Today’s favourite poses: TBA
Minutes with a relatively quiet mind: TBA
Today’s interesting/thought provoking reading video
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Monday, April 11, 2011
Day #99
Today’s favourite poses: Table, Dog, 3 Legged Dog, Child's Pose
Minutes with a relatively quiet mind: 15-20
Today’s interesting/thought provoking reading/video:
Minutes with a relatively quiet mind: 15-20
Today’s interesting/thought provoking reading/video:
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Day #98
Today’s favourite poses: Warrior, Plank
Minutes with a relatively quiet mind: 10-15
Today’s interesting/thought provoking reading/video:
Minutes with a relatively quiet mind: 10-15
Today’s interesting/thought provoking reading/video:
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Day #97
Today’s favourite poses: The usual suspects (Dog, Pigeon, Child)
Minutes with a relatively quiet mind: 5-10
Today’s interesting/thought provoking reading/videos:
Minutes with a relatively quiet mind: 5-10
Today’s interesting/thought provoking reading/videos:
Friday, April 8, 2011
Day #96
Today’s favourite poses: Plank, Child
Minutes with a relatively quiet mind: 6
Today’s interesting/thought provoking reading (Taken from the National Association for Christian Recovery)
Most children who have negative attachment experiences will defend against a conscious awareness that they are not loved, and will decide that the problem is with themselves – that they are not lovable. However, unconsciously they will "see" others as not loving, including God. As a result, they will unconsciously avoid true intimacy with others and with God.
Minutes with a relatively quiet mind: 6
Today’s interesting/thought provoking reading (Taken from the National Association for Christian Recovery)
Most children who have negative attachment experiences will defend against a conscious awareness that they are not loved, and will decide that the problem is with themselves – that they are not lovable. However, unconsciously they will "see" others as not loving, including God. As a result, they will unconsciously avoid true intimacy with others and with God.
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Day #95
Today’s favourite poses: Child only. Only Child
Minutes with a relatively quiet mind: 10 total
Today’s interesting/thought provoking reading videos
Minutes with a relatively quiet mind: 10 total
Today’s interesting/thought provoking reading videos
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Day #94
Today’s favourite poses: Ch, D, P
Minutes with a relatively quiet mind: 3, 5, 3
Today’s interesting/thought provoking Vid
Minutes with a relatively quiet mind: 3, 5, 3
Today’s interesting/thought provoking Vid
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Day #93
Today’s favourite poses: Child, Dog, Bird
Minutes with a relatively quiet mind: 3
Today’s interesting/thought provoking video
(I really liked this video, except for the part where they sort of use fear to discourage fear…….Still worth a watch though....)
Minutes with a relatively quiet mind: 3
Today’s interesting/thought provoking video
(I really liked this video, except for the part where they sort of use fear to discourage fear…….Still worth a watch though....)
Monday, April 4, 2011
Day #92
Today’s favourite poses: Pigeon, Plank
Minutes with a relatively quiet mind: 5-10
Today’s interesting/thought provoking videos
Minutes with a relatively quiet mind: 5-10
Today’s interesting/thought provoking videos
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Day #91
Today’s favourite poses: Pigeon, Tree, Warrior II, II, Down. Ward. Facing. Dog!
Minutes with a relatively quiet mind: TBA
Today’s interesting/thought provoking videos
Minutes with a relatively quiet mind: TBA
Today’s interesting/thought provoking videos
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Day #90
Today’s favourite poses: Pigeon, Warrior, Child, Doggie
Minutes with a relatively quiet mind: 2
Today’s interesting/thought provoking reading: (Taken from At Home in the Muddy Waters by Ezra Bayda)
Staying in the “what” has nothing to do with wallowing. Wallowing involves believing in our thoughts and opinions. To stay in the “what” is to experience the moment with all its uncertainty – without the ground of thoughts and concepts, with no knowledge of what is to come. This is just the place where we least want to be.
But as we continue to push the truth of the moment away – whether by attempting to figure it out or through flights into our comfortable addictions and fantasies – the heaviness, drama, distress, and dis-ease of our life will persist. As we insist on believing in our thoughts and judgements, we will continue to shut ourselves off from the depth, the genuineness, and the satisfaction available to all of us in every moment.
Minutes with a relatively quiet mind: 2
Today’s interesting/thought provoking reading: (Taken from At Home in the Muddy Waters by Ezra Bayda)
Staying in the “what” has nothing to do with wallowing. Wallowing involves believing in our thoughts and opinions. To stay in the “what” is to experience the moment with all its uncertainty – without the ground of thoughts and concepts, with no knowledge of what is to come. This is just the place where we least want to be.
