The Zen Diarist

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How to balance our inner fire

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Fire and WaterFire, one of the five elements in Qigong, is particularly strong this year, and even more so in the summer months. Fire governs the heart and circulatory system in our bodies. When it is in balance, the body functions well, but when it is too strong our health can suffer. When we are feeling agitated, irritable or angry, it is often because our inner fire is burning too vigorously. There is too much heat in our system, which can easily damage our heart and circulation.

Fire on the world stage

This year, we have seen many examples of anger and hatred in our towns and cities. On the world stage also, violence in the Middle East conflict has flared out of control. Untold suffering is being created by the thoughts and actions of supposedly intelligent people, but when Fire is too strong, it unbalances minds. Hatred ignites far too easily and intelligence becomes charred remains. But all is not lost.

The antidote to excess fire

The strongest healing power in the universe is love, unconditional love. That is what the world needs and that is what a balanced heart will give out. Fire element is not bad – it helps us to think clearly and to radiate love and joy, healing and nurturing – but it needs to be in balance.

Balancing with water

We cannot change the world directly, but we can help ourselves to find balance. In the summer months, it can be helpful to balance our inner fire by being near water and greenery. We can meditate near water or simply visualise a lake or a waterfall – whatever appeals. Fire can make us overthink or become anxious. Sipping water often can help. Breathe slowly and calmly, then smile. That way, our contribution to world consciousness will be more balanced and soothing, and that is no small thing.

Do less to accomplish more: The Art of Not Doing

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Worrying: how to stop this pointless habit

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Live fully in the present instead

Worrying has become more commonplace these days and mental health is at a low ebb, so many reports say. That’s bad news. Better news is that most of us can do something about everyday worrying and improve our sense of wellbeing. Those nagging thoughts are completely pointless, totally illogical and we don’t need to entertain them at all.

Worrying is a plague in itself

Worry is part of the plague of thinking too much, and being overloaded with information that comes at us from all directions only exacerbates matters. If we observe our thinking processes, we will quickly notice that one thought inevitably leads to another. Worry is simply a chain of thoughts with a backdrop of fear – a fear of something either not turning out as we want it to, or turning out as we don’t want it to. It’s a harmful habit that we need to quit.

Worrying – the opposite of our true nature

Our true nature is clear unbounded consciousness. In rare moments of clarity, we may have brief glimpses of it, like a completely cloudless sky. It isn’t out there somewhere, nor inside us. There is no inside and outside. It simply is, and that pristine unboundedness is who we are. After a few seconds – longer if we are lucky – something stirs, thoughts come and the clarity is lost again. However, if we learn to become still by being relaxed and focused in the present, some of that clarity will return and start to infuse our lives, in everything we think, say and do.

No magic fix – but there is magic to be found

There is no magic fix, we just have to keep training ourselves to come back to the present, taking time to gaze, to stop and breathe, to wonder, to love. Those moments are the magic of life. Yes, there will be things we need to do for others, but we are of far more use to this troubled world when we become a still and loving presence than if we fill our life with “what-ifs”.

How to live now is the theme of the book: The Art of Not Doing

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Finding one’s centre is easy – and essential

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Finding one’s centreFinding one’s centre – to be at home with oneself – is the basis of a happy and fulfilled life. There is nowhere we have to go physically in order to find it. We are rarely in the wrong place; it is the mind, or rather our awareness, that is focused elsewhere. The wonderful Thich Nhat Hanh once said that there is no path to happiness. Happiness is the path. Once we find our centre, everything else naturally falls into place.

Coming back home

What does finding one’s centre mean in everyday life? We might hear someone say, “I need to find myself,” when what they really mean is that they are not happy and feel something has to change. When we feel like that, it is because our attention and awareness have become fragmented, resulting in feelings of fatigue and a general sense of dissatisfaction. Our energy, if not our essence itself, is scattered and depleted. On the outside, we may look much the same but, like a cracked vase, we can hold very little.

Go with the season

The winter is a particularly good time to do something about it because nature also tends to move inwards. Even the qi of the body is said to gravitate towards the bones in the colder months, as though consolidating and strengthening us before extending outwards in the spring. Going with the season’s flow of energy, it can be easier to allow the attention to settle so that we are more “at home” with ourselves.

The trouble with moths

Our sense of wellbeing depends on our mind and energy. These are influenced greatly by our environment, of course. The human being is not a closed system and we are not immune from modern life, which has little respect for our natural biorhythms, persistently clamouring to distract us. So many of us are drawn out of ourselves and into the world of electronic screens and the media, like moths fluttering around a light or a flame. Craving for the unreachable never ends well.

