January 3 – meditation as an act of love
Dear Friends, In his book Meditation and Relaxation in Plain English, Bob Sharples gives this advice: Don’t meditate to fix yourself, to heal yourself, to improve yourself, to redeem yourself; rather, do it as an act of love, of deep warm friendship toward yourself. In this view there is no longer any need for the subtle aggression of self-improvement, for self-criticism, 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. I love this idea of meditation as an act of love. So I’ve decided to dedicate Sundays this month to the heart. Perhaps, to cap off our month together, you’ll be able to join us for the ultimate Sunday for the heart at Jeanne’s day-long retreat on…
January 2 – goals, intention
Dear Friends, One of my big tasks at work this month will be working with my team to our articulate goals for 2016. Goal setting is something many people do. Intentions are different than goals. I found a good description of the distinction between goals and intentions, by Phillip Moffitt: Goal making is a valuable skill; it involves envisioning a future outcome …, then planning, applying discipline, and working hard to achieve it. … Committing to and visualizing those goals may assist you in your efforts, but … . They both involve living in an imagined future and are not concerned with what is happening to you in the present moment. With goals, the future is always the focus: Are you going to reach the goal? Will you be happy when you do? What’s next? Setting intention, at least according to Buddhist teachings, is quite different than goal making. It…
January 1 – set your intention
Dear Friends, This past May, I had an opportunity to sit with Susie Harrington and Anne Cushman at the Lost Coast Retreat. As we neared the end of the retreat, Anne shared her tips on “How To Maintain A Daily Practice of Almost Anything“. The first step is “Set Your Intention.” Many of you are familiar with Jeanne’s analogy: she likens intention to geese flying south for the winter. Jeanne reminds us the geese are often off-course, having been buffeted by various weather systems along the way. Yet, through their innate intention, the geese are able make the necessary corrections to ultimately arrive at their destination. I invite you to consider what your intention is as we embark on this month-long journey together. What will help you make the necessary corrections as you get buffeted by the inevitable weather systems? Anne Cushman suggests, “Get very clear about what you want…
Welcome to the SIMC Daily Meditation Support for Jan 2016
Dear friends, Welcome to the Saskatoon Insight Meditation Community Daily Meditation Support for January 2016! Starting January 1, 2016, look for a daily email to give you a little bit of extra inspiration to maintain a daily meditation practice. Each email may contain one or more of the following tips: A quote or a poem A link to a guided meditation or dharma talk A “stealth” meditation you can do anywhere and anytime The general guidelines, to help you feel accountable: Even five minutes of meditation counts as a day you’ve meditated. It’s best to aim for doing more than that each day, but five minutes is your emergency fall-back position. You can meditate anywhere: as you’re waiting for an appointment, in your car while sitting in a parking lot, or a park bench (okay, that might be a little chilly this time of year) — anywhere. For the purposes…