love

this is it folks … THE big word
in the kitchen of our South African home, we had a notice up on the wall:

love was not put in your heart to stay
love is not love until it’s given away

we have to love … love each other, love ourselves, love creation, love our planet
send love to people we find difficulty with, love animals, love this day, love the food we are eating, love beer, not just love but show love to the people near and dear to us, love the stars and planets, love that beautiful flower, hug and love the tree that we pass by, love the warmth of the sun.

the more love I give out the more I seem to have
there is a never-ending source of love in me … or so it seems

Reggie Ray in his lecture of Buddhist Tantra, quotes a study, where terminally ill patients were interviewed. They were asked the question 'Is there anything you regret in life?'
Ninety percent answered 'I wish I had been loved more' and ten percent answered 'I wish I had loved more'.
It is a pretty telling study, don't you think?

meditation

                                    A mind that is quiet is naturally attentive.
                                 And a mind that is attentive is naturally quiet.
                Although Buddhists regard formal meditation practice as necessary,
          it is not the form of the meditation that is the key, but the act of focused attentiveness
                 - that which happens when you give yourself completely to a task at hand,
                                         whatever that happens to be.


Source:  Quiet Food - The Buddhist Institute of South Africa ISBN 1 919930 62 0

i’ve tried to make meditation part of my daily life. i say ‘tried’ because it certainly is not as much a part of my daily life as i would like it to be - i miss meditating on so many days, but i keep trying.
i’m trying to achieve a sense of being in the moment. and only that.
i believe it has been useful to me in slowing down the headlong rush of my life, the habit of always looking ahead and often thinking of the past, to the neglect of each moment. i feel that life slows down and time seems to stretch when i’m in the moment. when i’m absorbed and ‘in the flow’ as i’ve heard it put


i was given a book 
Meditation in Action by Chogyam Trungpa ISBN-10: 159030876X
which i found really good. this book is all you need to understand meditation and to start practicing


Jon Kabat-Zinn in his book Wherever You Go, There You Are ISBN-10: 1401307787
says - quoting the Amazon.com Review: “… meditation is important because it brings about a state of "mindfulness," a condition of "being" rather than "doing" during which you pay attention to the moment rather than the past, the future, or the multitudinous distractions of modern life.”


more recently, i was accepted as a novice monk at Wat Pah Nanachat , a monastery in the
Theravada Forest Tradition, situated in the northeast part of Thailand in Isan Province - see the image at the head of this blog.
the monastery aims at providing English-speaking people the opportunity to train and practise the ancient lifestyle that the Buddha taught his monks in the forests over 2500 years ago.
for the three weeks of my stay, i was able to participate fully in the life of the monastery and this experience has profoundly influenced my life. i was able to practice many hours of sitting meditation in the salle and walking meditation along the many paths meandering around the grounds of the monastery. waking call is at 3am, followed by chanting and meditation, leaf-sweeping and then on to the alms-round. the single meal of the day is at 8am. question and answer sessions and other opportunities to enquire about Buddhist practices are provided, though no mediation instruction is given.


Movement is good for the body, and stillness is good for the mind.
~ Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche