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...