Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 3/31/2009

Samatha Bhavana Meditation
'Samatha bhavana meditation', the development of mental tranquility with concentration, is accompanied by three benefits; it gives happiness in the present life, a favorable rebirth, and the freedom from mental defilements which is a prerequisite for attainment of insight.
In 'samatha' the mind becomes like a still, clear pool completely free from disturbance and agitation, and ready to mirror on its surface the nature of things as they really are, the aspect of them which is hidden from ordinary knowledge by the restlessness of craving.
It is the peace and fulfillment which is depicted on the features of the Buddha, investing his images with a significance that impresses even those who have no knowledge of what it means.
Such an image of the Buddha can itself be a very suitable object of meditation, and is, in fact, the one that most Buddhists instinctively use.
The very sight of the tranquil image can calm and pacify a mind distraught with worldly hopes and fears. It is the certain and visible assurance of Nibbana.

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Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 3/30/2009

Anapana Sati Meditation

A universally-applicable methods of cultivating mental concentration is attentiveness on the in-going and out-going breath.
The breath is merely used as a point on which to fix the attention, at the tip of the nostrils. The attention must not wander, even to follow the breath.
In the initial stages it is advisable to mark the respiration by counting, but as soon as it is possible to keep the mind fixed without this artificial aid, it should be discontinued and only used when it is necessary to recall the attention.
A stage is reached when the actual bodily sensation of arising and passing away of the physical elements in the body, is felt.
It is the first direct experience of the suffering which is inherent in all phenomena -- the realization within oneself of the first of the Four Noble Truths, When that is passed there follows the sensation of 'piti', rapturous joy associated with the physical body.
The teacher of 'vipassana', however, is careful never to describe to his pupil beforehand what he is likely to experience, for if he does so, there is a strong possibility that the power of suggestion will produce a false reaction.

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Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 3/29/2009

Healing Meditation

Please try this meditation to relax and heal the body mind and soul.

Sit in a comfortable position
Start to imagine that your body is slowly filling with light, starting from the feet and slowly moving upwards
As the light is moving up your body ----- feel that this light is relaxing the muscles and your mind.
Now imagine that any areas of disease or pain in your body is surrounded by a dark shadow which represents the unhealthy area.
I feel the light moving upwards until my entire body is filled with light and every muscle of my body is feeling relaxed.
Now feel that your body of light is radiating the light out from your eyes, the light is shining as if a torch is shinning out from your eyes.
Now feel that you are directing the light towards any area of the body that is giving you pain or discomfort, represented as a shadow on your body.
Feel that you are sending extra light to this area that is in pain or discomfort.
Imagine that the diseased or painful areas have dark shadows surrounding it.
Now feel that you are shinning a loving healing light to the diseased or painful areas so that the darkness is removed.
I radiate my shining light to my body and fill my bodies with this warm healing light.
I now radiate this healing light to the world.
I begin to feel that this healing light is returning me to health and vitality
Perfect health is available to me now.

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Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 3/28/2009

"In order to rally people, governments need enemies. They want us to be afraid, to hate, so we will rally behind them. And if they do not have a real enemy, they will invent one in order to mobilize us."

~Thich Nhat Hanh

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Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 3/27/2009

"Life can be found only in the present moment. The past is gone, the future is not yet here, and if we do not go back to ourselves in the present moment, we cannot be in touch with life."

~Thich Nhat Hanh

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Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 3/26/2009

"People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth. Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don't even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child -- our own two eyes. All is a miracle."

~Thich Nhat Hanh

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Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 3/25/2009

"The most precious gift we can offer others is our presence. When mindfulness embraces those we love, they will bloom like flowers."

~Thich Nhat Hanh

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Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 3/24/2009

"Because of your smile, you make life more beautiful."

~Thich Nhat Hanh

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Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 3/23/2009

"Breath is the bridge which connects life to consciousness, which unites your body to your thoughts."

~Thich Nhat Hanh

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Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 3/22/2009

"We have more possibilities available in each moment than we realize."

~Thich Nhat Hanh

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Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 3/21/2009

"Hope is important because it can make the present moment less difficult to bear. If we believe that tomorrow will be better, we can bear a hardship today."

~Thich Nhat Hanh

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Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 3/20/2009

"When you begin to touch your heart or let your heart be touched, you begin to discover that it's bottomless, that it doesn't have any resolution, that this heart is huge, vast, and limitless. You begin to discover how much warmth and gentleness is there, as well as how much space."

