Lessons from today’s meditation

Today I had a pleasure of being taught meditation again in a Buddhist Monastery. I love the variety of monks that take sessions. Each one is very individual with unique personalities and I can’t help but smile most of the time I am there. There’s this sweet calmness about the place that is really relaxing. It also feels authentic rather than constructed or forced. It is there naturally. Simplistic and clean environment is so inviting and conducive to a practice of meditation.

Today’s lesson was to be curious, wonder about your mind and allow it to be whatever it wants to be. Another aspect is to recognise it as a part of you, hence being self-loving means not judging your own thoughts but let them be. Everything is impermanent. Thoughts come and go and we don’t need to attach ourselves to any of them. We are observing and being curious about our mind’s nature.

I really understood this today and it opened my eyes to a possibility of actually being able to implement this into my practice and my life on a wider scale. I do think Buddhist meditation is a very intelligent system at regulating our thoughts and emotional responses. I am curious to know more on outside and within. Today was all about getting to know our minds through being inwardly aware.

What I observed was that my mind is often very obliging. One might say it is trying too hard and there’s a lot of energy spent, often unnecessary, on creating thought patterns that are not needed. It also gets confused by its own ‘trying hard’ and runs away with it, so to speak. It felt amazing to be able to obtain that information through meditation.

I also observed that I do well in meditation and succeed in calming my mind when focusing on an object (It was caramel cake today. No idea why) or a word (again it was cake) and repeating it over and over. Image and word today were spontaneous, but I imagine it can also easily be chosen specifically for a meditation. I also realised that I do best with guidance rather than on my own, i.e. guiding meditations help me.

I am yet to master the right posture and position when meditating. I am too uncomfortable but when I am not focusing on my legs or engage with thinning about how uncomfortable it feels I am able to sit still and be calm. That is a good demonstration of how it IS possible not to get attached to a thought that a mind is trying to focus on and as a result to remain calm.

I also noticed quite clearly how my mind naturally wants to grab onto negative thoughts rather than positive. That was great to realise and I feel I might sort of understand a way of changing that too going forward with a lot more practice. It does explain my nature very well and wanting to attach to something positive naturally is going to take some time. Once I try that the aim is not to attach to any forms of thought and simply remain in curious observation.

I am thrilled to be able to continue with my learning in such a beautiful and peaceful place.

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I love today

My heart beats with warmth and love today. There is a dizzy feeling of comforting intoxication. I like many things today. I appreciate many things today within and without and it feels contained and safe. Today I am in love with the process of writing and reading about nature and people, who are in deeply sacred relationship with it. I snuggled into the feeling of belonging, understanding and sharing. I am in a place of acceptance, kindness and compassion. I smile and laugh with my parents today, I talk softly to my partner and shower my son with love and affection. I love today. I love my house, a place of safety, comfort, joy and beauty, I smile as I walk from one room to another. I am aware of everything within me. I hear an internal song, a whistle of a jolly soft tune my heart is humming carefree and settled. I go to my garden plot where my vegetables are in wonderful growth, they are blooming into a wonderful green picture of deliciousness. I stop to admire it all, I smell tomato plants and run my fingers through beetroot tops. Cucumbers are looking beautiful. I love cucumber leaves and yellow flowers. I free potato plants from a sea of weeds, which feel soft and wet under my feet and in my hands. I get into the rhythm and hear that humming jolly song again within my heart. I pause, breathe in, strengthen my back and stretch my arms high to the sky with gratitude and oh, such peace within me. I love today!

My awareness nature walks

Awareness nature walks bring answers to those, who seek…

I am used to going to nature for answers be it talking with trees, commune with the wind or listening to the stream of water. I do magic in nature, meditate upon tree roots and listen, always listen, observe, feel and conscious of everything around me. I call these walks sometimes – walking narratives.

There is always a story that unfolds from start to finish and there is always an answer, a message, a call to do something, always something that comes out of my awareness walking. These usually happen when I am called, i.e. I would feel the call from the woods, a very definite pull, an invitation to come, similar to when you might get a ringing in the ear and often people would refer to that your spirit guides inviting you to join them. Other times I join the woods when I am frustrated, lost, down, confused and need some guidance or specific answers to specific questions.