mindfulness

In my view - the answer is easy - to be happier. It's not to avoid the hard times, because they will come, but it is to not let them overwhelm you. And if you are happier you will be good for other people and for nature. It's a happiness born out of compassion, so it will seldom be very loud and will never tell yokes that will harm other people. Mindfulness will probably make you stress less and will make you more popular - it will make your life richer - you will have time to appreciate the small things in life, like a leaf moving in the wind. More money will seldom make you more happy, at least if you already have enough of the basic needs. In the long run, you also can reach some deeper understanding of things. And that will make you calmer, more relaxed and not so much dependent of what other think of you. You will look at them with the eyes of compassion. But you will probably take some more dance steps; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3OJVMuHwcU The video s

What is it to know? Is it even necessary? Yes, some things you have to know - how to get to one place from another and a lot of other practical things. But often it's best to just stop thinking, at least when we don't need it. Then we don't have to "know" things. In stead we can observe our "knowledge" and idées. And perhaps we can let many of them just go. Is not the most important thing how we behave to others? How we influence them? That is sometimes called karma or action. And some say that just our actions are our continuation. You continue on other people and in nature. If you drop a plastic bag in the ocean, you continue in the bag and in the fishes that are poisoned of the small particles that  are left of it. I have a long time been fascinated by the fact that two particles that have been together influence each other, as for an example photons - even if they are a long distance from each other. So let say that in some way

You have to know this human being - both as a human and as a painter - a kind of zen-master; http://vimeo.com/7127385   (or search for the video at vimeo or youtube) Her paintings are sometimes nearly unvisible. They reminds of the words in Rilkes Duino Elegies; Earth, is this your will? An invisible resurrection within ourselves? Is it your desire one day to vanish? Earth! Invisible! What do you demand but transformation? Beloved Earth, I will! What does Martins Painting mean? I think it's a wrong question - Just look at it, meditate about the title - She says that she always paints by inspiration - so we can not be sure of who really painted it. Then we will again land in the question; What is an "I"? And remember that the answer can be either conventional or ultimate - or both.... "I Love the whole world" by Agnes Martin:

It's important not to let sadness overwhelm you. Perhaps you can take care of yourself sadness as of  a forsaken child. Perhaps you have to show the child the good sides of life. If your child is sad it's best to not show him or her to much drama. What do you read in the newspapers? What do you look at tv? Is this really things you want show a forsaken child? Is this things that will nurture your own feelings? But don't be afraid of the sad child. Just take care of it. Remember that your suffering is the mud that a beautiful flower can grow in. Without the mud no flower grows. And you have to grow, so you can take care of your suffering. Those of us that cannot will try to drown our sorrows in alcohol or other drugs, like too much sandwiches ;~}If we do that we sure will, in the end, be overwhelmed by our sorrow. We will build a mental prison for ourselves. Thich Nath Hanh puts it this way; "We can stop at all time and become aware of the child within us. Wh

I think Rainer Maria Rilke have catched  something in his "Letters to a young poet." He wrote them just for a young and troubled man, but later on they have been collected in a small book. Rilke was a genius and a romantic poet, in the best sense. He needed a lot of solitude and moved from castle to castle to find some peace and inspiration. He wrote one of his few books, The Duino Elegies, when he lived at the Duino castle, near the sea in Italy; It starts with the words; "Who, if I cried out, would hear me among the hierarchies of angels?" He wrote this, words that suddenly came to him,  in 1912. But the whole poem was not completed until 1922. In a letter he explained that he hoped the poem to be a contribution for " to prepare in men's hearts the way for those gentle, mysterious, trembling transformations from which alone the understandings and harmonies of a serener future will proceed." But how to reach this transformation? In &quo

An article in Huffington post takes up this topic The quick-fix model of mindfulness is widely spread. But there are no quick fixes. As in a gym you have to take your time and exercise as often you can. Otherwise your body soon will show signs of laziness. And if we take away the buddhistic ground, we also take away the ethic side of mindfulness. Mindfulness is meant to increase compassion and understanding. And if it does it will influence your whole life. Even when you wash your dishes you can do it in a mindful way... But most of us don't want to change our life. And for those of us it's no use if mindfulness. Perhaps a quick Mcmindfulness course but no more. If your life is going well and you are satisfied with yourself you don't need it. Or if you, like some artists, are driven bye an inner fire, you would perhaps loose your driving force if you cool your fire. Rainer Maria Rilke stopped going to a psychotherapist with the words; "If my devils are to l

This man has mentioned a lot of interesting things, such as; If a lion could speak, we could not understand it.... I believe he means that a lions language game is so different from ours because of it's interests and perhaps also because it uses different senses. But I suppose we could understand a chimpanzee, at least a little... He has also said that the wonderful thing is not why things, as you and me are, but that we are... Philosophy can anyway not answer neither of this questions... That reminds of buddhism and mindfulness, no use to speculate about metaphysical things, better to practise mindfulness and follow the eightfold path... One who speculated to much is the antihero in Dostoyevsky's book Notes from Underground. He even writes himself; excessive consciousness, too much thoughts leads to paralysis. You cannot change yourself and even do anything at all..  The man in the underground thinks too much, is too conscious about himself. This book was writ

means;  no beginning                                no end                                           made one (maybe living) universe                                                                                    who made one mother earth                                                                                                   who  made one bacteria                                                                                                  who made all life                                                                                                        including you and me                                                                                                           means, no coming no going                                                                                                                                                                                                                              just new manifestations