Posted on Happy Minds!
From: Happiness - Matthieu Ricard
Bring to your mind a past experience of physical pleasure,
with all its intensity. Remember how you enjoyed
it at first and then how it gradually changed
into a neutral feeling and maybe even waned into lassitude
and lack of interest. Did it bring you a sense of
inner or lasting fulfillment?
Then remember an occasion of inner joy and happiness.
Recall how you felt, for example, when you
made someone else really happy, or when you peacefully
enjoyed the company of a loved one or the sight
of beautiful natural scenery. Consider the lasting effect
this experience had on your mind and how it still
nourishes a sense of fulfillment. Compare the quality
of such a state of being with that of a fleeting sensation
of pleasure.
Learn to value these moments of deep well-being and
aspire to find ways to develop them further.
Contents
- Compassion for Yourself and Others
- Happiness and humility
- Happiness and Kindness
- Happiness and Science
- Happiness today - Death tomorrow
- Helpful information
- How to deal with depression
- How to get the best mobile phone for free
- Pema Chödrön: expert on happiness
- Rejection: a different approach
- Spirituality, why bother?
- The Abyss
- The Happy Minds Forum
- The Heart Sutra
- The Maitreya Buddha Project
- The trap in trying to better your life
- Three methods for working with chaos
Exercises
- Exercise 10: Feeling more Compassion
- Exercise 11: Examining causes of Happiness
- Exercise 12: Developing attention
- Exercise 13: Distinguishing happiness from pleasure
- Exercise 14: How to begin to meditate
- Exercise 15: Using Mental Imagery
- Exercise 1: Relativity
- Exercise 2: Realizing what is Happiness
- Exercise 3: Appreciating small things
- Exercise 4: Doing chores
- Exercise 5: Just Enjoy
- Exercise 6: Awakening Compassion
- Exercise 7: Do something Nice
- Exercise 8: Illusions
- Exercise 9: Creating your own Paradise
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Helpful information
Posted on Happy Minds!
We are living in times of unimaginable evil. Instead of helping each other out, an enormous obsession with fancy mobile phones, fast cars, villas, private swimming pools and overflowing bank accounts has arisen.
Stealthy forces try to “steal our minds”. By showing us tremendously infantile pictures of how things should be - so-called “commercials” - that actually are nothing more then greed transformed to a visible image.
This turmoil, is similar to a storm in a glass of water. There’s nothing to it. It’s just ignorance, wrong views, leading to a lack of compassion.
We are full of compassion. Humans are born with an innate talent for that skill. The only reason for our ignorance, is because we choose to be so. We choose to be so, because we are like little children, playing in the woods. We have lost our way, and we are trying to get back to the village. Instead of using logic, we try to use force, but that isn’t working too well, is it?
So, cool down, get your sanity and yourself back together. Stop wasting your live, and lets start creating a future that’s similar to a dream instead of a nightmare.
I’ve found some really helpful information that may provide you with some tools sufficient for achieving this task ahead, and you can find it here!
We are living in times of unimaginable evil. Instead of helping each other out, an enormous obsession with fancy mobile phones, fast cars, villas, private swimming pools and overflowing bank accounts has arisen.
Stealthy forces try to “steal our minds”. By showing us tremendously infantile pictures of how things should be - so-called “commercials” - that actually are nothing more then greed transformed to a visible image.
This turmoil, is similar to a storm in a glass of water. There’s nothing to it. It’s just ignorance, wrong views, leading to a lack of compassion.
We are full of compassion. Humans are born with an innate talent for that skill. The only reason for our ignorance, is because we choose to be so. We choose to be so, because we are like little children, playing in the woods. We have lost our way, and we are trying to get back to the village. Instead of using logic, we try to use force, but that isn’t working too well, is it?
So, cool down, get your sanity and yourself back together. Stop wasting your live, and lets start creating a future that’s similar to a dream instead of a nightmare.
I’ve found some really helpful information that may provide you with some tools sufficient for achieving this task ahead, and you can find it here!
Labels:
compassion,
death,
Depression,
Evil,
idiot,
lesson,
no exit,
steal,
turmoil
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Exercise 12: Developing attention
Posted on Happy Minds!
From: Happiness - Matthieu Ricard
Sit quietly in your meditation posture and focus all
your attention upon a chosen object. It can be an object
in your room, your breath, or your own mind.
Inevitably as you do this, your mind will wander.
Each time it does, gently bring it back to the object of
concentration, like a butterfly that returns again and
again to the flower it feeds on. As you persevere, your
concentration will become more clear and stable. If
you feel sleepy, assume a straighter posture and lift
your gaze slightly upward to revive your awareness.
Conversely, if your mind becomes agitated, relax your
posture, direct your gaze slightly downward, and let
any inner tension dissolve.
Cultivating attention and mindfulness in this way is a
precious tool for all other kinds of meditation.
From: Happiness - Matthieu Ricard
Sit quietly in your meditation posture and focus all
your attention upon a chosen object. It can be an object
in your room, your breath, or your own mind.
Inevitably as you do this, your mind will wander.
Each time it does, gently bring it back to the object of
concentration, like a butterfly that returns again and
again to the flower it feeds on. As you persevere, your
concentration will become more clear and stable. If
you feel sleepy, assume a straighter posture and lift
your gaze slightly upward to revive your awareness.
Conversely, if your mind becomes agitated, relax your
posture, direct your gaze slightly downward, and let
any inner tension dissolve.
Cultivating attention and mindfulness in this way is a
precious tool for all other kinds of meditation.
Labels:
causes,
circumstances,
cultivate,
fragile,
happiness,
Matthieu Ricard,
stable
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