Mindfulness Reflections

OK, so let me just start with a disclaimer here. I'm not professing or trying to convince anyone of anything and I fully respect everyone's right to freedom of thought. I'm just sharing my own experience 😊 The paradox is that I don't understand God unless it's through Buddhism, a non-theistic religion. Buddhism is not concerned with the existence or not of God. The main point of Buddhism is to be a practitioner of presence, understanding, compassion, kindness and joy. And it is through the practice of presence, understanding, compassion, kindness and joy that God has become available and understandable to me. So it's a question of pragmatism. First do and experience in the flesh and then clarity will follow. My Buddhist teacher, Thich Nhat Hanh, wrote this book: He says that the "Kingdom of God" is the present moment, and that we don't have to die before we can appreciate it. This kind of message I understand.  The Kingdo...

Introduction When I first started practising meditation and I heard people speaking in terms of "jewels" and "dharma", "sangha" and "boddhisatva", and especially when I heard phrases like "taking refuge", I was completely turned off. My judging mind would kick in immediately and address the people in question with something to the effect of, "look, you can take your Buddha and your boddhisatva and whatever, and do what you like with them. I'm just here for my med sesh, and that's it for me, is that OK? I really have no idea what you're talking about, but whatever it is, I'm sure it doesn't apply to me. If you decide to turn all fanatic and dress in white or crimson or bright yellow robes, change your name, shave your head, stop eating animals, stop drinking alcohol, stop smoking and enjoying life , then that's fine, my friend, I have nothing against it, but all this talk about "taking refuge...

For any real philosopher out there who may stumble across this post, I apologise in advance. I'm not a philosopher so please take the title with a pinch of salt. I'm writing based merely on my personal studies and experiential learning. To help me speak about how I recognise the Four Noble Truths in my life, I'd like to refer to the previous post:  Mindfulness at Work . You see, what happened was that rather than writing it, the post wrote itself somehow - I mean, it came to me ready-made, and I wrote what I saw in my mind's eye - and I published it straight away, the way I normally do, but I knew that there was more to this one than most, and it wasn't until the following day, as I walked from Parque Uruguay to Laguna de Términos (and back later on) that I realised it reflected (speaking of Reflections) a live, up-to-date application of the 4 Noble Truths. To explain: The post starts by saying I was carrying much  suffering within myself , and the First...

It all started when I realised I was carrying so much suffering within myself, that I didn't know how to handle it or what to do with it. Losing myself in consumption wasn't helping. No matter how many cigarettes I smoked, or glasses of wine I drank, or other toxic elements I indulged in, the suffering would not subside. If anything, it was getting progressively worse. My mind was fragmented, out of focus, dispersed; my body off-balance and my mood dark and foreboding. Now I could see how it was all spilling over, and everyone around me was suffering on my account too, not only because I could feel it (although I'd much rather have denied it) but also because it was being communicated, loud and clear, that whatever it was that I was up to - it was no good, and it wouldn't do for the job. I knew they were right. The path I was on? Grief, pain, anger, sadness. No good. Wouldn't do at all. How could I be helpful when I was drowning in suffering myself? I also...

Did you know? There's a Well-being Institute here in Mexico City called Instituto de Bienestar Creeser, and the lady who set it up is a Mindfulness practitioner of the Order of Interbeing - the Order founded by Thich Nhat Hanh. One of our teacher's many profound, visionary quotes is: There is no way to peace. Peace is the way. There's a sangha (group of practitioners) that gets together every Monday from 11:30 to 1. I hadn't been able to attend for months and months due to my workload but I went today, and it was wonderful. Just to go, and to see familiar faces, and to be greeted with a warm welcome after so long, and to sit and practise with this group of like-minded people. Wonderful. Les estoy platicando a mis amigos angloparlantes que estuve hoy en Creeser para practicar con la sangha (grupo de practicantes) de siempre, y que fue maravilloso el encuentro porque aún después de haberme ausentado durante meses y meses, fui recibida con calide...

