Mindfulness Meditation

[icy]

Quick-Thinking Monk Foils Would-Be Buddhist Center Robber

Note to would-be robbers of Buddhist centers: Not only is it undoubtedly awful for your karma, but the odds are awfully small that you'll outwit the Monks, who have spent years practicing mindfulness.

Such is the case for an unnamed man in North Carolina, who attempted to rob 58-year-old Somsak Sambib, a monk at the Greensboro Buddhist Center. The man entered the building just after 2:00 a.m. Wednesday, then threatened Sambib with a gun and demanded money, reports local Fox affiliate WGHP.

Being a monk, Sambib wasn't exactly flush with cash, nor did he have any other valuables on him. Still, facing continued threats, the monk told area news outlet WXII that he convinced the robber he could find some cash upstairs and led the way.

Once upstairs, he called out to another monk in a separate room via their native, non-English language, warning him a robber was outside and asking to him to quickly open his door. When the monk opened up, Sambib sneaked in, then quickly closed and locked the door.

With the robber trapped outside, the two monks called 911, and the would-be bandit fled.

Per WFMY, the man also left empty-handed.


Mindfulness meditation is unique in that it is not directed toward getting us to be different from how we already are. Instead, it helps us become aware of what is already true moment by moment. We could say that it teaches us how to be unconditionally present; that is, it helps us be present with whatever is happening, no matter what it is.  That is the way to go and it helps in our daily life no matter what arises; moment to moment.

[vajrastorm]

This story clearly illustrates how beneficial and powerful being fully mindful and being fully aware is. Being fully aware of each moment , being fully in the present, makes one open and accepting of whatever arises. Hence the monk, Sabib , embracing every experience and letting it go, without being disturbed or ruffled, was able to react with calm,equanimity  and compassion toward the would-be robber.

With clear quick thinking, he got the robber to a room and adroitly staged his lock-up. The robber-to-be didn't carry out his negative act of robbing a Sangha and hence didn't create the cause to collect  heavy negative karma. He left empty-handed .

[RedLantern]

Meditation definitely helps if it is practiced on a regular basis.It gives freshness and energy to work for whole day.Bob Sharples,said in his book,Meditation;Calming the mind
'don't meditate to fix yourself:rather ,do it as an act of love,of deep warm friendship to yourself.In this way there is no longer any need for the subtle aggression of self improvement, for the endless guilt of not doing enough.It offers the possibility of an end to the ceaseless round of trying so hard that wraps so many people's lives in a knot.Instead there is now meditation as an act of love.
Let us keep this in "mind"

[dondrup]

Our mind is constantly bombarded with countless thoughts and emotions every single moment. Without mindfulness all our actions will be dictated by these distracting thoughts and volatile emotions without any form of control! It is dangerous as without mindfulness, we commit negative actions leading to accumulation of negative karma! Without mindfulness, we will waste a lot of precious time doing meaningless activities instead of doing Dharma for our future happiness.

Hence we can see that Mindfulness is such an important aspect of our mind that we need to develop in order to control all our actions.

The monk in this instance was mindful and present in that moment. Then with a calm mind, the monk was able to use his wisdom to skillfully deal with the situation and got himself free from harm and danger.

[Tenzin K]

Cultivating mindfulness is the key to overcoming suffering and recognizing natural wisdom: both our own and others'. How do we go about it?
In the Buddhist tradition and in Contemplative Psychotherapy training, we nurture mindfulness through the practice of sitting meditation. There are many different kinds of meditation. For example, some are designed to help us relax; others are meant to produce altered states of consciousness.

Mindfulness meditation is unique in that it is not directed toward getting us to be different from how we already are. Instead, it helps us become aware of what is already true moment by moment. We could say that it teaches us how to be unconditionally present; that is, it helps us be present with whatever is happening, no matter what it is.

[icy]

The Beginner’s Mind

Practicing mindfulness sounds simple, but it isn’t. Try this: close your eyes, breathe deeply and focus on your breathing. Within minutes, your mind jump to something else: maybe your to-do list, maybe what you’re going to eat for lunch, maybe that strange thing your friend said to you this morning.

Meditation is also hard to fit into our lives. I don’t have an hour in the morning to meditate, like I did at the retreat, and I certainly don’t have the luxury of leaving everyday life behind to chant in the forest for six years, as the historical Buddha did around 400 B.C.

But luckily, you don’t have to meditate like Buddhist monks to benefit from practicing mindfulness. It can be applied to a variety of situations and activities. Japanese Zen masters use mindfulness when they engage in the classic tea ceremony, for example, preparing and serving with great ritual and purpose.

Hatha yoga, meanwhile, uses mindfulness in stretching poses. One basic exercise: focus on the sensations you feel as you do an ordinary activity like washing your dishes or peeling an orange. Anything can be an opportunity to cultivate mindfulness when done with great focus — including how we use our gadgets. Anyone — young or old, Luddite or tech-savvy, man or woman — can benefit by bringing full presence of mind to the everyday moment.

[pgdharma]

Meditation helps us to achieve a mind that is stable and calm and this calmness or harmony is a natural aspect of the mind. Through mindfulness practice we are just developing and strengthening it, and eventually we are able to remain peacefully in our mind without struggling in any situation. For the monk, Sabib, even though he was threatened, his mind remained stable and he did not panic. He was calm and composed and he could think clearly how to overcome the situation.

