I am starting a new thread here mainly for purposes of my own catharsis. It is my intention, at least at this point, to make regular contributions. Of course, if anyone else has anything to add, they are more than welcome. If you have any input, please contribute.
Over a year ago I decided to deal head-on with my self-diagnosed adult attention disorder, (ADD). The inability to stay focused was becoming too stressful. I found myself sitting around watching the clock tick, yet I couldn’t keep “on task” with any project I started. Nothing was getting done and just starting something was becoming depressing.
The smart thing to do was probably to get professional help, so instead I decided to try to heal myself, at least as a first try. Cognitive therapy and pharmaceuticals (UGH) might be the approved way to go but I decided to try meditation first.
18 months and countless self-help books later, I still can’t bring myself to a regular, formal meditation program. But, along the way, I discovered informal mindfulness. Yes, I know it is the “Fad” right now. It is hard to navigate modern social trends without “tripping over” somebody extolling the benefits of mindfulness.
Let me add my voice to the chorus.
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As I sift through these internet memes, passing themselves off as Buddhist wisdom, I too frequently find some advice to eliminate hurtful people from my life. And I think, "That doesn't really sound like the Buddha?" OK, they usually suggest doing it without drama and leaving that person to his own Karma, but that still fails to capture the compassion of the Buddha. (This point can be made entirely within a Christian framework as well.) Hurtful people are likely carrying their own demons and a kind word or act from me may be just the thing to calm some fear or ease some pain. Or maybe not, but why can't I be big enough to try?
That being said, I am not advocating the toleration of abuse. And a drowning person can not save another until (s)he takes care of (her)himself. There are limits, but sometimes I think the best way to be compassionate to myself is to be compassionate to someone else, even when that someone else is being difficult.
"You're never fully in control." If that frightens you, you have work to do. If that motivates you, check what path you are on. If that thrills you, you are on the path. If you don't remember what that means, you may be arriving.
"All the qualities which we admire or loathe in the world around us are reflections from within. Though from a within that is also a beyond, unconscious, vast, unknown."
— Alan Watts
"We can't know anything outside our mind. Everything we see is contained within our mind. Thus, I am not in the world. The world is in me."
❖ Haemin Sunim
"Endurance is one of the most difficult disciplines, but it is to the one who endures that the final victory comes." — Teachings of the Buddha
I may have listed this one before, but I think a lot of people who are now struggling with social distancing need a reminder (nobody here I'm sure.)
"Healing comes from letting there be room for everything: room for grief, for relief, for misery, for joy." ~ Pema Chodron
"Without difficulties, life would be like a stream without rocks and curves – about as interesting as concrete. ― Benjamin Hoff, The Te of Piglet
"In the confrontation between the stream and the rock, the stream always wins; not through strength, but through perseverance." — Taoist proverb
"Ask yourself if you are responding to the situation or the thoughts that you are having about the situation." ~ Everyday Mindfulness
"If I weep and wail,
That shows that I do not understand
the rules of nature.
So I ceased weeping." — Zhuangzi
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