Wise Ways To Happiness
Dedicated to the promotion of Ordinary and Extraordinary Happiness
Reclaiming Your Birthright to Unconditional Happiness
This blog has been created as a resource to all people who are dedicated to increasing happiness and to decreasing suffering in their lives--and in the world--by learning how to live more wisely and skillfully.It aims to include a distillation of what I have personally learned in theses regards, along with the collective wisdom of many others.
I appreciate so much you making this available. I have tried to learn meditation on my own for years without success. I have read many books on the subject but reading and putting into practice are very different things. I am looking forward to trying your audio tapes.
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George Shears Reply:
April 17th, 2011 at 8:52 pm
Hi Deborah,
I’m very happy that you are willing to give mindfulness a try. It’s very important that you be exceedingly patient with yourself as you start practicing mindfulness. Literally everyone who begins this practice discovers that the mind is wildly out of control. This is why it is often referred to, metaphorically, as a “drunken monkey” of a “mad elephant.” So, for example, as you start focusing on your breathing, you will get distracted from it again and again–especially by automatic thinking. That’s no problem at all. As soon as you become aware that this has happened, just gently bring your attention back to your breath and “begin again.” Each time you do so adds an increment of habit strength to this new skill. The willing to begin again, as often as necessary, will be a key factor to your success. Please let me know if I can be helpful in any way as you continue on this path.
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Hello!
Thank you for this generous gift. I also want to thank you for reminding me re: A New Earth. I have been searching for a redefined higher power and was reminded of mindfulness and meditation. I did a search on the internet re: “mindfulness as a higher power” and your site came up. I think I am on the right track. Thank you for being here to assist me in my journey. I am presently reading Jon Kabat-Zinn’s book “Wherever You Go There You Are” – I think I am on the right track as all the info keeps leading me in the direction towards mindfulness.
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George Shears Reply:
April 17th, 2011 at 8:42 pm
You’re most welcome, Laura. I’m a bit biased, of course, but I strongly agree that anyone who is learning about mindfulness–and, even better–practicing it consistently is definitely on the right track. Please let me know if there’s any way I can assist/support you on this noble path.
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I am so grateful for these. Have downloaded them as apps on my iPad so that I can take them anywhere. They have changed the way that I see and feel life. The Body scan has very much helped me to get in touch with what is going on with my body. Your recommendations have encouraged me to explore mindfulness meditation in much more detail. I have especially learnt through the body scan that I need to work with my body more. Especially in the area of being more kind and compassionate.I am beginning to feel the potential of this practice in breaking the cycle of bad habits. Do you have any suggestions. I cannot express my gratitude enough for the information you have shared.
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George Shears Reply:
November 7th, 2011 at 9:34 pm
With regard to being more kind and compassionate, it is said that the Buddha had this to say: “You can travel around the world to search for someone more lovable than yourself, and yet that person is never to be found.” While engaging in the bodyscan–or any formal mindfulness practice–I suggest that you relate consciously to all bodily sensations, pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral, just as a loving mother relates to a beloved, newborn child. The best language I’ve found to describe the quality of this relating is to “embrace it lovingly in awareness with unconditional acceptance.” Embrace similarly all “sensations in the mind,” i.e., thoughts, feelings, impulses, perceptions, judgments, etc.
As you develop the skill of being increasingly present to the ever-changing flow of mind-body events, recognize as fully as possible that what is actually happening, at the ultimate level, is that the ever-changing evolution of the universe (the world of form) is being embraced in the BIG LOVE of formless, impersonal consciousness, or knowing. Within this frame of reference, there are no personal “bad habits”–there is just the ever-changing “flow of impermanence.” The more that these supposed “bad habits” are witnessed for what they are without taking them as I, me, or mine, they are recognized to be much like any other natural phenomena, say the weather. As my teacher, Shinzen Young, is fond of saying, your main aim through mindfulness is to “watch them to death”–i.e., observe how they all arise and pass away.
In this regard, Priska, I invite you to visit my Facebook webpage, “We’re All One,” where you will find a wonderful video by Gang-ji that is entitled, “Who are you. . . really?” If you like what you hear, you will find many of her videos on YouTube. I regard her as as exceptional teacher.
BTW, I have invited you to be my Facebook friend. The friend request will be from “Geo Shears,” one of my Facebook aliases.
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