January 16th, 2006
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Audio track mixed to describe a busy mind.
First step of dealing with a busy mind is to become aware that it is occurring to you.
Next step is to bring your attention back to your breath.
There are many things that make up a busy mind. Emotions, anxieties, fears, joys, etc. You can go down each path to work with your mind, but it’s most important to learn to drop your thoughts. Drop all busyness, even though it may feel like you need to work on the content, it is ok to drop thoughts.
Do we want to spend all our time “busy,” or would we rather find peace and sit in that? We need to learn to be fulfilled.
Busy mind leads us to do things to “ease our pain” in excess (such as watch TV, drink, smoke, etc.). It’s important that we learn the middle path between fixing our problems externally with “aspirin” and sitting with discomfort. We need to learn when to stop chasing our problems.
Who do we really want to be? Would we rather free our minds and grow, learn, and express? Or do we want to let our minds run on and on endlessly?
January 8th, 2006
A discussion that begins to talk about ways and times to bring presence into the world. If you practice meditation, these methods will be a good extension of that practice. If you don’t meditate, this will be a good introduction to what meditation is and can be used for.
Mentioned Thich Nat Han and his discussion of doing the dishes mindfully rather than with a busy mind. Also discussed eating mindfully.
Untrained minds will have difficulty being where they are.
Anchors are things that remind us to bring our attention back to the present moment. They remind us to wake up. Anchors discussed in this talk include: Waiting in traffic, waiting in line, eating, doing the dishes, vacuuming, etc.
Gave a brief introduction and instructions on how to do walking meditation.
Lastly, mentioned that if we don’t learn how to be contented where we are, we will never learn to be contented at all.
Referenced: Thich Nhat Hanh
December 11th, 2005
How to meditate: Bring your attention back to your breath. Repeat as necessary.
Discussed exercise from Eckhart Tolle to show the energy/aliveness underneath experience. Showed that energy as the oneness of being.
Mentioned that five minutes of meditation a day is all we need to get started down a very important road of growth.
Our mind is capable of opening our focus to many things at the same time.
Discussed real life applications for meditation and presence. Use it to work with anger, sadness, physical pain, etc.
Meditation has two qualities. One is where you sit in the stillness of presence. This is where true joy comes from. This is the experience of now. No judgement, etc. The other state is when the mind is busy. This may not be as pleasurable, but this is where we learn. These are the workout reps for the mind. The is where we grow. Notice you are lost in thought and bring your attention back to the breath.
Mentioned Pema Chodron’s quote about the fact that if we knew where our pain came from, we would meditate like our hair was on fire.
Referenced: Eckhart Tolle, Pema Chodron
