Archive for the 'self-observation' Category
Fear and “don’t-know-mind”
In a recent post I talked about why I meditate but I left out an important reason: FEAR. I used to go through life feeling quite fearless, until I suffered from debilitating RSI symptoms plus chronic knee pain for about two years. Most of the things I enjoyed were suddenly impossible. I could hardly use [...]
Filed under: meditation, psychology, self-observation | 2 Comments
Tags: curiosity, don't know mind, fear, health, hypochondry, mindfulness
Also reactions to meditation can vary termendously depending on what else is happening in your life and what is going on with your biochemistry at the moment. I think this confuses a lot of meditation students: what happens one day doesn’t happen the next – but it is because of factors that have nothing to [...]
Filed under: meditation, self-observation | Leave a Comment
Tags: fluctuation, meditation, sleepy
Why do I meditate?
I recently read a blogpost by Charles Tart which made a lot of sense to me. In short he says it’s a good idea to remind yourself of your intention at the start of a formal meditation and to dedicate the merit of the practice at the end. So far I came up with a [...]
Filed under: meditation, self-observation | Leave a Comment
Tags: happiness, intention, motivation, movieclip, Shinzen Young, trivial
Meditative lawn mowing
Kudos
After some years of reading books, listening to audio, trying out courses,… I finally found a meditation style that feels right to me. Roughly a year ago @C4Chaos told me about meditation teacher Shinzen Young and my practice has benefited from it ever since. I listened to his audiobook “The science of enlightenment” which cleared [...]
Filed under: meditation, self-observation, teachers | 1 Comment
Tags: chore, daily life, meditation, Shinzen Young
Mind the gap
Yesterday my wife and I participated in Earth Hour. We had a nice candle light dinner and then moved to the couch. Surrounded by little flickering flames we chatted about random things. When we were silent for a while, I stared at the beautiful shadows the plants made on the walls.
Suddenly a thought popped [...]
Filed under: self-observation | Leave a Comment
Tags: blank, earth hour, hilarity, meditation, mindfulness, peace, silence, thoughts, vipassana
1. Is it true?
Yep!
2. Can you absolutely know that it’s true?
Snot dripping from nose: check!
Almost out of tissues: check!
Sore throat: check!
Do I want that? Nope!
3. How do you react, what happens, when you believe that thought?
I want the snot to stop coming wherever it keeps coming from.
4. Who would you be without the thought?
A [...]
Filed under: self-observation | Leave a Comment
Tags: byron katie, cold, the work
Commuting in anger
Don’t speak unless you can improve on the silence. –Spanish Proverb
It’s early morning, I’m just in time to catch my train. Panting I reach for my ticket and try to find myself a spot to sit. There’s a girl and her bags occupying one seat and a half. The storage space above her is totally [...]
Filed under: self-observation | Leave a Comment
Tags: anger, communication, commute, mindfulness, silence, thoughts, train
