Zazen - Everyday Mindfulness

A good article (slightly long) about meditation and how to focus on the "now" and your current experience to calm yourself and be at peace.

Standing on top of a mountain when I've gone skiing, 3am talks in the car with my friends, that special relationship "look and smile" from across the room, these are all things that feel great. What I don't do enough of is to sit back and savour these moments.
There are also times (especially at work) where we are so heads down, bottoms up that they whole day passes without us looking out the window to see the lovely autumn day outside.

I liked this quote from the article:

When you pay close attention to your experience, you begin to freshly notice the difference between those actions that are truly worth doing, and those that aren't. When you pay attention, you just know. It's not a mystery. And when you know what experiences are really worth having, you can have more of them, and fewer of the less satisfying experiences, and your life will be richer for it.

So sit back and take in your surroundings. Problems will unravel, worries will untangle, and you'll understand just that little bit more about yourself.

Damn! three cheap calls already:

good entry kc. We definitely have to take some time out of our crazy lives to just sit and breathe. We need to enjoy more of the little happy things and cherish the people that share our lives.
Breathe in, breathe out.....
addy - 19 May '06 - 13:35

you know, i remember having a 3am talk with you :) you drove me home to blacktown, and we sat outside my house for ages chatting about anything and everything :) great nite ^_^
reenie (email) (link) - 19 May '06 - 20:57

Yeah, I do remember that night. Seems like we never have time for those kinds of things nowadays :(

Hope you're having fun in London!
JookBoy (link) - 11 June '06 - 18:09

"Taming The Tiger" - A Review

I was given a Christian rediscovery book the other day, which talked about a Kung Fu expert who found God. There was a lot of action in the book, a ton of strange incidents, a decent amount of skepticism on my part. A few things stood out:

1. He was sent to China from London to learn Kung Fu when he was 4, and was able to understand complex interpretations in Chinese within 4 weeks. Of course, backdating could be possible
2. Some of the random fights that were described. They really did sound like B-grade action movies as other people have said in the reviews.
3. Being chased by some thugs in Saudi Arabia, they have run out of a town into the desert and straight away found themselves in a Bedouin encampment where they would be protected for a few days. I didn't get why the thugs just didn't wait for a few days??

Of course, it was an inspirational book on how in the trust of God anything is possible. Definitely good marketing material. I did relate the section where he realised that the hardest part would be for those people that did not experience God in any sense, since their lives are not filled with tragedy. Why lean on God if you're not crippled, as it were? Blind faith takes a lot more work and commitment than something you can experience every day.

He's going to speak in a friend's church this week, so I heard. Will be interesting to hear from my friend what he says.
My philosphy on life still is about the same. For some reason I'm reading all these Christian books. "The Case for the Creator" is coming up.

Damn! four cheap calls already:

Great to hear that you're getting stuck into the chrisitian books KC! I agree that the stories of people hitting rock bottom, finding god and transforming their lives make the most compelling reading. It's probably harder to trust the work of God in your life until you have hit that rock bottom.

However, I'm finding that as I consider it more, it is less and less a "blind faith" than I previously thought. Someone once told me that knowledge of the presence of God and his amazing works, was like a ball that you were trying to hold under water - it wants to push up to the surface, but it can't because you keep pushing it down. Maybe it takes until that point when you hit rock bottom before you actually start thinking about your life "properly"?
Dessy - 07 May '06 - 12:08

Maybe now the Christian sites will tag you as a 'good read' as well as all the pr0n sites JB!

Is it the right way to believe when faith is something a person resorts to after hitting rock bottom ie. if everything was peachy then God would be the last thing on one's mind? Makes it sound a bit like a consolation prize, a desperate last resort. Or does God not care how you get there with faith, so long as you get there?
beckster (link) - 09 May '06 - 05:31

Haha, more web hits!
I believe that God does not care how you get there, as long as you get there in the end.
JookBoy (link) - 12 May '06 - 07:09

It's hard to know what to say or how to say it...

I agree with Des. At first it appears to be a 'blind' faith. In many ways it is counter intuitive to everything you've been brought up to trust in - logic, reason, science. I'm not discounting their value, but there are places where logic, reason and science ends and faith begins. As you look deeper it is, in fact, anything but blind.
alvina - 14 May '06 - 16:01