mindfulness

Bob Dylan is complaining in his song "Not Dark Yet". According to Buddhism he is right. We are doomed to be unsatisfied because of the ever changing world. Clinging to things and persons and the endless craving makes this. Mindfulness cannot stop the clinging and craving, but it can make us aware of it. Religious people often looks for salvation. In traditional  Buddhism Nirvana stands for this salvation. Thich Nhat Hanhs interpretation of  Buddha's words is that Nirvana is in the here and now. We don´t have to look for it in the future. That makes no salvation but is probably more true to reality. But it makes the suffering more easy to bear. You cannot avoid to be hurt, but you don't have to make it worse by thoughts and feelings of bitterness. You can make some space around the feelings and thoughts, you can let them come and go and understand that they are just a part of you. New feelings, new thoughts will come. I think Dylan's lamenta...

Bronnie Ware helped dying people for many years. Here's what they regretted the most: 1.  I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.  This was the most common regret of all. When people realise that their life is almost over and look back clearly on it, it is easy to see how many dreams have gone unfulfilled. Most people had not honoured even a half of their dreams and had to die knowing that it was due to choices they had made, or not made.  It is very important to try and honour at least some of your dreams along the way. From the moment that you lose your health, it is too late. Health brings a freedom very few realise, until they no longer have it. 2.  I wish I didn't work so hard.   This came from every male patient that I nursed. They missed their children's youth and their partner's companionship. Women also spoke of this regret. But as most were from an older generation, many of the female ...

Humans. Just a small part of the earth. But perhaps quite useful. We are connecting different part of the earth with each other... If the earth is a living being, and I´m sure it's so - we are his/hers brain cells. The earth is beginning to think and explore the space and other planets But it has a cost - the earth are beginning to get sick - it has fever. So it will find solutions to cure it self. Bill Bryson explains this in his much readable book "A short history of nearly everything" - he is witty, humorous and intelligent enough to explain the history of science in an understandable way. Here he speaks about, for instance global warming. In the book he writes about the climate impact of the increase of atmospheric carbon dioxide; "it has happened before and the Earth has recovered, last time it took only 60 000 years." But I'm sure, if the Earth has a will, He/She doesn't want that to happen. The Earth doesn't want it...

The caption is a quote from Joseph Brodsky, the poet. We have only our human senses and our human way to understand things. We just have to go to the quantum dimension and it's a totally different  world- we cannot understand how it works, but it does. This computer is an example of it. If you take a photo with your camera, with the" wrong" settings you will get a clue of that you can see the world in a different way. Our way to see the environment is a way to handle the world so we can survive, and of course we also see world through the raster of our personality and our culture. And in a way we also create the world in that way.  A new survey shows that it's not stress itself, but to be scary of stress that is the most harmful ! The people who were scared of what stress could cause were the ones to get problem with their health. But there are for sure other ways to see the world. And if you meditate it's easier to leave the common feelings and thoughts b...

In the free online course Big History Project we can follow the history of the universe until now. Our earth is really a wonder. It's unique lifeforms will probably not occur on any other planet. Man's  progress is caused by the worldwide connections that started about 500 years ago. We have learned from each other. And now we are even more connected, cultures and and people from every nations are mixed together in the  big cities, for instance in Stockholm. And then we have big opportunistic to learn from each other. Mindfulness has come to the west to stay and will probably change it a bit. Delicious and tasty food from every corner of the world is now probably more popular than the traditional Swedish "smörgåsbord". You can now choose to eat vegetarian food in every school canteen. When I was young this was impossible. Other things have happened too; women rights, refugees, colored people even in small cities, and then reactions to that. Things are c...

Mindfulness in my view isn't about learning something new or to be skillful. We have enough of that. It is to be aware of what's going on, to slow the time. When you cock your vegetables, have a look at the beautiful colors, listen to sound when you slice the them, it the sound different when you slice the carrot from when you slice the coli flower? What sound can you hear when you drop the beets in the boiling water. Can you imagine the rain, the soil, the farmer, the fertilizer when you hold the broccoli in your hand?When you eat the meat, can you see the life of the cow, her eyes, her feelings feeling, her environment? In many ways we are what we eat; When you sit down and meditate, you don't have to breath in a special way, just follow the breath and when thoughts come, be curios to them, don't condemn them, but perhaps label them and let them go, They are just a part of you, you don't have to change them, but you don't have to follow them e...

Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player    That struts and frets his hour upon the stage      And then is heard no more: it is a tale   Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury Signifying nothing. Macbeth is sad in the end of Shakespeare's tragedy. In the beginning he has been fooled by the witches. They promised him that he should become the king of Scotland, and he then figured out how to let it be a reality.  But all in vain - in the end Lady Macbeth has killed herself. Shakespeare himself lived another life. When he got older he moved back to Stratford upon Avon, the little town where  he was born. Away from the busy London, away from fame and the pleasures of a big city. Maybe he was fed up with this. His circle was completed and soon after he died. I will hope his last years were good ones. He had seen many famous people fall, even kings. Even today people struggle and fall, but if you don't look for success you do...