"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.

Oh how lovely reading all those Buddhist books - my library is now full of books on the sodding menopause in preparation for what is around the next corner !! DD was teaching herself to read last night with " Is it hot in here or is it me" Jenni Murray's v good read about the hot flushes etc.

Have a good day all

Ps: Katie I'm SOOoooo impressed with you having a school night out, there's no way I'd want to organise anything like that. RESPECT. Deffo creating good karma for yourself

comfy, that made me laugh heartily. good to see DD is getting prepared (some 40-odd years in advance)!!

the school thing is mainly selfish, i have to say, about a year ago i decided the mums needed a monthly social club - mainly because i needed some pals
it's been great for breaking down (largely non-existent, but perceived) barriers, because our school has a really wide spectrum of backgrounds -from (literally) (one) multi-millionaire to young single mums in council housing. very interesting and at times...challenging...experience. lots of food for (buddhist) thought in all the associated interactions, of course!

hope you are all having a splendid day!

xxx

Anyone for a bit of group meditation tomorrow evening??

I've lapsed so much on the meditation front that it's nice to know this is happening.

HOpe all well.

ohh just found this thread. Well i;ve been meditating for a long long time now, and do mainly chakra, kundalini and elemental mediation, or depends what exactly i am meditating for weather it be to calm down or something more spiritual.

Nice to meet you all

Blessed be Draon

Hello all,

I have been lurking for a while and am very erratic on my meditation. I have never tried group meditation though. What time are you thinking of starting tomorrow ?

Yes indeed what time. Group meditation is great fun. In close quarters it can get very interesting due to the intermingling of many peoples energies.

Hi Newbies,
Welcome. Last week we had a group meditation at 10pm - but some did it a wee bit earlier / later.
HOpe you can join us. PinkDragon you sound like a real professional on the meditating front.... I've never heard of the meditations you do - so I"m looking forward to you tell us about them. (I tend to do the simple breath in, breath out, don't nod off meditation)

See you under the coconut tree later
xx

ahh when all is calm later i'll post them up so everyone can read and if they want have a go! I'll do my best to be there but alas not been sleeping the best recently and need to catch up at some point LOL.

hi everyone including new 'faces'! yes, i will be there under our virtual coconut tree later - probably early again, 9 30-ish xxx but will try to overlap with you 10 o'clock girls by a few minutes at least!

I was a bit early tonight - but thought of you all under our virtual coconut tree - am enjoying these group meditations - even if am not always totally in temporal synch!!!

hello hello hello to the newcomers, and welcome

XXX

Hi All,

Lovely to read your messages.
Sorry I couldn't make it to the "tree" last night. We had friends over last night and lets just say I was a bit tiddly and not up to sitting in a contemplative way!! (2 / 3 glasses of wine and that's the effect!)

I"m now contemplating the error of my ways..... oh wish I could give up the evil liquor - how do Buddhists do it.

Have a lovely day....

Love CS ---

HI Everyone
I was just about to go and meditate when All in the Mind on Radio 4 announced it was discussing mindfulness.
Here's the link to the BBC iplayer www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qxx9

They interview one of the authors of Mindfulness ways through depression. So if you're interested in the science behind mindfulness and meditation have a listen to this.

Hope you're well. What's on everyone's Xmas list? I'm looking for inspiration. I thought about a meditation cushion but I think hell would freeze over before DH would spend money on such a thing!!

CS

xx

hi CS
my friend texted me about that programme but i only caught the last 10 minutes - sounded very good, thanks for the link. my xmas list (destined for DH) consists of one item: 'moderately posh leather satchel handbag' - erm, not very buddhist i'm afraid
so, not very inspiring on that front! here is an idea - when peanut and i went to taraloka they showed us a very cool meditation cushion which was the equivalent for the bottom of MBT trainers for the feet/legs! (peanut will tell you that i am a right bore re my fab ebay MBTs, which i ADORE) ie constantly keeps you slightly moving around and your postural muscles toned. good for back pain, was the point. i might put that on my list! and watch DH groan!
xxx

HI All
Katie - thanks for the suggestion of the meditation cushion, I've emailed Taraloka and hope they'll reply.
Lucky you having MBT's - if I could I'd spend my life in my pink fluffy slippers!

If anyone of Christian persuasion is reading this post - another thread referred MNers to this website: www.whywearewaiting.com/

It's v short daily videos/ reflections about Advent and how we should all slow down for the benefit of ourselves and the environment. Have a look and see what you think.

CS

Hello everyone..

Is anyone out there? Hope everyone is keeping well.
Katie thanks for the info about the meditation cushions - I've sourced them! The Croydon Buddhist Centre sells them for £15 but sadly not mail order.

Metta to all... off to find some mistletoe and frighten DH.

SiSB

Yes - I've got a new name

SISB

lovely to read you, been missing you all, not been on here as regularly for some reason. i will send peanut off to croydon at some point on a bulk-buying cushion mishion!!

been reading 'the pocket pema chodron' whenever i can this week, also still halfway through 'the history of god' (a little dense...but very informative) and trying to sit for 5 or 10 minutes in the evenings - though definitely less than i used to, and i need to get back on track there, as i have been saying for some time now!

i have been trying to breathe and pause regularly when dealing with DD's excesses - definitely helping. she informs me that she is going to be a goth when she is a teenager - no surprise to me and DH, i can tell you - already she calls herself 'queen of the night' and has a marked interest in the darker side of life...interesting times lie ahead

hugs and love to all xxx

HI Katie - good to hear you're well. I love to hear the news of your Goth DD.

If you click on this: www.whywearewaiting.com/calendar.php?get_day=11&get_month=12

Here is a meditation for the workplace by Mark Williams who co-wrote the mindful ways through depression. (It's good but the woman with her head thrown back looks a bit funny!!)

In haste - have to put on my sling backs and go and collect DD as it's last day of school

Hi Everyone
Hope you're all keeping well. Mango - how's the baby?

Katie and PB on your recommendations I've treated myself to the Pocket Pema Chaudron (Xmas present) and Sarah Napthali's latest book. I"m doing my book buying now as my new year's resolution is to not buy books but to use the library instead. I might also read all the books I've bought over the past year instead of just dust them!

I'm feeling rather confused with things at the moment due to Christmas / lots of church going w DD. I'm interested in Buddhism but I just don't want to leave Christianity as that is what I was brought up with and feel comfortable with but I don't know how to "marry" the two. Does anyone else struggle with this? Perhaps if I went to the Quakers I'd be able to resolve this.

FINALLY

I was sent this from Tricycle this morning and think it's worth sharing..

At the Crossroads

At each point in our lives, we are at a crossroads. We are the fruit of our past and we are the architects of our future. When we ask, ?Why did this happen to me?? it is because of our limited view. If we throw a stone up in the air and forget about it, when it falls down on our heads, we shouldn?t complain, although we usually do. We have this notion that what happens to us is somehow independent of our own actions. We can ask, why did this happen? but the more important question is, what we are going to do about it?

If you want to know your past, look at your present circumstances. If you want to know your future, look at what is in your mind. If we know that our fate is in our hands, then the quality of our actions becomes a central issue. The whole point of karma is to recognize how our actions determine our future, so that we can begin to act properly. It?s not just a cosmological or philosophical matter. It?s entirely practical. The main point is not to get in trouble again.

-Matthieu Ricard, "Karma Crossroads," from the Fall 2006 Tricycle.

I like that final line about "not to get in trouble again'. ! Speaks volumes to me!

SISB

thanks for your message. that dharma spoke straight to me too this morning, and i immediately forwarded it to my brother, who is facing a bit of a crossroads himself right now.
i am SO on for ditching past patterns - my new year's resolution is to MOVE ON from the boring old familiar patterns that have dogged me in the past, LET GO at last!

now, to business

i have two books to add to your pile (i can hear your groans from here!)

1 living buddha, living christ - thich nhat hanh
2 a new earth - eckhart tolle

those were the two books that proved most useful to me in untangling my anxieties about christianity vs buddhism.

i also draw much comfort from the fact that the famous catholic mystic and monk, thomas merton, and TNH regarded one another as brothers, and saw 'things' in - and i quote from TM - 'exactly the same way'.

to my mind the core of all religions is what matters, and they are at bottom THE VERY SAME THING, imho. (although admittedly the Dalai Lama himself seems to emphasise the differences between christianity and buddhism, while urging people to stick with the former if that is their own tradition!)

still, i think the common ground is huge. i love to sit in churches, and often go to a local chapel at the foot of a hill i often climb in the local black mountains to sit and contemplate in the beautiful silence. there is a sign above the door, carved on a simple piece of rough-hewn wood: 'peace be with you'. a message that could just as well belong in a buddhist temple, surely.

XXX

Katie - thank you for your lovely post - lots of food for thought as always. No time to reply in detail but I'll see if I can get those books at the library rather than Amazon.

XXX

Hi everyone

sorry haven't been around much - the manicness that is the lead up to christmas with a job and kids at a achool that insists on not one, not two but four xmas concerts (actually FIVE counting DD2's nursery one) has taken its toll.

I did manage to escape down to the seaside last weekend though to spend a day and night with a lovely woman I met on my first retreat at Taraloka way back in July. We've kept in touch and H's parents were visiting so I was eager to escape the domestic situation and so she kindly hosted e there, in a lovely flat with glorious sea views. We had met on a metta bhavana retreat so we sat together on the sunday morning and practised it again. It was absolutely lovely.

Glad to hear you got Pema In Your Pocket (PIYP) SISB - it is a wonderful thing to carry around. I know Katie and I both resort to it on an almost daily basis.

Things are geeting emotionally fraught for me at the moment. I need to step back from it all and gain some inner balance again. I think I need to incorporate more sitting and reading again. Am halfway through TNH "THe Heart of the Buddha's Teachings" and while it is far meatier than any of his other books that i've read, I am really enjoying it. albeit in a sloooooooooow way.

metta to you all

XXX

just realised how many "lovely"s I managed to pack into one paragraph in that last post. terribly lazy of me. I apologise

am on intravenous pema in your pocket today after having something of an emotional shock earlier - it's helping

also found this When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times seems to be the whole book online - YAY! I need this today

PB - good to hear from you. SOrry that you're having such a tough time though. Anyway just wanted to say you're in my thoughts. Your weekend away sounded like bliss.

My copy of Pema's Pocket arrived today and I've managed to resist temptation and have put it in the cupboard with all the other Christmas presents so I've got something to look forward to next week.

Imagine if a burglar stole all the presents from under our CHristmas tree he'd find a bunch of Buddhist books amongst the toys!!

Night night dear friends

hello my lovelies
swine flu has hit here - DD awfully unwell, DS fortunately recovered fairly quickly within 48 hours. DD looks dreadful though, and has every symptom in the book, so am off to source some tamiflu for her now - not that i hold out much hope of it making much difference, but you never know
will write more soon - have been welded to the sofa here for days now so i should find time later!
x x x

have duly eaten my hat - tamiflu seems to have turned the situation around within hours! hurrah