Principle 4

4 - Recognize the mental states that fill consciousness. Shift from unhealthy states to healthy ones.

Rolf Gates had written: 'I often lose sight of this. My practice becomes an obligation, a necessity, yet another thing to knock off my to-do list. When I approach my practice with this attitude, not only is it a whole lot less fun, but I am also missing the point. A fundamental principle of yoga is that the conjuction of the seer (us) with the seen (life) is intended to be educational. Our entire lives are one big lesson. In microsom, our time spent on the mat is meant to be an exercise in self-study, or svadhyaya. ... the divine spark, the magic, the beauty that we yearn for are our own. This is what we are studying, and the asana are our classroom.'

This just highlights an example of an unhealthy state of mind, where he had a poor attitude about what he was doing, he then recognized he was thinking this way and how it was negatively affecting him and his practice and then he made the choice to shift his mental state to a healthy postive one.

Sure i,or Google, could give you lists full of healthy and unhealthy states, but the main point is you know if how you are thinking is causing you or your experience or others around you to not feel your best|their best, then its apparent that the opposite mindset will give you and others the opposite reaction.

As Honey Nut Cheerios says: 'Bee happy, bee healthy!'

posted from Bloggeroid

Principle 3

3 - When we shift attention from experience to the spacious consciousness that knows, wisdom arises.

'What could it mean to be beyond right and wrong, beyond good and bad? Wouldn't that just lead to chaos? What would be the principle upon which human beings lived? What would keep us from acting in unkind and hurtful ways? But of course, those kinds of questions come from the limitations of egoic consciousness, which is an expression of relativity. Egoic consciousness can't even imagine another state. All it can do is project its own understanding of another state, but it can never actually attain it. Spiritual awakening isn't for our egos. Its for our deeper, inner nature. Its for the source and substance of what we really are. ...

'Very few people understand what true nonseperation is, but this is the invitation that's offered to us in any moment: that who we are is everything and nothing, and far beyond them both. The Heaven we've been looking for is here now, that very place that we've been looking from. Of course the mind will say, "It can't be! What about all the pain and sorrow and suffering?" The dualistic mind deeply wants, and it deeply believes, that ultimate reality has to be something other that this, but of course, if its all one, then its all one, and it includes everything. It is not necessary that we continue to experience suffering, despair, and conflict. These things are merely the product of a state of confusion, of being identified with a very small piece of the mind.

'So its not necessarily a fact that life is destined to include suffering, strife, and sorrow, but neither is life made to be perfect and absolutely heavenly, because neither one of those are the truth. What's real is beyond them both. And when you begin to feel or even get a sense of what I'm pointi8ng to here, you might start to get a whole different view of the life of this moment. But you don't need to run away from anything, because there's nowhere to go. Here is the only place there is. Here is a wider vision, of our unborn, undying nature, of our essence and source as pure spirit. And here it opens even more, and goes beyond the greatest heaven we've ever experienced. It opens into the dazzling dark, into the greatest mystery of being, where the mind will always be bewildered.

'This may sound far off for some people, a place unattainable, a state made available only for the few, but I can assure you that it doesn't require you to change or to become different at all to know this firsthand. It only requires a willingness to stop. The more we stop and the more we let go, the more our consciousness naturally opens. ... ' - Adyashanti writes in his book 'Falling Into Grace'.

Even though he was not directly discussing this principle, I think it beautifully illustrates the point. When we shift our attention from experience (meaning human experience, or the human condition- looking at what we know to be 'real' and 'true' or day to day, our seperations and frustrations) to shift then to the spacious consciousness (the 'heaven on earth', the truth beyond our egoic 'knowledge' the purity of what and who we are, the 'heaven' and 'hell' alive and present all around us, within us, in the sky above and the water below, the truth in the fish and bird and all the life around us in the present moment, in the past and the future yet to come- the peace and clarity of our true divinity, of all that is divine in everything we 'like' and 'dislike', everything that is 'good' and 'bad') to take all this into the consciousness that knows (when we truly are Awake and its clear that everything is pure, and there is no more suffering) this is the ultimate wisdom that will arise.

When we shift attention from experience to the spacious consciousness that knows, wisdom arises.

posted from Bloggeroid

Principles 1 + 2

1 - See inner nobility and beauty of all human beings.

