Hello Hello fellow persons in pursuit of OOPS! I mean in the moment...
As we come to our final week exploring the practical application of techniques in mindfulness meditation we wish to share this oh so wonderful attitude of mind, from Jon Kabat-Zin - NON STRIVING ! The whole passage is perfect just as it is and embodies so much of what we have been exploring these past months.
Take the time to sit for 30 minutes ( or an amount of time that is appropriate for the growth of your practice) before we meet tomorrow. Ask yourself, " what is happening right now", explore that happening watch it shift, change and morph into something different, float along the river of your experience, live the ebb and flow.
Almost everything we do we do for a purpose, to get something or somewhere. But in meditation this attitude can be a real obstacle. That is because meditation is different from all other human activities. Although it takes a lot of work and energy of a certain kind, ultimately meditation is a non-doing. It has no goal other than for you to be yourself. The irony is that you already are. This sounds paradoxical and a little crazy. Yet this paradox and craziness may be pointing you toward a new way of seeing yourself, one in which you are trying less and being more. This comes from intentionally cultivating the attitude of non-striving.
For example, if you sit down to meditate and you think, "I am going to get relaxed, or get enlightened, or control my pain, or become a better person," then you have introduced an idea into your mind of where you should be, and along with it comes the notion that you are not okay right now. "If I were only more calm, or more intelligent, or a harder worker, or more this or more that, if only my heart were healthier or my knee were better, then I would be okay. But right now, I am not okay."
This attitude undermines the cultivation of mindfulness, which involves simply paying attention to whatever is happening. If you are tense, then just pay attention to the tension. If you are in pain, then be with the pain as best you can. If you are criticizing yourself, then observe the activity of the judging mind. Just watch. Remember, we are simply allowing anything and everything that we experience from moment to moment to be here, because it already is.
In the meditative domain, the best way to achieve your own goals is to back off from striving for results and instead to start focusing carefully on seeing and accepting things as they are, moment by moment. With patience and regular practice, movement toward your goals will take place by itself. This movement becomes an unfolding that you are inviting to happen within you.
Please join us tomorrow SUNDAY APRIL 18, 2010 at 630pm for a special meditation practice! If you've never been let this be your beginning, if you joined us once or twice or five times let yourself continue, we look forward to seeing you all!
Much Metta
Jenn & Rebecca
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