But as we continue to push the truth of the moment away – whether by attempting to figure it out or through flights into our comfortable addictions and fantasies – the heaviness, drama, distress, and dis-ease of our life will persist. As we insist on believing in our thoughts and judgements, we will continue to shut ourselves off from the depth, the genuineness, and the satisfaction available to all of us in every moment.
Friday, April 1, 2011
Day #89
Today’s favourite poses: Dawg, Cat, Child,
Minutes with a relatively quiet mind: 10. no more, no less
Today’s interesting/thought provoking reading: (Taken from At Home in the Muddy Waters by Ezra Bayda)
Nonetheless, we continue to believe in our thoughts, especially those most deeply conditioned. It’s our urgent need to avoid the groundlessness , the anxious quiver of being, that drives us to embrace our concepts, our beliefs, our judgements – in order to gain some footing, a measure of security, a sense of living in a known world. And, of course, there’s the juicy gratification of “being right”.
What are we really doing when, for example, we sit in meditation allowing ourselves to get lost in planning? We’re simply living in the mental world, where we can try to make life ordered, stable, and predictable. We’re avoiding the “whatness” – the discomfort and uncertainty of the present moment. In those moments when we fall into the muddy water of uncertainty, can we just stay with the “what” of our experience without escaping into thinking, analyzing, judging, blaming or believing?
Minutes with a relatively quiet mind: 10. no more, no less
Today’s interesting/thought provoking reading: (Taken from At Home in the Muddy Waters by Ezra Bayda)
Nonetheless, we continue to believe in our thoughts, especially those most deeply conditioned. It’s our urgent need to avoid the groundlessness , the anxious quiver of being, that drives us to embrace our concepts, our beliefs, our judgements – in order to gain some footing, a measure of security, a sense of living in a known world. And, of course, there’s the juicy gratification of “being right”.
What are we really doing when, for example, we sit in meditation allowing ourselves to get lost in planning? We’re simply living in the mental world, where we can try to make life ordered, stable, and predictable. We’re avoiding the “whatness” – the discomfort and uncertainty of the present moment. In those moments when we fall into the muddy water of uncertainty, can we just stay with the “what” of our experience without escaping into thinking, analyzing, judging, blaming or believing?
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Day #88
Today’s favourite poses: Tree, Child (more like fetal)
Minutes with a relatively quiet mind: 20 or so
Today’s interesting/thought provoking reading: (Taken from At Home in the Muddy Waters by Ezra Bayda)
Nietzsche said that every word is a preconceived judgement. Consider the word ego. Using the word ego leads us to view it as an independent thing. But “ego” is just a concept describing a cluster of preconceived judgements that is definitely not one entity. This is an example of how ideas can limit us, imprison us. This individual “self” is just an idea, nothing more. To see through words and ideas is to come closer to knowing who we really are, and to understand what life is truly about.
Minutes with a relatively quiet mind: 20 or so
Today’s interesting/thought provoking reading: (Taken from At Home in the Muddy Waters by Ezra Bayda)
Nietzsche said that every word is a preconceived judgement. Consider the word ego. Using the word ego leads us to view it as an independent thing. But “ego” is just a concept describing a cluster of preconceived judgements that is definitely not one entity. This is an example of how ideas can limit us, imprison us. This individual “self” is just an idea, nothing more. To see through words and ideas is to come closer to knowing who we really are, and to understand what life is truly about.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Day #87
Today’s favourite poses: Child, Cat, Cobra
Minutes with a relatively quiet mind: 15?
Today’s interesting/thought provoking video
Minutes with a relatively quiet mind: 15?
Today’s interesting/thought provoking video
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Day #86
Today’s favourite poses: Tree
Minutes with a relatively quiet mind: 10
Today’s interesting/thought provoking reading: (Taken from At Home in the Muddy Waters by Ezra Bayda)
When problems arise in our life, we usually want simple answers: yes or no, this or that. But reality is a world of subtlety and paradox, a world of complexity, continuums, and change. We want to know why (is this happening?) and how (can I fix it?). We want the feeling of perceived comfort that comes when we think we’ve finally figured life out. But the truth is, we’ll never figure life out. Residing in the experiential “what” is the way we find the rock bottom security that is possible from practice.
The reason we’ll never figure out life by asking “why” and “how” is that it’s impossible to say what life is. In fact, life isn’t anything. It’s not meaningful, it’s not meaningless, it’s not a challenge, it’s not an opportunity, it’s not a process, it’s not a nonduality. Life isn’t difficult or hopeless. Nor does it correspond to any of the other colorings of mind we use to describe and explain what we think and feel. Life is what it is.
