Being here

It's not about feeling good and enjoying. It's about being in the wonder of everything, appreciating and being here for it. 

Let everything be your teacher

It's really easy to get stuck inside emotions. To be the sadness or anger instead of just observing it. I try to practice not getting so entangled in emotions. To let everything be my teacher. 

"If your every day practice is to open to all your emotions, to all the people you meet, to all the situations you encounter, without closing down, trusting that you can do that - then that will take you as far as you can go. And then you’ll understand all the teachings that anyone has ever taught."                                                                                 

                                                                                                  ~  Pema Chodron

Telephone meditation

I WILL NOW PROPOSE TO YOU A MEDITATION that you can try this evening, telephone meditation. Every time the phone rings, it creates a small vibration in you. There is not true peace—there is a hint of worry: Who is it that’s calling? Is this going to be good news or bad news? You cannot hold yourself back and you run immediately to the phone. In Plum Village, we remain where we are and we consider the sound of the telephone to be like the bell of mindfulness. “Breathing in—I am calming myself; breathing out—I am smiling.” Then we go to the telephone in the style of walking meditation, but before that we practice mindful breathing. 

In our community, every time we hear a bell, we stop—we stop our thinking, we stop our conversation, we stop our work; and we begin breathing—an inbreath, then an outbreath—and it is the same thing whether it is the telephone ringing or the clock chiming. In this way we have lots of opportunities to return to ourselves, to our true home, here and now, to touch peace.

                                                  from the book True Love, by Thich Nhat Hanh

Meditation is play

One of my favorite teachers is Ajahn Sucitto. With a great sense of humor and great wisdom, he gets to the point in a way I find really interesting  and inspiring. Don't take meditation too seriously. Relax into all that is served and drink it in!

"In meditation, the play is to meet what arises in the mind. First meet it and include it whether you like it or should be experiencing it or not. While stepping back, be curious, be more fully conscious. How is this anger, how does it feel? How am I with it? What’s it like when I don’t stiffen against it, lecture it?"

Interested and want to read more? Here it is: 
Reflections: Ajahn Sucitto: Spiritual Work is Play

The picture is from Plum Village, where play goes hand in hand with daily life. Spending a week in the monastery of Thich Nath Hahn in beautiful south of France, really made me happy and a part of my heart is still there! I want to go back there one day.

Enough

Enough. These few words are enough.

If not these words, this breath.

If not this breath, this sitting here.

This opening to the life

We have refused

Again and again

Until now.

Until now.

                                                 ~  by David Whyte