La intención es que este blog sea el producto de una colaboración entre ustedes y yo – nosotros J - por lo que se me ocurren 5 preguntas que podrían surgir en relación a la práctica y a mi, la autora, las cuales trataré de contestar lo mejor que pueda, pero además me encantaría que en los comentarios agregues tus preguntas, e igualmente, trataré de contestarlas, y si quieres agregar algo o expresar alguna idea adicional, por favor hazlo: te escucho J ¿Cómo funciona y para qué sirve la meditación? Bueno, es importante aclarar que aunque hayan muchos beneficios, los practicantes no meditamos con ese fin, o sea que al sentarnos no hay una meta por alcanzar, sino que nos sentamos porque disfrutamos de hacerlo. Simple y sencillamente, meditamos porque nos gusta. Lo cual no significa que no resulten importantes beneficios . Al contrario, la práctica de la meditación es transformadora , y los cambios que produce son múltiples y de gran profundidad - científicamente compr...

You might be wondering, so here's how it works - Body stretch Before sitting, we all do some yoga-like stretches together. This prepares the body for a long period of stillness. In fact, whereas many people enjoy the benefits of yoga for its own sake, its original purpose was to prepare the body for meditation. There are few things more delicious than sitting for meditation after a comprehensive body stretching and twisting session. Ahhhhhh....! Guided meditation With the use of the friendly bell to move from one stage to the next, whoever is guiding gently talks the group of practitioners (the sangha )  through the first four of the Mindfulness exercises: (i) breathing in, I know I'm breathing in; breathing out, I know I'm breathing out. In... out... (uniting our body - through the breath - and our mind - by knowing 🙏) As a natural consequence of maintaining our attention on our breath like this, our in-breath deepens, and our out-breath slows. (ii...

Did you know? Bells are so very useful. My teacher says they're invitations to bring ourselves back to our true home, the present moment. Here are some of my favourites, plus a new one I added today. Plum Village mini bell Isn't it beautiful? It even has its own cushion to sit on 😊. Its sound is sweet and strong and reverberating. As it is an object of great elegance and beauty, this mini bell sits on my living room table, so that it might be admired even when it is just sitting. I invite it to ring often, especially before doing a few yoga stretches. There's a technique to calm the mind using the bell that I learnt at Plum Village. Body, speech, and mind held in perfect oneness,  I send my heart along with the sound of the bell.  May the hearers awaken from forgetfulness and transcend all anxiety and sorrow. My local church I've never attended a service here but I live close enough to hear its bell ringing every Sunday. I enjoy th...

Remember Supernanny Jo Frost and her catchphrase, "that's unacceptable"? "Unacceptable behaviour" was one of the countless things I learnt about during the decade I lived in the UK back in the noughties. When it comes to adults, the matter of accountability for one's behaviour became a fundamental piece of understanding, as if my entire life up until then had transpired in an incongruent, incomplete jigsaw puzzle without any awareness of it, and I'd suddenly found sufficient pieces to make much more sense of the whole. There was such joy, such happiness in this understanding, such relief, in fact, because here, in Latin America in general and in Mexico in particular, those pieces are simply missing. There's no rule of law here. In these parts of the world, we still rely heavily on religion for the teaching and learning of moral and ethical conduct, and the government's function is... well... far removed from the question of justice . A c...

Hello! Let's start by talking about intention first. Dawn is a great time to reflect upon and lay out one's intentions for the day, and what better time than the dawning of a brand New Year to set out one's intentions for the 12 months ahead. So what are my aspirations for 2017? Well - basically - more of the same, really - please 😊 By this I mean: 1) More teaching - not in quantity but in continuation. I love my job 💖 2) More practising - sitting, walking, eating - more integration of the practice into my life overall - P.S. more kindness 🙏 2) More sharing - here I do mean quantity, hence this brand new blog. I want to share more about Mindfulness 💓💕💗💝 - in the classroom and in life. Hopefully, you'll be drawn to contribute with comments and ideas on how I can put this aspiration into action more effectively 😊 3) More cooking delicious, cruelty-free vegan food 😍 4) More cycling - healthy body, healthy mind 💚 5) More walking and ...