Today's Meditation(s): The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh  (ed. by Melvin McLeod), Walk Like a Buddha That's why the bottle didn't slice. My mind and my spirit are goin' north and south ! I am here. It is now. I can think that walking as well — tuning  in instead of tuning out as usual while walking — I, too, will find walking natural and joyous, an experience worth my attention. (Which would be an argument that I had gotten it at least a bit right that time.)

Today's Meditation(s): The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh  (ed. by Melvin McLeod), Walk Like a Buddha Tao Te Ching 2 One reminded me of the other. Who knew two philosophies set to  living properly might say similar things? Doing without trying. Doing without doing.  We know they are wise by how they live. Teaching nothing. Showing everything. My father lived his life well. Showing me a good way to live. How to be a good person.

Today's Meditation(s): The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh  (ed. by Melvin McLeod), Mindfulness of Breath Last one from this teaching. Child's play. Said the master with how many decades of experience? The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao. The name that can be named is not the eternal name. The nameless is the beginning of heaven and earth. The named is the mother of ten thousand things.  (Tao Te Ching 1) How can I believe that it's this simple? I  want  it to be. I  want  this to be true. But how can I, a simpleton of meditation, believe it?   I can't. But I can trust. I can trust that a person who can speak simply like this, who can describe concepts like this, deep meaning in plain language and easy prose, means well and wants us to find peace and tranquility, happiness and serenity. So I believe. And I try to find the path he is sharing. Though he cannot relate the Ultimate Truth™, he can point me in a direction where I might dis...

Today's Meditation(s): The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh  (ed. by Melvin McLeod), Mindfulness of Breath I don't have to meditate on a schedule? With an agenda? Within a specific pattern else I'm 'doing it wrong'? Thank you. For reminding me it's about peace of mind and tranquility. Not about checking boxes on a post-meditation evaluation form. Thank you.

Today's Meditation(s): The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh  (ed. by Melvin McLeod), Mindfulness of Breath It can become a virtuous cycle: breathe in naturally, be here, be now, notice beauty and peace, feel calm and tranquility, breathe out, feel it more, breathe again naturally, continue. It has certainly felt that way to me at times.

Today's Meditation(s): The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh  (ed. by Melvin McLeod), Mindfulness of Breath I've done this before as well. How cool is that. Reading until I find inspiration, then stopping so that I can find inspiration in the same passage another day, leads to this. Since I began reading this book, and shifted my understanding of meditation to mindfulness and presence rather than emptiness and stillness, on those days when I saw the sunset —.which was actually pretty often given that sitting on the porch is one of my favourite passtimes — I would, indeed, find myself in that frame of mind, feeling my breath go in and out in its usual way, but yet now also a conscious rhythm, repeating "I an here. It is now." 

Today's Meditation(s): The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh  (ed. by Melvin McLeod), Mindfulness of Breath Breath in. I am here. Breath out. It is now. Tune in. Where am I?  I'm using the restroom at 4 AM, having stumbled out of bed almost unconscious. I laughed. I've also noticed myself smiling during my brief meditations, as Thich Nhat Hanh mentions above, even before I read this section. It's helping. It's making a difference.

Today's Meditation(s): The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh  (ed. by Melvin McLeod), Mindfulness of Breath It's just there, if I remember to look for it. The last fews days, approaching meditation as something that is easy and natural, have been remarkable. I find myself meditating for even just 5 or 10 seconds, breathing normally and repeating my new mantra: "I am here. It is now." Sitting in traffic. Laying in bed. Listening when I don't feel like listening. Watching the sky or the game. As I doze off. When I play a game with friends. Cleaning around the house. Dealing with troubles or reveling in tranquility.  Thinking of meditation as full presence, rather than empty-headed nothingness, resonates deep inside me. Makes perfect, and practical, sense to me. I am overcome with joy at this new understanding my life.

Today's Meditation(s): I am here. It is now. I am here. It is now. I am here. It is now.

Today's Meditation(s): The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh  (ed. by Melvin McLeod), Mindfulness of Breath What? Regular breathing? You mean I don't have to torture myself into breathing in for 720 seconds, holding for an hour, then breathing out as slow as I can possibly do it? That meditation is more about mental and spiritual set than some artificial method? I can only say that I am so happy to have found these teachings. Now to do the (easier but still challenging) work.

Today's Meditation(s): The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh  (ed. by Melvin McLeod), Loving Presence Be kind. Understand. Help. FFS, I am , and long have been, the same all too often. Just as Socrates et al. tell us that no man does evil on purpose, bodhisattva Thich Nhat Hanh tell us that these zombies do not do so on purpose. They don't know, or they would choose differently. Now I know. Will I make better choices? If so, how often? How much presence can I express in my life? How much consciousness? How much mindfulness?

