Mindfulness and meditation, for someone who is prepared to do the work, can bring benefits such as stress relief, better concentration, better relationships, better health and help us become more resistant to depression.
If you try to bring mindful awareness to your life and if you meditate, you will be familiar with the different states of your mind: how it changes, moment to moment and day to day. Some days your attention rests easily in the present moment; you are aware of thoughts arising and releasing them is easy. There are also days when the mind is more active and to maintain concentration is more difficult as the mind is shouting for attention like a spoilt child throwing a tantrum. In these moments simply sitting still can feel uncomfortable. The practice of mindful meditation is a great teacher of patience and humility. Then…
Spring is here and we are reminded once again of the endless cycle of life and death. Each season has its attraction; each has its own beauty, but spring is the time of the quickening − the most joyful and energetic of the seasons. The energy of spring is special. After the little death of winter, flowers suddenly bloom − a carpet of bright colours appearing as if by magic; the busy hungry insects are buzzing; the hard, tight green buds on the trees so full of summer’s promise; the calm infinite clear blue sky dotted now with fluffy clouds; the birds singing for all they’re worth frenetically trying to…
An important outcome of evolution is that in day to day life we experience ourselves as apart from the universe. There is “me” here inside this body and then there is “the rest”. We could refine this a little bit; “the rest” also contains “stuff that belongs to me” and “people who are important to me”. This however, does not change the fundamental perception out of which we live our lives; “apart from”, “different from”, “separated from” the universe. After millions of years of existential suffering, we are finally free of the food chain; we live in an age in which we have the most marvellous opportunity to transcend our…
I spent much of my childhood in Cyprus. I have memories of myself as a child of 8 or 9 years of age lying in the back of an estate car whilst my father drove us through the night from Nicosia to Limassol. This was in the sixties in a time before seatbelts and airbags. Lying in the back looking through the window, seeing the stars, I remember a sense of wonder, of floating, of peace. Even at that young age I felt a deep sense of awe. Where I live now the night sky is very dark. What few lights there are come from the small village down in…
“Ready, aim, fire!” always works better than, “fire, aim, ready!” Want to know yourself? Then, adopt the right attitude. Years ago in a previous life, I was involved in a project for an insurance company. Its European communication network had started to behave in a random way − some pretty weird stuff. It was affecting their business. They asked my company to investigate the problem and recommend a fix. We found that a couple of years earlier there had been a problem with the network and a technician had quickly designed a software patch to fix it. It worked up to a point; but new problems arose and were fixed…
Anger and its twin brother hatred are based on projections and exaggeration, not on objectivity or wisdom. Johnny was living in his own private hell, surrounded by people who just wouldn’t behave how they should. His need to be right was paramount. He was constantly frustrated that the world simply would not work the way it should. He was furious that people would not see him the way he wanted them to, the way they should. He often felt righteous in his anger and hatred. He couldn’t see that 'righteous hatred' is in the same category as 'righteous cancer' or 'righteous tuberculosis' − all utterly absurd concepts. The few friends…
Whatever way you cut it, whatever the point of view: physics, spiritual, social, organisational − we are not only connected, but also highly interdependent. The point of view that goes counter to this is that of the ego. Ego creates separation. When we live from the perspective of the ego (as most of us do, most of the time), we divide the universe into two categories: Me (everything inside this bag of skin) and mine (everything that belongs to what’s inside this bag of skin). This gives rise to the bubble in which most of us live, most of the time − the bubble called the “me centred universe”. From…
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