Minutes with a relatively quiet mind: 10
Today’s interesting/thought provoking reading: (Taken from At Home in the Muddy Waters by Ezra Bayda)
When problems arise in our life, we usually want simple answers: yes or no, this or that. But reality is a world of subtlety and paradox, a world of complexity, continuums, and change. We want to know why (is this happening?) and how (can I fix it?). We want the feeling of perceived comfort that comes when we think we’ve finally figured life out. But the truth is, we’ll never figure life out. Residing in the experiential “what” is the way we find the rock bottom security that is possible from practice.
The reason we’ll never figure out life by asking “why” and “how” is that it’s impossible to say what life is. In fact, life isn’t anything. It’s not meaningful, it’s not meaningless, it’s not a challenge, it’s not an opportunity, it’s not a process, it’s not a nonduality. Life isn’t difficult or hopeless. Nor does it correspond to any of the other colorings of mind we use to describe and explain what we think and feel. Life is what it is.
Monday, March 28, 2011
Day #85
Today’s favourite poses: Plank, Pigeon, Triangle, Warrior I, II, III, Dancing Warrior
Minutes with a relatively quiet mind: (a few)
Today’s interesting/thought provoking reading: (Taken from At Home in the Muddy Waters by Ezra Bayda)
As we practice experiencing this “what”, with fewer filters, our self-imposed boundaries dissolve, and the bubble of perception of our separate self can burst, even if only momentarily. This is far different from striving to have “enlightenment experiences”, through which we hope to achieve a permanent state of clarity and calm. This is a false pursuit; no single experience makes us permanently clear and peaceful. In fact, the pursuit of this fantasy state is often driven by the very same greed and ambition we are trying to dispel. Instead, I’m talking about the slow experiential dismantling of layer after layer of our illusions about who we are and what our life is. Experiencing, rather than trying to have special experiences, is where real freedom lies. This is how we learn that our normal way of looking at the world is only a description, and only one of many possible descriptions.
Minutes with a relatively quiet mind: (a few)
Today’s interesting/thought provoking reading: (Taken from At Home in the Muddy Waters by Ezra Bayda)
As we practice experiencing this “what”, with fewer filters, our self-imposed boundaries dissolve, and the bubble of perception of our separate self can burst, even if only momentarily. This is far different from striving to have “enlightenment experiences”, through which we hope to achieve a permanent state of clarity and calm. This is a false pursuit; no single experience makes us permanently clear and peaceful. In fact, the pursuit of this fantasy state is often driven by the very same greed and ambition we are trying to dispel. Instead, I’m talking about the slow experiential dismantling of layer after layer of our illusions about who we are and what our life is. Experiencing, rather than trying to have special experiences, is where real freedom lies. This is how we learn that our normal way of looking at the world is only a description, and only one of many possible descriptions.
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Day #84
Today’s favourite poses: Cat, Dog, Cobra, Tiger, Spider?
Minutes with a relatively quiet mind: Hours and Hours
Today’s interesting/thought provoking reading: (Taken from At Home in the Muddy Waters by Ezra Bayda)
POTATO SALAD
Everything we observe is in some way related to something else, which in turn is related to something else again. In other words, each element of our life is part of a system, and each system is a part of another system. No single theory can ever really explain or even describe the complexity of this interrelatedness, nor can it take into account the subjective filter of the person explaining.. yet we constantly try to figure out our world by categorizing, simplifying, and generalizing.
Furthermore, we think we can experience this world only through our perceptions. But as filtered pictures of a perceived reality, our perceptions are never accurate. We think we see reality, we think we sometimes even know reality, but what we see is our own bubble of perceptions, filtered through the mental constructs of time, space, and causality, as well as our associations, desires, language, and conditioning. We don’ see things as they are, we see them as we are.
On the day-to-day level, when what we perceive fails to match our ideas of how things should be, we experience emotional and physical distress. When what we experience is contrary to what we want – and what we want almost always involves being free from discomfort and pain – we experience suffering.
Suppose for example, that I expect my mate to protect me. What happens when my mate doesn’t protect me? In fact, what happens when my mate not only doesn’t protect me, but criticizes me instead? Most likely, I’ll experience some form of distress – an emotional and bodily reaction that won’t feel good. Reactions like this are frequently based on unfulfilled expectations, rooted in clouded perceptions and simplistic notions of others, ourselves, and human relationships.
Even though we know we’re living in a complex world of interconnections, we tend to focus on just one element of any given situation. Why is this happening to me? Who can I blame? How can I fix this? With a subtle arrogance, we reduce the web of interrelationships to a simplified version of an answer we can never really know. We could just as arbitrarily attribute our distress to the potato salad we ate for lunch.
When life isn’t going as we wish, practice is neither to seek explanations nor to assign blame. We can practice simply being with the “what” on as many levels as we can, rather than looking for the “why”. Once again we ask the koan, “What is this?” the answer to this question is always our experience itself. This standing lies: not in the mental world of “why”, not in intellectual description, but in experiencing directly the ambiguous perceptual complexity of the present moment.
