throughout my life, and now seriously feel I need and want to deal with it, as well as simply becoming more centred and focused in the here and now......

Vezzie -good thoughts from here....

vezzie, hugs and good thoughts from me too. Try to just take it moment by moment, and if there's anything else we can do, let us know xx

I have had a less-than-mindful couple of days as we packed up our stuff and have moved for the birth (the nearest hospital I want to give birth in being a 6-hour drive from home). I've been trying to avoid being 'hijacked' by my emotions (chiefly annoyance and resentment at having to anything), but the best I've been able to manage is to name the feeling and ask for space. Still, better than shouting randomly and acting out, I suppose. I sound like a teenager, don't I? Now we're all settled, although in an apartment so keeping dd reasonably quiet is a new preoccupation.

10 pm on Nov 18 sounds great for a group meditation, I do think it's a lovely idea.

What is the sound of one hand clapping, anyway?

Sorry to hijack but

VEZZIE just wanted to let you know I have replied to your thread