Now this seems easy to grasp just in this one sentence, we think 'treat others the way you want to be treated', but its more than just behaving well or reframing from lashing out or being judgemental. The word Namaste means 'the divine in me sees the divine in you'. Its more than a bow or a handshake of respect. In Buddhist philosophy everyone is already perfect, we are all divine, noble, whole, complete, and perfect. Its not something we need to earn, or gain, or achieve, its already with us, in this moment, just the way we are. So to say 'i see the divine in you' is seeing the nobility and beauty of all human beings, to acknowledge and regonize that there is no shame, no fault, no good nor bad, we are all beautiful.

2 - Compassion is our deepest nature. It arises from our interconnection with all things.

First off, something I've been meaning to cover is the word 'interconnection'. We all have heard this from yogis, but what is it they are really trying to say? Am I a rock and a bird, and a car, a man and a woman and a child, all at the same time? No, its not quite that literal. First off, on an abstract, artistic level, you could say the above sentence is true, that in a way we are all these things. However, when we talk about innterconnection, its more like the 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon. Example being, when we get a bag of chips from the store, we are not just grabbing a snack, the chips are not just food. They are a collection of the men and women who stocked the chips on the shelves, the individuals who transported the cargo, the people at the service stations providing fuel for the semi trucks and rest for the drivers, its the ppl in the shipping department loading the trucks and making the palets, the people who created the convayer belts that the chips pass through, the people working in the factory making the chips, inspecting them, packaging them, the owner of the business, the graphic designer of the bag, all the way back to the farmer who havested the potatoe and all the people I forgot to mention inbetwen, and then we are connected to the earth that the potatoe spuds grew from, the wild life that surrounded it, the changing seasons and weather that effected it... all of that was involved in satifying the rumbly in our tumbly.. that is the power of interconnection!

Now coming back to compassion, one its about our love, understanding, thanks and compassion to all those individuals and elements that fed us.

Bigger than that, compassion is our truest nature. We see films where destruction is the nature of man, but if you think about it, unless you have your nerons firing wrong or have a chemical imbalance, who can say that they feel most fulfilled and at peace and happy when they are enraged? We don't! We feel good when we do right by ourselves and others. Its true for all nature. Ever watch Discovery or Animal Planet or National Geographic? All these animals accept and nurture and take care of babies of other species, because they are young and need love and support. Humans are the same, with babies and animals or the sick and injured it more obvious and common. We do though have innate compassion for everyone, even those who have 'wronged us' or give us a 'funny feeling'.

I once read that in the 1800s or so men went out into the Congo with guns and received aggression from gorillas. Some other men studying the natural inhabitants were accepted into the family groups. When asked how they did it, they said that they did not appraoch them with guns. The point illustrated here, what we display, we receive. If we open our hearts to love, and really open, people will feel inspired to shine from your compassion, from your love.

The divine in them will see the divine in you from the divine in you seeing the divine in them...

Go, infect the world!

Namaste to you all!

posted from Bloggeroid

26 Principles of Buddhist Psychology

1. See the inner nobility and beauty of all human beings.

2. Compassion is our deepest nature. It arises from our interconnection with all things.

3. When we shift attention from experience to the spacious consciousness that knows, wisdom arises.

4. Recognize the mental states that fill consciousness. Shift from unhealthy states to healthy ones.

5. Our ideas of self are created by identification. The less we cling to ideas of self, the freer and happier we will be.

6. Our life has universal and personal nature. Both dimensions must be respected if we are to be happy and free.

7. Mindful attention to any experience is liberating. Mindfulness brings perspective, balance, and freedom.

8. Mindfulness of the body allows us to live fully. It brings healing, wisdom, and freedom.

9. Wisdom knows what feelings are present without being lost in them.

10. Thoughts are often one-sided and untrue. Learn to be mindful of thought instead of being lost in it.

11. There is a personal and universal unconscious. Turning awareness to the unconscious brings understanding and freedom.

12. The unhealthy patterns of our personality can be recognized and transformed into a healthy expression of our natural temperament.

13. There are both healthy desires and unhealthy desires. Know the difference. Then find freedom in their midst.

14. If we cling to anger or hatred, we will suffer. It is possible to responnd strongly, wisely, and compassionately, without hatred.

15. Delusion misunderstands the world and forgets who we are. Delusion gives rise to all unhealthy states. Free yourself from delusion and see with wisdom.

16. Pain is inevitable. Suffering is not. Suffering arises from grasping. Release grasping and be fre of suffering.

17. Be mindful of intention. Intention is the seed that creates our future.

18. What we repeatedly visualize changes our body and consciousness. Visualize freedom and compassion.

19. What we repeatedly think shapes our world. Out of compassion, substitute healthy thoughts for unhealthy ones.

20. The power of concentration can be developed through inner training. Concentration opens consciousness to profound dimensions of healing and understanding.

