How are sounds working in your daily life? The peepers have begun here in the country !!
Well, this week we began to explore the nature and quality of our emotions; we are practicing with R.A.I.N. & HINDRANCES as ways to recognize, accept and become less personally invested in them. The previous attitudes of beginners mind and patience continue to be significantly helpful elements to cultivate as we delve more deeply into our awareness of what is happening moment by moment. Now, this next attitude of mind, Acceptance, from Jon Kabat-Zinn, is crucial to our mindfulness practice. Without it we may well miss our real lives.
"Acceptance does not mean that you have to like everything or that you have to take a passive attitude toward everything and abandon your principles and values. It does not mean that you are satisfied with things as they are or that you are resigned to tolerating things as they "have to be." ... Acceptance as we are speaking of it simply means that you have come around to a willingness to see things as they are. This attitude sets the stage for acting appropriately in your life, no matter what is happening. You are much more likely to know what to do and have the inner conviction to act when you have a clear picture of what is actually happening than when your vision is clouded by your mind's self-serving
judgments and desires or its fears and prejudices.
judgments and desires or its fears and prejudices.
In meditation practice we cultivate acceptance by taking each moment as it comes and being with it fully, as it is. We try not to impose our ideas about what we should be feeling or thinking or seeing on our experience but just remind ourselves to be receptive and open to
whatever we are feeling, thinking, or seeing, and to accept it because it is here right now. If we keep our attention focused on the present, we can be sure of one thing, namely that whatever we are attending to in this moment will change, giving us the opportunity to practice accepting whatever it is that will emerge in the next moment."
So, this is the real deal, this attitude of acceptance shows us, allows us to see, what is actually happening right now, what is really true for each of us is only what is here in any given moment. In these next few days continue sitting for 15 minute segments, really notice as you witness breath what else shows up and how you meet it. Consciously bring your accepting mind into the moment, it really changes everything!
We meet this Sunday March 21, 2010 630-745pm. We will continue to develop attention, focus, and skill working with emotions and now thoughts, creating peaceful presence and stillness.
Accept, Allow, Be
Jenn & Rebecca
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