Blog
Questions to ask yourself …..
Reflect – Contemplate and Meditate:
One of the fundamental Truths of Realty – which the Buddha 2500 years ago taught us to appreciate, is the immutable & timeless fact of ‘Impermanence’!
For better or for worse – the hallmark of existence is change, transience and transition.
Nowhere is this more significant than in the passage of time in our life.
Again we find ourselves at the beginning of yet another month of July; new & never to occur again. Half way through our...
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Mindfulness creates Choice!
‘Coming to our senses’, both literally and metaphorically, is made possible with mindfulness.
But are we naturally avoiding coming to our senses – and being in our bodies?
Could it be that what our senses are possibly exposed to and experiencing is not particularly pleasant?
Are we nourishing our bodily senses, our mental perceptions, our mind – heart, our self, with positive, pleasant and pleasing things?
Have we become attracted and distracted, caught and caged into a world of negative, unpleasant, strong, sharp,...
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The self as the Psychological Scribe …..
The ‘psychological self’, what we call ‘our self’ or ‘myself’; is a ‘descriptor’.
As a descriptor it describes. Our psychological self seeks to find meaning or make meaning and then give decription to what is happening. Sometimes the self is both the designating descriptor and also the description as well.
Here we have the idea of our self as the ‘de-scriber’! That which scribes, writes, takes note of, creates the story. Yet as we have reflected, this ‘story maker’, ‘autobiographer’, is...
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Winter Message from John: Out of Sight – Out of Mind (OSOM)
Dear Friends in Dhamma
We welcome the new season of Winter.
This means that another season of our precious life has passed; the Autumn of 2017 has now gone for ever for us, remaining only as a memory.
Winter is a season where many things of nature are out of sight. The flowers and leaves of the trees, many animals and insects are around no longer and certainly the warmth has definitely disappeared. But all these things can still exist in our...
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No One Comes to Light
No One Comes to Light
Our Meditation is time out of time. In our meditation there is no time; there is just this, just what is! Just what is happening, but happening without a now! The now is only known in the context of not then and not latter. In our meditation there is no thought of then or latter and thus there is now.
When now is transcended, no one comes to light.
A ‘someone’ is always now in relation to...
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Meditation helps develop Mind Sight
Our Meditation Practice helps to develop ‘MIND SIGHT’.
Meditation leads to INSIGHT.
Meditation helps the mind see ‘me’!
Mindful Awareness of the ‘me – making’, the activity of the ‘me-ing’ and the ‘my-ing’ that leads to the mental making of the self or ‘I-ing’.
Our meditation helps the mind dis-identify from the thought and thinking that fire up, fuel and continue to feed the ‘I – dentity’.
The identity, as a relational tool is required, but the mind needs to have skilful, wise and...
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Commitment …….
The engagement into life requires commitment. The commitment to attend consciously to life now – the present.
With the conscious attention and caring commitment to life – just now; whether in a mindful moment of meditation, or the ongoing unfolding of life’s happenings, great potential is unleashed and finds fulfilment.
This is wonderfully expressed in the wise words of the 20th Century Scottish Mountaineer William Hutchison Murry, who draws inspiration from Goethe.
Please enjoy these words – Kind Regards John B.
Until one...
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Meditation – Dissolves and Resolves all Issues
30.04.17: Meditation – Dissolves and Resolves all Issues.
In our Meditation, many issues and problems resolve and dissolve.
Sometimes, such issues or problems may resolve and then dissolve, or they may dissolve and then resolve.
How and why does this happen?
All our issues and problems, worries and woes, are the result of and belong to ‘someone’. Here the ‘someone’ is the ‘someone self ’, a self, a reference point ‘I’ for receiving and sending data.
The ego, I, self, someone is both made...
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What is the ‘meaning’ of life?
What is the ‘meaning’ of Life?
This sounds like a reasonable and rational question. Certainly it is the perennial pondering of many a person and the making of philosophy for many millennia.
However could the question be wrong?
Might the question be based upon a false assumption; the assumption that there is a meaning to life and that we need to find out what that meaning really is in order to have a meaningful life?
Could it be that there is no implicit...
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Anzac Day – Remembrance
‘PUJA’ is a lovely sounding word in the Pali language of traditional Buddhism.
Puja means the act or activity of devotion or dedication, to respect and honour, that or those that are worthy of honour and respect.
The morning and evening chanting done in Buddhist Monasteries is referred to as Puja.
Puja is a way of aligning the mind and body for focus and skilful activity.
Another way we can engage Puja – is by ‘Puja to the Present’.
Puja to the present is...
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