21. Virtue and integrity are necessary for genuine happiness. Guard your integrity with care.

22. Forgiveness is both necessary and possible. It is never too late to find forgiveness and start again.

23. There is no seperation between inner and outer, self or other. Tending ourselves, we tend the world. Tending the world, we tend ourselves.

24. The middle way is found between all opposites. Rest in the middle and find well-being wherever you are.

25. Release opinions, free yourself from views. Be open to mystery.

26. A peaceful heart gives birth to love. When love meets suffering, it turns to compassion. When love meets happiness, it turns to joy.

posted from Bloggeroid

The Secret to Non-Suffering!

Jack Kornfield writes : 'It is not given to us to know how our life will affect the world. What IS given to us is to tend the intentions of our heart and to plant seeds with our deeds. Do not doubt that your good actions will bear fruit, and that change for the better can be born from your life.'

This is not to be confused with thinking about outcome or control. Its about having faith that the actions we take will handle themselves, without our constant manipulation. As is written in the Bhagavad Gita - 'to act well without attachment to the fruits of your actions.'

You've heard me write before about letting go and nonattachment. On the small scale we practice letting go in the moment, letting go of harsh thoughts, or anxieties in situations such as getting cut off on the highway or misplacing our wallet when in a checkout line. On the small scale of nonattachment we practice freeing ourselves from our ego dettaching ourselves from our possessions, realizing that the objects we own are not us, that if something breaks or is stolen or lost, that we ourselves are still intact. So how than do we apply these concepts and practices to the large scale? (Well one 'large' vs 'small' scale is all an illusion, its really all the same, every small thing we do is large, and every large thing we do is small, but for the sake of trying to illustrate a point, I will break things apart as 'large' and 'small' in this post.)

Adyashanti writes- 'The great spiritual teacher Krishnamurti once said, "When you teach a child that a bird is named 'bird', the child will never see the bird again." What they'll see is the word "bird". That's what they'll see and feel, and when they look up in the sky and see that strange, winged being take flight, they'll forget that what is actually there is a great mystery. They'll forget that the thing flying through the sky is beyond all words, that it's an expression of the immensity of life. It's actually an extraordinary and wonderous thing that flies through the sky. But soon as we name it, we think we know what it is. We see "bird", and we almost discount it. A "bird", "cat", "dog", "human", "cup", "chair", "house", "forest" - all of these things have been given names, and all of these things lose some of their natural aliveness once we name them. Of course we need to learn these names and form concepts around them, but if we start to believe that these names and all of the concepts we form around them are real, then we've begun the journey of becoming entrance by the world of ideas.'

Jack Kornfield firther writes - 'Freedom from views is like a cleaning of the glass, a breath of fresh air. Zen master Shunryu Suzuki calls this open-mindedness "beginner's mind". Listen to Rachel Carson, the great naturalist, as she evokes it: "A child's world is fresh and new and beautiful, full of wonder and excitement. It is our misfortune that for most of us that clear-eyed vision, that true instinct for what is beautiful and awe-inspiring, is dimmed and even lost before we reach adulthood. If I had influence with the good fairy who is supposed to preside over all the children, I should ask her gift to each child in the world be a sense of wonder so indestructible that it would last throughout life."
'When we are free from views, we are willing to learn. What we know for sure in this great turning universe is actually very limited. Seung Sahn, a Korean Zen master, tells us to value this "dont-know mind". He would ask his students questions such as "What is love? What is conciousness? Where did your life come from? What is going to happen tomorrow?" Each time, the students would answer, "I don't know". "Good", Seung Sahn replied. "Keep this 'dont-know mind'. It is an open mind, a clear mind".'

And my favorite Dove chocolate wrapper quote, 'Marcel Proust-"The voyage of discovery lies not in finding new landscapes, but in having new eyes".'

The 'large scale' example of letting go and nonattachment is letting go of the illusion that we have any control over anything outside of our actions in this life. We must learn to not be attached to any outcome 'good' or 'bad'. True satisfaction, and utter peace is knowing we have no control, and being ok with that truth.

'It is not given to us to know how our life will affect the world. What IS given to us is to tend the intention of our heart and to plant beautiful seeds with our deeds. Do not doubt that your good actions will bear fruit, and that change for the better can be born from your life.'

posted from Bloggeroid