Transcendental meditation may boost student gra

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• Transcendental meditation may boost student gra
• Transcendental meditation may boost student gra
• Self Help: Why Bother? Nothing Changes. I’m Stuck. How to get Unstuck and get Moving Again
• The Dhammadapa: “one of the greatest psychological works ever written”
• Early Morning Zen Buddhism Inspiration - 6/12/2013
• Learning to see the good in others.
• Transcendental meditation may boost student grades
• The two warring doctrines
• Healthy Living: Say Goodbye to Fast Food and Master The Cooking Habit in 3 Simple, Stress-Free Steps

Transcendental meditation may boost student gra Posted: 12 Jun 2013 01:00 PM PDT

Transcendental meditation may boost student gra Posted: 12 Jun 2013 12:00 PM PDT

Self Help: Why Bother? Nothing Changes. I’m Stuck. How to get Unstuck and get Moving Again Posted: 12 Jun 2013 08:00 AM PDT The repetitive buzzing rattled my brain and startled my body. No – I don't want to get out of bed! It's too early, too cold and it's too much effort to get up… I can't be arsed to go to boot-camp! This is the conversation I had with myself this morning as my alarm went off at 6.15 a.m. Every Monday and Friday I have signed up to go to an exercise boot-camp on my local beach. I've been going for a few weeks and now it's getting harder to get up on boot-camp mornings, simply because I know what is coming and it's going to hurt! I have been wrestling with my resistance and apathy, and for a moment I got stuck. This stuckness can happen just as easily with my writing. My inspiration and creativity just dry up, when I focus on worrying about delivering to other people and trying to be perfect. Also if I spend too much time on it and get too physically sedate, because there is not enough variety or physical action to balance out having my head in my laptop. Read more » Read More @ Source

The Dhammadapa: “one of the greatest psychological works ever written” Posted: 12 Jun 2013 07:00 AM PDT The Dhammapada, translated by Gil Fronsdal. Available from Amazon.Jonathan Haidt, who studies morality and emotion, at the NYU-Stern School of Business, discusses the Stress Reduction classic, The Dhammapada, on Five Books: The Dhammapada is one of the greatest psychological works ever written, and certainly one of the greatest before 1900. It is masterful in its understanding of the nature of consciousness, and in particular the way we are always striving and never satisfied. You can turn to it – and people have turned to it throughout the ages – at times of trouble, at times of disappointment, at times of loss, and it takes you out of yourself. It shows you that your problems, your feelings, are just timeless manifestations of the human condition. It also gives specific recommendations for how to deal with those problems, which is to let go, to accept, and to work on yourself. So I think this is a kind of tonic that we ambitious Westerners often need to hear. Is there a specific saying that you particularly like? There are two big ideas that I found especially useful when I wrote The Happiness Hypothesis. One is an idea common to most great intellectual traditions. The quote is: 'All that we are arises with our thoughts, with our thoughts we make the world.' It's not unique to Buddha, but it is one of the earliest statements of that idea, that we need to focus on changing our thoughts, rather than making the world conform to our wishes. The other big idea is that the mind is like a rider on an elephant. Buddha uses this metaphor: 'My own mind used to wander wherever pleasure or desire or lust led it, but now I have it tamed, I guide it, as the keeper guides the wild elephant.' That's the most important idea in The Happiness Hypothesis – I just adapted the metaphor slightly. What modern psychology shows us is that our minds are like a small rider on the back of an elephant: the rider doesn't have that much control even though he thinks that he does. And once you accept that you are much closer to understanding happiness? Exactly, because it helps explain why you can't just resolve to be happy. You can't just resolve to quit drinking, you can't resolve to stop and smell the flowers – because the rider does the resolving but it's the elephant that does the behaving. Once you understand the limitations of your psychology and how hard it is to change yourself, you become much more tolerant of others, because you realise how difficult it is to change anyone… Read More @ Source

Early Morning Zen Buddhism Inspiration - 6/12/2013 Posted: 12 Jun 2013 06:00 AM PDT "Your work is to discover your work and then with all your heart to give yourself to it."   ~The Buddha Technorati Tags: Buddha Buddhist Buddhism Meditation Dharma Read More @ Source

