Freeing animals

One of the most charming traditions in Buddhism I find is setting animals free. Fish in tanks, birds in cages....dogs and cats in pet shops, goats, cows, sheep, horses, chickens ...on farms... Buddhists buy them and set them free. This is to generate good karma. I don't care much about the karma part, but I loooooove the setting free of animals. Is was recommended against depression in children by my teacher at the monastery.

new semester

We will start the new semester of the meditation and mindfulness training next week. There will be an intermediate class on Fridays from 5.30pm and a bgginners class from 6pm. In both classes we will first focus on mindfulness of the body.
Starting: Thursday 10 July.
Looking forwards to it!
Cheers.
Suzanne

Relax!

Mixed up my days

I forgot to go to the meditation class I lead last night. I thought it was Wednesday instead of Thursday. This is because I started working full time. This is a challenge for me. One has to keep time strictly. I'm not used to that. If anybody was there (which I doubt because 2 of you are on holidays and the rest of you stopped attending) I apologize. I will be back there at the YogaWay studio on Monday for some good old vippassana..
Cheers
Suzanne

The irrationally positive brain

Many of us are not aware of our optimistic tendencies. Data clearly show us that most people overestimate their prospects for proffessional achievement; expect their children to be extraordinairy gifted; miscalculate their likely life span; expect to be healthier then their peers; hughely underestimate their likelihood of divorce, cance, and unemployment; and are confident overall that their future lives will be better then those of their parents put up with. This is known as the optimism bias-the inclination to overestimate the likelihood of encountering positive events in the future and to underestimate the likelihood of experiencing negative events.

See for more on this subject:
The Optimism Bias: A tour of the Irrationally Posive Brain, by Tali Sharot.

https://www.ted.com/talks/tali_sharot_the_optimism_bias

The power of negative thinking

It is oftent hought that meditators do positive thinking.
This is not true.
The link meditation-positive thinking was made by the New Age movement, a movement that I stay well away from.
In Buddhist monasteries nuns and monks contemplate on the foulness of the body (and do not see the body as a temple), on all phases of being dead (the dead body) and more morose stuff. The result is refreshing: Buddhist nuns and monks are very realistic people.
I have already written about Oliver Burkman's book on negative thinking.
The Power of negative Thinking by Bob Knight is interesting too. Check it out.

 



Also reading: No Time to Lose: A Timely Guide to the Way of the Bodhisattva

Sometimes one needs to read about what one is reading. 
I am reading No Time to Lose: A Timely Guide to the Way of the Bodhisattva. Shambhala Publications, 2007. ISBN 1-59030-424-1 by Ani Pema Chodron.

Pema Chodron

From her website:

Pema Chödrön was born Deirdre Blomfield-Brown in 1936, in New York City. She attended Miss Porter’s School in Connecticut and graduated from the University of California at Berkeley. She taught as an elementary school teacher for many years in both New Mexico and California. Pema has two children and three grandchildren.

While in her mid-thirties, Pema traveled to the French Alps and encountered Lama Chime Rinpoche, with whom she studied for several years. She became a novice nun in 1974 while studying with Lama Chime in London. His Holiness the Sixteenth Karmapa came to England at that time, and Pema received her ordination from him.

Pema first met her root teacher, Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, in 1972. Lama Chime encouraged her to work with Rinpoche, and it was with him that she ultimately made her most profound connection, studying with him from 1974 until his death in 1987. At the request of the Sixteenth Karmapa, she received the full monastic ordination in the Chinese lineage of Buddhism in 1981 in Hong Kong.

Pema served as the director of Karma Dzong, in Boulder, until moving in 1984 to rural Cape Breton, Nova Scotia to be the director of Gampo Abbey. Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche asked her to work towards the establishment of a monastery for western monks and nuns.

Pema currently teaches in the United States and Canada and plans for an increased amount of time in solitary retreat under the guidance of Venerable Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche.

Pema is interested in helping establish the monastic tradition in the West, as well in continuing her work with Buddhists of all traditions, sharing ideas and teachings. She has written several books: “The Wisdom of No Escape”, “Start Where You Are”, “When Things Fall Apart”, “The Places that Scare You”, “No Time to Lose” and “Practicing Peace in Times of War”, and most recently, “Smile at Fear”.

http://pemachodron.org/