Today's Meditation: The Daily Stoic 260924 When I want to know how to act, I ask what my teenage self would have done in the situation. Then I ask, would I be satisfied if my kids was supposed to do XYZ and left it in the state I currently have it in. When the answer is no, I tell myself I should set a good example of what to do when things are done. 

Today's Meditation: The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh (ed. by Melvin McLeod), A Day of Mindfulness Oh, that is hard. Not hurry? Pay attention? No reluctance? What madness is this? Peaceful madness. Gentle madness. Present madness. Here,now madness. I could stand a little more madness in my life.

Today's Meditation: The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh (ed. by Melvin McLeod), Mindfulness of Breath  I'm tired, but happy. Roll with it. Real with it. Low effort posts count, too, though perhaps not so much.

Today's Meditation: The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh (ed. by Melvin McLeod), Mindfulness of Breath  I can be present in everyday things. I can be pay attention to the wonder, the taste of my food, the look of the sunset or the amazing achievements that surround me. What amazing things people can do, have done, if I but notice.

Today's Meditation: The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh (ed. by Melvin McLeod), Mindfulness of Breath  Be here. Now. Relax. Allow it. Fall into it.

Today's Meditation: The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh (ed. by Melvin McLeod), Resting How to meditate easier . . . for dummy.  Let go. Let be. Let flow. Let free. Be in the moment and accept it for what it is. Let be what it is meant to be and who I am meant to be.

Today's Meditation: The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh (ed. by Melvin McLeod), Resting I do this. Constantly. (Ba dum tiss.) It takes a lot for me to find restfulness in my mind. I've has some back pain recently which has kept me up many nights in the past week. During those long nights, as I lay awake resting, I have felt this particularly intensely. I try to let myself drift to sleep, but often find myself sitting to meditate instead. And restless.

Today's Meditation: A Calendar of Wisdom by Leo Tolstoy (trans. Sekirin) I can work with this. Hesitation implies doubt. Yes, I doubt. All the time. But I use that time, as I separate myself from the stimulus, to select my action. What will I do? What will I consciously choose to do? Let that be my truth. I am what I do. (Tolstoy) IF my Inner Citadel in strong enough, this is true. IF my resolve is sufficient, this is true.  IF my courage is up to the task, this is true.

Today's Meditation: A Calendar of Wisdom by Leo Tolstoy (trans. Sekirin) That last part isn't always true. An illusion most certainly can overcome me again, especially is I consent to the delusion. Why would I accept such a thing? Forgetfulness. Insecurity. Feebleness of mind. Intoxication. Emotional distress. It's oh so easy to fall back into that habit energy which re-ruts me, returns me to my old patterns.

Today's Meditation: Wise Thoughts for Every Day by Leo Tolstoy (ed. and trans. Sekirin) Violence has solved more problems than any other method in history. Bar none. None even close. The question is would we be better off if we'd used words instead? In the vast majority of cases, most likely. Some, however, require an end to depredations that will not cease until and unless force is brought to bear. Wisdom lies in knowing the difference and not falling back into old habits by rote. Choices must be reasoned and deliberate. And the threshold of to action high indeed.

Today's Meditation: A Calendar of Wisdom by Leo Tolstoy (trans. Sekirin) What a great way to think about it. One requires consideration and understanding that they are transitory. Only if change the nature of the visit and invite them to stay will they become permanent residents.   The other requires care but with restrictions so they don't get out of hand. Both are natural and normal, but the behave better when I treat them properly.

Today's Meditation: The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh (ed. by Melvin McLeod), Mindfulness of Breath  The state of the body influences the state of the mind and vice versa. The more I meditate, the more peaceful my mind, the calmer my breath and heartbeat. The more relaxed my body, the easier it is to relax my mind. Meditation need not be troublesome or difficult. It's all around me, in me, if I but look without expectation, without force of will. Relax into it, gently into it, smoothly into it. Make it a more consistent approach to life.

Today's Meditation: The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh (ed. by Melvin McLeod), The Two Dimensions Be both, historical and anhistorical me. There is value in living, in life. Within samsara is dukkha, but also joy and love and connection and wonder. I need to learn both, appreciate both, live both. ===== And a bit of Tao from SMBC :

Today's Meditation: The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh (ed. by Melvin McLeod), Healing the Past  I miss you, sweet boy.

Today's Meditation: The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh (ed. by Melvin McLeod), Healing the Past What bothers me is my judgment of the things I experience in this world. In this world of illusions, I can mistake impressions for reality. I forget Epictetus' teaching that I should say to impressions, 'You are just a seeming. You are not what you pretend to be.' What my mind makes, my mind can unmake. Unraveled utterly or transformed into things small or unimportant (as they do not threaten my virtue, my excellence) and thus are no real danger, no source of true harm or real evil. Remember this.