[icy]

Meditation, of course, is the practice of stilling the mind and honing our awareness to our surroundings. The mind is full of chatter — reminders to do tasks, thoughts of random people or sights, reflections of the past or plans for the future — that echoes in the brain, never quite taking a break from the steady stream of stimulation that bombards us each day.

Meditation is a useful way to strip out that noise of life, so we can focus on, and become aware of, our reasons for doing things — whether we pick up a phone because we’re afraid of missing a call, or in fact, because we’re afraid of being alone.

By sitting still and focusing — usually on your breath, but perhaps on a mantra, image or sound — meditation can help you see the mental patterns underlying your busy mind, and over time, help to bring any anxiety or distractions to a standstill.

[Midakpa]

The Buddha set the direction of his teaching on meditation with the following words:

"This path, namely the four foundations of mindfulness, goes in one way, to the purification of beings, to the surmounting of sorrow and lamentation, to the disappearance of pain and grief, to the attainment of the true way, to the realisation of Nirvana".

In the discourse called "The Foundations of Mindfulness", the Buddha outlined the range of mindful practices. These are the contemplations of: body, feeling, mental states and mental events. These exercises progress from the gross aspects of a "person" to the subtlest of experiences. Although there are many exercises, it is generally believed that even one of the exercises is enough to reach enlightenment and it is not necessary for everyone to practise all aspects of the four contemplations. The individual exercises are suited to different characters and to different levels of development. It is here that the importance of the teacher can be seen. The teacher will be able to guide the student as to which exercise is more suited to his level of development.

The most practised of the exercises are: mindfulness of breathing, the four postures, and full awareness.

[brian]

i think Sabib the monk did very well. He wasn't attached and that was the reason why he can be so calm even at the point of his life would be threatened if his plan were to go wrong. This also explains well that one would let go of fear and cherishing oneself in order to be able to act with such wisdom and 'selfless'. You are only calm when you are completely not pressured and scared. He in turn also helped the robber from creating major bad karma to rob from a monk.

[Manisha Kudo]

     Mindfulness leads to the realization of our delusional attachment to our body. But this does not mean that we will become invincible and bullet proof. It just means that at every moment, our respond is fresh and untainted by the past. When we are confronted by danger, we don't panic because we are not reacting from fear but from seeing the truth for itself. When this happens, we are able to prevent and avoid all harms skilfully.

[icy]

Are you dieting? Read this - Mindfulness meditation can cut chocolate cravings.

Allison Bond
Reuters
2:25 p.m. CDT, March 13, 2014


NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Looking to cut cravings? A recent study suggests the key may be attaining a sense of detachment from them through a form of meditation with roots in Buddhism.

Practicing mindfulness meditation, which emphasizes identifying and distancing oneself from certain thoughts - without judging them - weakened chocolate cravings among people with a self-declared sweet tooth, Canadian researchers say.


"There is now good evidence that mindfulness strategies generally work at managing food cravings, but we don't yet know what aspect of mindfulness and what mechanisms are responsible for these effects. This is what motivated this research," said lead study author Julien Lacaille, a psychologist at McGill University in Quebec.

Several mental skills make up the "mindful" state, the researchers write in the journal Appetite. To investigate how mindfulness meditation helps curb cravings, and which aspect of mindfulness is most important to that effect, Lacaille's team recruited 196 participants to undergo mindfulness training or serve in a comparison group.

Participants were divided into five groups, four of which got training in mindfulness meditation techniques and were directed to practice specific ones whenever a chocolate craving arose over the next two weeks. Members of the fifth group were told to distract themselves to fend off cravings.

The researchers focused on examining three skills relevant to mindfulness meditation, and gave each a plain descriptive name. The first they called awareness (simply noticing one's thoughts) and the second was acceptance (not passing judgment on one's thoughts). The third was disidentification, in which participants distanced themselves from their cravings by thinking of craving-related thoughts as separate from themselves.

Members of the four meditation groups focused on practicing one or a combination of these three skills.

All participants had reported they were prone to frequent strong cravings for chocolate and wanted to diminish them, and their mindfulness skills were assessed before and after the study to gauge how effectively they were practicing the techniques.

A survey administered before and after the study also aimed to evaluate the intensity of the participants' chocolate cravings by answering questions such as "Chocolate often preys on my mind" and "I eat chocolate to cheer me up when I am down."

After two weeks, participants were given a piece of chocolate to unwrap and touch for one minute; after the chocolate was taken away, they rated how much they craved the candy.

Those who had become adept at disidentification - distancing themselves from their craving after acknowledging it - craved chocolate significantly less than those who had not.

"They developed less-intense cravings for chocolate because they now perceived it as generally less desirable," Lacaille said.

That's an important lesson for anyone who wants to make constructive changes to the way they think, experts say.

"Something we can all take away from this study is that we are not our thoughts and that we can take control over our thoughts in a relatively short period," said Patrick Williams, a postdoctoral researcher and psychologist at the University of Chicago who not involved in the study.

To do that, the goal is to create mental distance between oneself and one's cravings, identifying a craving as simply a thought. The technique may work by changing mental habits over time, "training the brain to rewire itself into a state in which cravings are not as strong, and in which negative habits have been broken down and replaced with positive thinking," Williams told Reuters Health in an email.

Still, making serious changes takes time and plenty of practice. And the study doesn't address whether meditation techniques can change the cravings we experience down the line.

"Real brain-changing benefits of meditation come from thousands of hours of practice. As the researchers rightly point out in their article, the long-term effects of meditation on combating craving require further research," Williams said.