Today's Meditation(s): The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh  (ed. by Melvin McLeod), Loving Presence I am so glad I found this book. It presents meditation so simply, in ways that resonate with me. I haven't yet attempted a MEDITATION with this uncomplicated sense, but I need to. More importantly, I need to find ways to slip small meditations into my daily life instead of waiting for the "right time" to MEDITATE . I fess the emphasis there is exactly the problem. Start small. Start tonight. Start.

Today's Meditation(s): The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh  (ed. by Melvin McLeod), Resting Perhaps it's just much simpler than I've tried so far. Maybe I've just been trying too hard. Relax. Be here. Be now. Stop worrying about it.

Today's Meditation(s): The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh  (ed. by Melvin McLeod), Resting Meditation as true presence. Usually, when I've considered meditating, I envision a blankness, a void where nothing exists and anything that does is a distraction. Perhaps having that wrong impression of my destination is the issue.... If meditation is, instead, fully experiencing the world as it is right here and right now, then that's a wholly different path from here to there than trying to erase everything from existence.

Today's Meditation(s): The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh  (ed. by Melvin McLeod), Resting Be there 100%. Be here 100%. Be now 100%. Be . . . aware, awake. Be satisfied with sufficiency. Srrive not but sink, rest.

Today's Meditation(s): The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh  (ed. by Melvin McLeod), Resting Find the natural state that allows me to rest and find comfort. That I can maintain and meditate with. It's always been a challenge for me. Perhaps that is the issie: it has been a challenge rather than a natural way of being. I can do better.

Today's Meditation(s): The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh  (ed. by Melvin McLeod), Freedom Hello, old friend I am not up to dealing with you right now. Please come later. A label becomes a key that frees. Now I can name it. Now it loses its power over me.

Today's Meditation(s): The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh  (ed. by Melvin McLeod), Freedom I try hard to remember to be happy about the ten thousand things in my life that are good. I try to notice when my car has been running well without need of many repairs in the past few years.* I try to see the weather as a gift come rain, come shine. And the sunsets and the dawns and the days of sunlight and the nights of stars and moon. I try to recognize how precious it is to spend time with my kids. Every time, not just special occasions. I try to be aware of how wonderful my wife is. To see and appreciate (overtly) all she does for me and our family. I try to notice when I do well, so that not all my reflection is filled with recrimination. If I deserve a pat, I'll take a pat, if only from myself. I look for the happy and try to encourage it. ===== * Unlike, say, Mrs. Student's car which is closing in on the magic balance of repair $ / month = car payment $ / month which pro...

Today's Meditation(s): The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh  (ed. by Melvin McLeod), Freedom I miss lots of possibilities because I let myself worry about things that are not up to me. And so much of what is here now gets past me because I am not present, but in some mythical memory or some hypothetical future.

Today's Meditation(s): The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh  (ed. by Melvin McLeod), Concentration It does something to me when I concentrate, when I focus. I wish I could experience it more often. Peace. Joy. Concentration.

Today's Meditation(s): The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh  (ed. by Melvin McLeod), Your True Home Two different directions? I'm living like twenty . My mind goes lots of places at once when I'm not focused. And even when I am "focused,," sometimes. I get the idea, the connection and metaphor. But like I said before, sit down and breath has, up to now, been difficult for me. I'm hoping to break that streak.

Today's Meditation(s): The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh  (ed. by Melvin McLeod), Your True Home This helps. In my tries at classical meditation, I believe I have had brief periods of stillness. Keeping this in mind may help me shake the small interruptive thoughts in the back of my brain that tell me I cannot do it and why bother trying? Often, this is my largest hurdle: the nagging doubt that I can meditate successfully at all. There's that active tense again . . . 'that I can exist in a meditative state' would be better, if less comely said. So, I've done it before, I can do it again, eh? I can live with that.

Today's Meditation(s): The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh  (ed. by Melvin McLeod), Your True Home I've had trouble with meditation up to now. Bringing my mind to a quiet state has been difficult, unfulfilled, in my previous attempts. Perhaps because that last sentence was active? Bringing, rather than, say, following or allowing or watching. I know I've entered flow states during tasks where I could let my mind relax, but the traditional sitting cross-legged and breathing image of meditation had been unsuccessful for me.

Today's Meditation(s): The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh (ed. by Melvin McLeod), Your True Home Replace true home with inner citadel and this is a fully Stoic quote.

Today's Meditation(s): The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh  (ed. by Melvin McLeod), A Life of Miracles Awareness, mindfulness. I often don't notice things I wish I did. And then I notice not noticing and notice again for a while. But it hasn't yet stuck.