Today's Meditation: Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu (trans. by Gia-fu Feng and Jane English), 38 If there is no confusion, we do not need ritual. Where we do not need ritual, we find justice. Where we do not need justice, it is because kindness is there. Where we can forgo kindness, it is because we have goodness first. And where goodness need not be thought of, it is because the Tao already leads. Only when we are missing the higher level do we find the need to resort to the lower level of control, of a guide to our behavior. The higher we are along that hill, the less minutiae we need be aware of. It's already included, already taken care of.

Today's Meditation: The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh (ed. by Melvin McLeod), Weathering Strong Emotions  Emotions are. From there, I can feed them, fight them, or forget them. It's what I choose to do after they arise that is important, that says something about who I am.  That's why I remind my kids all the time: act, don't re act . Learn to find that pause, that moment when I make a decision, and guide my elephant back to the smarter path. It's not easy, especially at first, but it can be trained and kept too of mind so that I'm much more likely to step out of the pattern and do better.

Today's Meditation: The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh (ed. by Melvin McLeod), Blocks and Knots Acceptance and transformation are the tools to work through pain. Take it in. Greet it. Spend time with it to understand. Find where it fits within my psyche, my soul. Integrate it into my being and make it part and the same with the whole of me. Not for it to take over. Not for it to overshadow or impose. But to be. Just be. Present. Part. Subordinate yet vital because I am not me without it. Today to visit my son.

Today's Meditation: The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh (ed. by Melvin McLeod), The Buddha Suffering can help me understand, can be the door through which I pass to a new stage of enlightenment. Accept it. Allow it. Let it pass through me, intermingling and becoming part of me that I may learn the lesson it is trying to teach. Suffering can be a heart killer, robbing me of my compassion and empathy. Don't let it. See past that illusion of separation and re-find the connections I need to others. It is my community that makes it worth it. Be part of the community, even if it is difficult. It's my duty. And my salvation.

Today's Meditation: The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh (ed. by Melvin McLeod), The Buddha Suffering is the base human condition. It is only though practice we can assuage it, even if just a bit. Remember to look for moments of beauty in the depths of  suffering. They exist even then, even for a heart that is hurting. And they will help me find my way back from those depths when up is so hard to define.

Today's Meditation: The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh (ed. by Melvin McLeod), Habit Energy I drive to work on autopilot. I go through the motions there. I eat dinner with my family and don't notice save in the most banal of ways. I listen to an audiobook and find myself listening again because I didn't hear it the first time. But I have experienced these things. I know I can ; it's a matter of focus, or, at least, of non-distraction. So let me challenge myself to being 100% present, 100% mindful during my activity. Can I do that all the time? Make it through a single occurrence without my wandering mind planning the future or remembering or regretting the past? Probably not. But with time, we'll see. And I can, along my journey, create more of those moments when I am present, here now.

Today's Meditation: The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh (ed. by Melvin McLeod), Hide and Seek All manifestations come into being and go forth from being. Except they don't. The appear to journey from one reality to another, but are actually flowing from one seeming to another. Some time, day or a thousand years from now, it's cycle will turn . . . whether we notice or not. I should try to notice more often. Be present and attentive. The world offers enough.

Today's Meditation: Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu (ed. by Melvin McLeod), One Mystery. All truth. Manifestations. Seeming. Appearances. Instances. Things. All is part of the Tao. Impenetrable ideas, yet clear to epiphany, satori. Through this understanding is enlightenment.

Today's Meditation: Another Stoic thought regarding bearing and forbearing, continuing on yesterday's entry: o thers have survived this, there is a way.  Others have survived what I have experienced.  Lesser people have survived the same.  Still others have survived even worse.* Does that mean it will be easy? No. Does it mean I mightn't wail and gnash my teeth, at least for a while? No. Does it mean that I will know the way? No. But it means there is a way. And if a way exists, there is still something to try, something to look for and continue on. Keep looking. And if the pain is truly unbearable, the door is always open. ===== * Not the we need enter the Pain Olympics and begin competing claims on Misfortune's attention. My pain is independent of others and their pain. In the physical world, for example, some can bear pain which would make others crumple and weep. My 3 may be your 7 and his 10. The same stimulus brings forth different reactions from different people...

Today's Meditation: Enchiridion, 8 Do not try to make what happens happen as you wish, but wish for what happens in the way that it happens and then the current of your life will flow easily. I read, made special note of it, this just before a post online made me think of my dead son. Even now it is still hard to do. I know I can't change the past*. Wishing it were different is not only foolish but harmful to my psyche. It cannot change. Let it be. Live the life I have left. Live with the family I have. Embrace it for the alternative is lasting disability and slaving myself for no reason. Some may say "You must not have truly loved him" or some such waddle because "look at X or Y or Z. Don't you see how miserable they are? How devastated? How out of their mind they are with grief? It's been years and they've never recovered. They're still in the depths, subsumed by their grief." Of what use is that? In what way does it make me a better person...