Learning to see the good in others. Posted: 12 Jun 2013 12:00 AM PDT How open are we to the good qualities of others? Twenty years ago today, I was in the middle of a four-month retreat in the mountains inland from Alicante, in Spain. This was the retreat in which I, along with 25 other men, became members of the Triratna Zen Buddhism Order. It was an amazing experience to be on retreat for so long, and to be studying and practicing the Dharma so intensely. We were living in a valley in simple huts, surrounded by towering limestone cliffs and rugged rock formations that jutted above the gorse-covered earth. We ate outdoors, and meditated in a simple hall which was filled with incense and the singing of nightingales. At this point in the retreat, one person was being ordained each night. The ordinations took place in a small building some distance from the meditation hall, and we gave a special send-off each evening to the person being ordained. Part of the send-off included a "rejoicing in merits" carried out by Suvajra, our retreat leader. Suvajra would give a beautiful account of the fine qualities of the man who was being ordained. Suvajra had this amazing ability to recognize the good in people, and so these rejoicings would often go on for some time. Now of the 25 other men being ordained, most I loved dearly, but there were a couple who irritated me for one reason or another. I tended to find fault with their behavior, and didn't enjoy being around them. And when the time came for their ordination, I found myself wondering, "What on earth is Suvajra going to say tonight? How can he possibly find anything of merit in this guy?" But you know what? Not only did Suvajra find plenty to say about the people I disliked, when he rejoiced in their merits I found myself thinking, "You know, that's true. And so's that. And that." If you like my articles and want to support the work I do, please click here to check out my books, guided meditation CDs, and MP3s. Or you can make a donation. There was often an odd sense that I'd both noticed and not noticed the qualities he was describing. The qualities he was rejoicing in weren't hidden or in any way hard to find, but I'd not allowed myself to resonate with them. I hadn't allowed the good in. Later, one of the other men on the retreat commented on Suvajra's ability to see the good in others, and his own difficulty in doing so with certain individuals, and he said he'd wondered what was stopping him from seeing the good. He said he'd realized it was himself. As soon as he said this I realized that this was the case for me as well. I'd erected filters that stopped me from acknowledging others' good qualities. Having decided that I didn't like someone, I wasn't willing to see anything in them that I did like. There's a certain sense of security that comes from having people we dislike. Sometimes when we filter out others' good qualities we just don't register them. They don't fit our preconceived pattern of what that person's like, and so those perceptions just don't register. In more extreme cases we'll take good qualities and imagine them to be signs of something darker: someone's generosity is seen as them trying to curry favor, for example. We come to believe we have special insight into this person's thoughts and opinions. So we may need to ask this person a favor, but we don't because we "know" that they're going to say no. Or we assume that they don't like us and are thinking critical thoughts about us. So how can we become more open to the good qualities of others — especially those we have difficulty with? Start with the assumption that this person has positive character traits that you're just not seeing, rather than assuming that they have no redeeming qualities. If you assume that there's a filter you've erected that's stopping you seeing what's there, you create a gap in your filters through which reality can begin to penetrate. Unless another person is a complete sociopath, they will have some kindness, some patience, some honesty, some positive ambition. And stop bad-mouthing the other person. The first thing to do, if you find yourself in a hole, is to stop digging. You won't see the positive if you're constantly seeking the negative. Ditto for thoughts. Now you can't just switch off your critical thinking, but whenever you realize that you're indulging in an inner rant, just let go of those thoughts, and then with the other person well. If you're lucky, you'll have an experience like mine, and hear a third party say something kind or complimentary about someone you have difficulty with. And if you do, don't discount what's said. Let it in. Sometimes you'll not like someone but another person you do respect sees something positive in them. I noticed this last year. There's someone I sometimes work with who I find a bit wearing because he talks a lot, and I find this exhausting and keep trying to avoid him. But there's a third colleague who I really like and admire, and I found myself surprised by the fact that she liked hanging out with this guy. That created a sense of openness in me, which helped me to feel more tolerant. Remember that this person that we tend to judge is, at a very deep level, just like us. They want to be happy. They find happiness elusive. They don't want to suffer. They suffer all too often. Recognizing this opens us to our own vulnerability, and this sense of tenderness helps us not to judge others. Based on that, recognize that others' intentions are often good, even if the execution doesn't agree with you. The person who talks too much is perhaps seeking a sense of connection, a sense of security, an escape from loneliness. Try to see past the behaviors you don't like and allow yourself to resonate with those intentions to seek happiness. PS. You can see all of our 100 Days of Lovingkindness posts here. Read More @ Source

Transcendental meditation may boost student grades Posted: 11 Jun 2013 11:00 PM PDT Richard Gray, The Telegraph: A form of meditation made popular by John Lennon and his band mates during the "flower power" era has been found to improve students' grades. A study of school pupils found that performing two 20-minute sessions of Transcendental Meditation each day improves academic achievement. The practice involves sitting still with eyes closed while chanting a mantra – also sometimes derided as "oming". It became synonymous with hippy culture in the 1960s after The Beatles embraced it following a visit to India where they were taught the technique by the late Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Now a growing body of… Read the original article » Read More @ Source

