lotusinthemud

if you have a sense of caring for others...

If you have a sense of caring for others, you will manifest a kind of inner strength in spite of your own difficulties and problems. With this strength, your own problems will seem less significant and bothersome to you. By going beyond your own problems and taking care of others, you gain inner strength, self-confidence, courage, and a greater sense of calm.

~ His Holiness the Dalai Lama

pema chödrön: meditate for the benefit of others

support

Close your eyes, relaxing and allowing your breath to settle. After a few minutes, gently move your attention to your sense of touch. Feel the solidity of the bed or chair beneath you. Feel how supported you are by this piece of furniture, by the floor beneath it and, through the building, the earth below you.

Bring to mind the wood that the chair/bed and floor are constructed from. Think of the tree, planted so long ago, by design or by nature. And the sun and rain and fertile earth that fed the tree. Watch it growing in your mind's eye. How many years do you think it was growing for?

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an illusion that causes suffering

When the Buddha confronted the question of identity on the night of his enlightenment, he came to the radical discovery that we do not exist as separate beings. He saw into the human tendency to identify with a limited sense of existence and discovered that this belief in an individual small self is a root illusion that causes suffering and removes us from the freedom and mystery of life. He described this as interdependent arising, the cyclical process of consciousness creating identity by entering form, responding to contact of the senses, then attaching to certain forms, feelings, desires, images, and actions to create a sense of self. In teaching, the Buddha never spoke of humans as persons existing in some fixed or static way. Instead, he described us as a collection of five changing processes: the processes of the physical body, of feelings, of perceptions, of responses, and of the flow of consciousness that experiences them all. Our sense of self arises whenever we grasp at or identify with these patterns. The process of identification, of selecting patterns to call "I," "me," "myself," is subtle and usually hidden from our awareness.

~ Jack Kornfield, A Path with Heart

an illusion that causes suffering

When the Buddha confronted the question of identity on the night of his enlightenment, he came to the radical discovery that we do not exist as separate beings. He saw into the human tendency to identify with a limited sense of existence and discovered that this belief in an individual small self is a root illusion that causes suffering and removes us from the freedom and mystery of life. He described this as interdependent arising, the cyclical process of consciousness creating identity by entering form, responding to contact of the senses, then attaching to certain forms, feelings, desires, images, and actions to create a sense of self. In teaching, the Buddha never spoke of humans as persons existing in some fixed or static way. Instead, he described us as a collection of five changing processes: the processes of the physical body, of feelings, of perceptions, of responses, and of the flow of consciousness that experiences them all. Our sense of self arises whenever we grasp at or identify with these patterns. The process of identification, of selecting patterns to call "I," "me," "myself," is subtle and usually hidden from our awareness.

~ Jack Kornfield, A Path with Heart

the choice

The Great Way is obvious to all my friends. They point it out quite rapidly on request, sometimes without request. Their words are painful because they threaten my character. I have to choose between the Great Way and me. An easy choice on paper - a hard one in fact.

~ Robert Aitken, Encouraging Words

the choice

The Great Way is obvious to all my friends. They point it out quite rapidly on request, sometimes without request. Their words are painful because they threaten my character. I have to choose between the Great Way and me. An easy choice on paper - a hard one in fact.

~ Robert Aitken, Encouraging Words

basic goodness

Ego could be defined as whatever covers up basic goodness. From an experiential point of view, what is ego covering up? It's covering up our experience of just being here, just fully being where we are, so that we can relate with the immediacy of our experience. Egolessness is a state of mind that has complete confidence in the sacredness of the world. It is unconditional well being, unconditional joy that includes all the different qualities of our experience.

~ Pema Chodron

basic goodness

Ego could be defined as whatever covers up basic goodness. From an experiential point of view, what is ego covering up? It's covering up our experience of just being here, just fully being where we are, so that we can relate with the immediacy of our experience. Egolessness is a state of mind that has complete confidence in the sacredness of the world. It is unconditional well being, unconditional joy that includes all the different qualities of our experience.

~ Pema Chodron

'stillpoint' and 'one breath at a time'

Here are two websites for those with chronic illness who are interested in Buddhism and meditation.

'stillpoint' in the new home for material that was previously on another website of the same name and includes a large amount of resources. The stillpoint community, which has existed for a number of years, was originally for people in the U.K. who have M.E./C.F.S. It has now expanded to include people who have other chronic illnesses and who live in other parts of the world. There is an email group, Breathing Space, for keeping in touch with others. There is also a stillpoint group on the Friends of Amida Buddhist social network.

'one breath at a time' is regularly updated with short Buddhist meditations for those who are unable to practice for long.