~Pema Chodron

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Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 3/19/2009

"Compassionate action involves working with ourselves as much as working with others."

~Pema Chodron

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Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 3/18/2009

"What's encouraging about meditation is that even if we shut down, we can no longer shut down in ignorance. We see very clearly that we're closing off. That in itself begins to illuminate the darkness of ignorance."

~Pema Chodron

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Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 3/17/2009

"The still lake without ripples is an image of our minds at ease, so full of unlimited friendliness for all the junk at the bottom of the lake that we don't feel the need to churn up the waters just to avoid looking at what's there."

~Pema Chodron

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Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 3/16/2009

"People get into a heavy-duty sin and guilt trip, feeling that if things are going wrong, that means that they did something bad and they are being punished. That's not the idea at all. The idea of karma is that you continually get the teachings that you need to open your heart. To the degree that you didn't understand in the past how to stop protecting your soft spot, how to stop armoring your heart, you're given this gift of teachings in the form of your life, to give you everything you need to open further."

~Pema Chodron

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Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 3/15/2009

"Gloriousness and wretchedness need each other. One inspires us, the other softens us."

~Pema Chodron

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Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 3/14/2009

"A further sign of health is that we don't become undone by fear and trembling, but we take it as a message that it's time to stop struggling and look directly at what's threatening us."

~Pema Chodron

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Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 3/13/2009

"When you begin to touch your heart or let your heart be touched, you begin to discover that it's bottomless, that it doesn't have any resolution, that this heart is huge, vast, and limitless. You begin to discover how much warmth and gentleness is there, as well as how much space." ~Pema Chodron

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Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 3/12/2009

"We habitually erect a barrier called blame that keeps us from communicating genuinely with others, and we fortify it with our concepts of who's right and who's wrong. We do that with the people who are closest to us and we do it with political systems, with all kinds of things that we don't like about our associates or our society. It is a very common, ancient, well-perfected device for trying to feel better. Blame others. Blaming is a way to protect your heart, trying to protect what is soft and open and tender in yourself. Rather than own that pain, we scramble to find some comfortable ground."

~Pema Chodron

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Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 3/11/2009

"Compassionate action starts with seeing yourself when you start to make yourself right and when you start to make yourself wrong. At that point you could just contemplate the fact that there is a larger alternative to either of those, a more tender, shaky kind of place where you could live."

~Pema Chodron

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Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 3/10/2009

"There's a reason you can learn from everything: you have basic wisdom, basic intelligence, and basic goodness."

~Pema Chodron

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Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 3/9/2009

"If we learn to open our hearts, anyone, including the people who drive us crazy, can be our teacher."

~Pema Chodron

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Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration = 3/8/2009

"When we start out on a spiritual path we often have ideals we think we're supposed to live up to. We feel we're supposed to be better than we are in some way. But with this practice you take yourself completely as you are. Then ironically, taking in pain - breathing it in for yourself and all others in the same boat as you are - heightens your awareness of exactly where you're stuck."

~Pema Chodron

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Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 3/7/2009

"We work on ourselves in order to help others, but also we help others in order to work on ourselves."

~Pema Chodron

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Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 3/6/2009

Ane Pema Chodron, a Tibetan Buddhist teacher, was born Deirdre Blomfield-Brown. She studied Buddhism in the French Alps and London, where she was ordained. She worked with Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche from 1974 until 1987. She was ordained in the Chinese lineage of Buddhism in 1981 in Hong Kong. Since 1984 she served as the director of Gampo Abbey in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. She has taught lectured widely and has written several books on meditation practice in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition.

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Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 3/5/2009

Fruits of what is done out of greed, anger and delusion can be experienced when they ripen.

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Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 3/4/2009

The Perfect One is free from any theory, for the Perfect One has understood - and has won complete deliverance.

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Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 3/3/2009

Three things accompany and follow right understanding, namely: right understanding, right effort, and right attentiveness.

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Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 3/2/2009

To overcoming wrong understanding, practice attentiveness; go for an attentive mind all the way, for Great Awareness is the boon to aim at. Dwelling with attentive mind for proper understanding, that is Right Attentiveness.

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Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 3/1/2009

Let mundane, proper understanding bring good results. One should make efforts to overcome wrong understanding and arouse fit understanding. That would be Proper Effort.

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