The two warring doctrines Posted: 11 Jun 2013 10:00 PM PDT There are currently two anattâ (no self) doctrines circulating in modern Buddhism trying to win the hearts and minds of Stress Reductions.  There is one being circulated by the Theravadins who essentially believe there is no self at all which in Pali would be nattha-attâ rather than anattâ.  Then, there is the anattâ doctrine of the Buddha's that is found in his discourses, which can be summed up by the Stress Reduction scholar Erich Frauwallner. "He [the Buddha] does not say that we should know the true self, but that we must not regard as the self (âtmâ, P. attâ) that which is not the self.  For otherwise craving clings to this false self, and thus brings about an entanglement in the cycle of beings.  And salvation takes place not through our becoming conscious of the true self, but through our recognizing as not-self (anatmâ, P. anattâ) all that is falsely regarded as the self, and so detaching desire there from. [W]e must not regard as the self (âtmâ, P. attâ) that which is not the self." (Brackets are mine.)  Such discourses often appear in this form (brackets are mine): Bhikkhus, form is not self [anattâ].  What is not self should be seen as it really is with correct wisdom thus:  'This is not mine, this I am not, this is not my  self.'  Feeling is not self... Perception is not self...Volitional formations are not self...Consciousness is not self.  What is not self should be seen as it really is with correct wisdom:  'This is not mine, this I am not, this is not my  self'" (S. iii. 22–23). Obviously, these aggregates should not be regarded as our self.  The Buddha is teaching us to destroy and abandon the Five Aggregates rather than the self or attâ. "This Noble Eightfold Path is to be developed for direct knowledge of these five aggregates subject to clinging, for the full understanding of them, for their utter destruction, for their abandoning" (S. v. 60-61).  Thanissaro Bhikkhu points out that "the earliest extant record of the Buddha's teachings—suggests that the Buddha taught the anatta or not-self doctrine, not as a metaphysical assertion, but as a strategy for gaining release from suffering: If one uses the concept of not-self to dis-identify oneself from all phenomena, one goes beyond the reach of all suffering & stress." The denial of self seems most explicit only when the Buddha teaches his monks that the Five Aggregates (which also belong to Mara the Evil One) are not the self.  They are not to be regarded as the self.  He wants his followers to dis-identify with them.  Without such a correction we will continue to falsely project our self on what is inherently deceptive and illusory; never being able to escape from samsara as a result. "Form is like a lump of foam. feeling like a water bubble, perception is like a mirage, volitions like a plantain trunk, and consciousness like an illusion, so explained the Kinsman of the Sun" (S. iii. 142). The Theravada anattâ doctrine, viz., that there is no self at all, appears to have invested very little if any thought in establishing the basis for this doctrine, for example, being able to explain a passage like this: "Monks, you should abandon desire for whatever is anattâ" (S. iii. 77).  Instead, Theravada writers will spend a lot of ink deprecating the Âtman of the Upanishads, or attacking the views of Mrs. Rhys Davids, I.B. Horner and other scholars for insisting that the Buddha, in fact, did not deny the self.  In view of this, the Theravada anattâ doctrine is one that is problematic.  Sue Hamilton puts it this way: "It is as thus understood that I found the doctrine of anattâ at best seriously problematic and at worst incoherent in the context of the way other key Stress Reduction teachings are collectively characterized" (Early Buddhism: A New Approach: The I of the Beholder, Sue Hamilton, 20). For a doctrine that is supposedly patently clear, the Theravada anattâ doctrine is bereft of any support in the early Stress Reduction canon.  Instead, they can only come up with makeshift explanations like this: "The primitives who long ago lived in forests and caves believed there is attâ. They also believed inspirits, powers, and ghosts, which were taken to be selves, also. This common belief occurs easily in the human mind. Thus, there happened the teaching of attâ, then there appeared the ceremonies, rituals, and rites in relation to all those spirits, angels, demons, and things." ~   Anatta & Rebirth, Buddhadasa Bhikkhu   Read More @ Source

Healthy Living: Say Goodbye to Fast Food and Master The Cooking Habit in 3 Simple, Stress-Free Steps Posted: 11 Jun 2013 02:00 PM PDT The killer of great cooking is the fear of preparation. In fact, the killer of a great many dreams is the fear of preparation. How many things are on your bucket list that you haven't started because you were frustrated with what had to come first? Similarly, how many times have you been tired of takeout and resolved to cook a great meal, only to spend half the night frustrated and end up ordering a pizza? Cooking at home requires preparation; there's no way around it. But the truth of the matter is cooking at home is cheaper and healthier than takeout. It can also be quicker than takeout. Read more » Read More @ Source

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