IN THE MOMENT(UM)

IN THE MOMENT(UM)

Its one of those throw-away phrases that populate wellness, New Age and alt-health conversations. We need to be “in the moment”. As if we could somehow disconnect ourselves from the flow of time and inhabit some kind of ever-calm, ever-stress-free space of Now. Although many mindfulness teachers continue to offer up this gratuitous phrase, it has little or no meaning in the cultivation of mindful living.
It hardly needs saying, but this moment only exists and holds value in that it is an abstraction of the flow of our lives. In Buddhist psychology there is the term “nen-moment” which points to a finite number of discreet experiences which exist in a given temporal ‘moment’. Nevertheless, even nen-moments refer to distinctions in the flow of experience, not that any moment could have independent existence. What matters is our capacity to observe deeper and deeper detail in our experience, to recognize patterns and to avoid being reactive to what occurs.
What is more important than trying to hide out in some imaginary space of Now is that we attend to and recognize the momentum of our lives. Nothing about our lives arises out of nothing. If we are to benefit from mindfulness practice, even in its most psychological versions, we are encouraged to recognize patterns of thought, behaviour and action. This means we need to recognize the momentum of our lives, to see what has arisen in our experience and how we have tended to react to it. Although change is the form of our lives, we do not initiate it. We can sail within the current of change and, to do so, we need to recognize the momentum of that current. Our task is not to change anything but to recognize this current and direct our actions in the direction which is purposeful for us. We work with the current never independent of it. Let our aspiration be to “live in the moment(um)”.

yours, on purpose,

Ray

EMOTIONS AND PRACTICE

EMOTIONS AND PRACTICE

Far too often mindfulness practice is presented in terms of a technical endeavour. We have advice on what to do when sitting, how to hold the hands, how to breath, how to deal with distractions, and so on. It gets reduced to a kind of mental fitness class. It becomes “stress-reduction” or something equally insipid.
At our quarterly retreat yesterday we spent our practice time working with 3 practices which only occasionally get included in mindfulness training. The practices were:
1. Naikan
2. Compassion (or karuna-bhavana)
3. Loving kindness (or metta-bhavana)

These , especially the 2nd and 3rd , have become more present in teaching these days. These are crucial practices to include in mindful living because they push us beyond the merely technical, into an awareness of interdependence. They invite us to acknowledge that our lives are inextricably intertwined with those of countless others, named and not, known and not.
Most of those who participated commented, as well, on the difficulty we have in extending understanding and good wishes towards ourselves. We are own harshest critics, stingy with our kindness and unforgiving in our judgments when directed inward. Engaging in practices like compassion and loving kindness encourage us to crack open that limitation and allow ourselves to lighten up on our selves.

REMINDER:
The RMML Centre is closed from February 20-28 while Ray is away.

MARKETING MEETS MINDFULNESS

MARKETING MEETS MINDFULNESS

We’ve often said that the term “mindfulness” has been co-opted by marketers and people who really have no idea what the term means. The weather-guy now says “be mindful of the snow”, rather than “drive slowly because it is snowing outside”. The gift of mindfulness as vipassana, (complete awareness) has been degraded as mindfulness-lite. Here’s a great example of why the term has become just a synonym for noticing or attention. 

 

http://www.mintigo.com/blog/marketing-mindfulness-3-critical-steps-successful-proof-concept-part-5-5/?utm_source=Outbrain

Mindful living, as we understand it in Red Maple is a way of being and acting in your life which includes what we call the PARA skills – purpose, attention, relationships and activity. It is a comprehensive approach to how we can live every aspect of our lives so that we develop a deep satisfaction. It is how we can recognize ourselves as living and expressing what we say matters. Mindful living, as I have often said, is not just tacking something onto the way you have always lived your life and expecting that to transform everything. Mindful living is enquiring into your life with a willingness to live differently, to challenge the assumptions you have which have held you at a distance from the richness of your own experience and trapped you in reactivity instead of purposefulness.