Minutes with a relatively quiet mind: Hours and Hours
Today’s interesting/thought provoking reading: (Taken from At Home in the Muddy Waters by Ezra Bayda)
POTATO SALAD
Everything we observe is in some way related to something else, which in turn is related to something else again. In other words, each element of our life is part of a system, and each system is a part of another system. No single theory can ever really explain or even describe the complexity of this interrelatedness, nor can it take into account the subjective filter of the person explaining.. yet we constantly try to figure out our world by categorizing, simplifying, and generalizing.
Furthermore, we think we can experience this world only through our perceptions. But as filtered pictures of a perceived reality, our perceptions are never accurate. We think we see reality, we think we sometimes even know reality, but what we see is our own bubble of perceptions, filtered through the mental constructs of time, space, and causality, as well as our associations, desires, language, and conditioning. We don’ see things as they are, we see them as we are.
On the day-to-day level, when what we perceive fails to match our ideas of how things should be, we experience emotional and physical distress. When what we experience is contrary to what we want – and what we want almost always involves being free from discomfort and pain – we experience suffering.
Suppose for example, that I expect my mate to protect me. What happens when my mate doesn’t protect me? In fact, what happens when my mate not only doesn’t protect me, but criticizes me instead? Most likely, I’ll experience some form of distress – an emotional and bodily reaction that won’t feel good. Reactions like this are frequently based on unfulfilled expectations, rooted in clouded perceptions and simplistic notions of others, ourselves, and human relationships.
Even though we know we’re living in a complex world of interconnections, we tend to focus on just one element of any given situation. Why is this happening to me? Who can I blame? How can I fix this? With a subtle arrogance, we reduce the web of interrelationships to a simplified version of an answer we can never really know. We could just as arbitrarily attribute our distress to the potato salad we ate for lunch.
When life isn’t going as we wish, practice is neither to seek explanations nor to assign blame. We can practice simply being with the “what” on as many levels as we can, rather than looking for the “why”. Once again we ask the koan, “What is this?” the answer to this question is always our experience itself. This standing lies: not in the mental world of “why”, not in intellectual description, but in experiencing directly the ambiguous perceptual complexity of the present moment.
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Day #83
Today’s favourite poses: Dog, Pigeon, Child, Warrior
Minutes with a relatively quiet mind: 20-25
Today’s interesting/thought provoking video (with one of the sexiest voices i have ever heard!)
Minutes with a relatively quiet mind: 20-25
Today’s interesting/thought provoking video (with one of the sexiest voices i have ever heard!)
Friday, March 25, 2011
Day #82
Today’s favourite poses: Plank, Child, Plank, Child, Plank, Plank, Child!
Minutes with a relatively quiet mind: 1ish
Today’s interesting/thought provoking reading: Tao Te Ching verse 56, 63
Those who know don't talk.
Those who talk don't know.
Close your mouth,
block off your senses,
blunt your sharpness,
untie your knots,
soften your glare,
settle your dust.
This is the primal identity.
Be like the Tao.
It can't be approached or withdrawn from,
benefited or harmed,
honored or brought into disgrace.
It gives itself up continually.
That is why it endures.
Act without doing;
work without effort.
Think of the small as large
and the few as many.
Confront the difficult
while it is still easy;
accomplish the great task
by a series of small acts.
The Master never reaches for the great;
thus she achieves greatness.
When she runs into a difficulty,
she stops and gives herself to it.
She doesn't cling to her own comfort;
thus problems are no problem for her.
Minutes with a relatively quiet mind: 1ish
Today’s interesting/thought provoking reading: Tao Te Ching verse 56, 63
Those who know don't talk.
Those who talk don't know.
Close your mouth,
block off your senses,
blunt your sharpness,
untie your knots,
soften your glare,
settle your dust.
This is the primal identity.
Be like the Tao.
It can't be approached or withdrawn from,
benefited or harmed,
honored or brought into disgrace.
It gives itself up continually.
That is why it endures.
Act without doing;
work without effort.
Think of the small as large
and the few as many.
Confront the difficult
while it is still easy;
accomplish the great task
by a series of small acts.
The Master never reaches for the great;
thus she achieves greatness.
When she runs into a difficulty,
she stops and gives herself to it.
She doesn't cling to her own comfort;
thus problems are no problem for her.
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Day #81
Today’s favourite poses: Pigeon, Plank, Child, Cobra
Minutes with a relatively quiet mind: 5ish
Today’s interesting/thought provoking video:
Minutes with a relatively quiet mind: 5ish
Today’s interesting/thought provoking video:
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