Time to stop

Inevitably, sometimes it all becomes too much. When it does, we need to take our attention off the busy world for a while. It won’t fall apart without us, so just stop. This is the crucial first step to being centred. Stop and breathe. It sounds simple, and it is. Enjoy the rhythm of the breath, feeling the belly rise and fall. Standing, sitting or lying down, enjoy just being as you are, where you are. To paraphrase Thich Nhat Hanh, there is nowhere you need to go because you have already arrived. This is being centred.

The Art of Not Doing – How to Achieve Inner Peace and a Clear Mind

I wish you a very happy, healthy and fulfilled 2022!

Andrew

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Fear of missing out – FOMO – and what to do about it

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fear of missing outThe fear of missing out, “FOMO” as the social media vernacular expresses it, is bandied about a great deal these days. This week, FOMO is particularly disruptive causing panic buying of fuel and shortages of commodities. Henry Ford sometimes gets the blame for this human tendency. Because of the saturation of the automobile market in the 1920s, he created changes in the designs of his cars so that people would want the latest model. Hey presto – desire created and, along with it, fear of being left out. I doubt very much that this phenomenon can be solely attributed to Mr. Ford. He and his advisers were no doubt cashing in on something that was already known. But that is the way advertising works – create a desire and with it comes the parallel fear of missing out.

This fear is like a pernicious disease

It is not an exaggeration to say that the fear of missing out is a disease. It literally puts us ill-at-ease and it is highly infectious. One day it is not there and the next, thanks to some ill-advised remarks by those who should know better, it spreads far more rapidly than covid ever did. “There is no need to panic buy” immediately creates a fear that there is. The result is bizarre human behaviour, rather like how the body reacts when exposed to an allergen, mistaking it for a virus. Society, already not being in the best state of health, suddenly becomes even more sick.

Don’t carry on, become calm

When fear arises, it creates all manner of disturbances in body and mind. The stress response kicks in and we feel very uncomfortable. It is difficult to think straight when we are like that. If we sit down to meditate, we may find that it is almost impossible to settle as we become aware of our increased heart rate and the strength of our pulse. The mind chases one thought after another. How can we become calm when we are like that?

meditation Dismiss the fiction

Our imagination of what the future might hold creates fear and upsets our equilibrium. But instead of thinking that our fear may become reality, it is perhaps far more helpful to remember that it is just a fiction we have created. It isn’t real – we made it up.

You are still here

If we can haul ourselves back to the present and notice whether we are breathing or not, we may be pleased to notice that we are. If we stick with it a little longer, we may notice that we haven’t died yet and that one breath follows another. In those few breaths, we don’t need to buy anything or become anything or anyone else. The fear of missing out is based on the fiction that we are not whole and that we need something from elsewhere to find it. We don’t.

This is not to advocate non-action but simply to see things as they really are. Then we can respond as and when we need to. It is when we live in an imaginary future world of dread that we completely miss out on living. Now, that is something to fear.

The Art of Not Doing

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Can we let go of needing to know?

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If there is one thing we can be certain of, especially now, it’s that nothing lasts for ever. The temporary nature of everything in the universe is scientific fact, of course, and central to most spiritual teachings.

Over the years, a number of people have said to me that they find the notion of impermanence quite depressing – yet it’s supposed to help us and cheer us up!

Nevertheless, conditioned as we are to aim for health, longevity and maybe prosperity, we can feel a bit wobbly and disconnected when everything familiar seems to be falling apart.

How much do we really need to know?

Feeling adrift, it is natural to look for something to hold onto. We are ruled by our minds and emotions, so that often comes in the form of seeking information – lots of it.

Isn’t it great that we seem to have almost limitless access to information? Well, not necessarily. Information is not the same as knowledge.

Real knowledge resides in the boundlessness of pure consciousness and is accessed not by facts but through stillness and clarity.

We have all probably experienced that clarity many times, even if just for a few seconds. It usually occurs when there is a gap in thinking that gives us an “aha” moment.

Aha – how about an information fast?

If the information we seek leads us a little closer to the experience of pure consciousness, that’s great. Information as education should do that.

The trouble with most of the news, theories, rumours and banalities of social media is that they do the opposite. They actually pull us away from our inner nature.

Instead of peacefulness and unity, the mind careers into divisiveness, analysing and judging. Once that begins, the process is very hard to stop. It is like having an itch that, once scratched, moves somewhere else and needs scratching again.

If your mind is not peaceful, why not try a news and social media fast for a few days? After the initial withdrawal symptoms, you may feel surprisingly better and upbeat.

More of this in The Art of Not Doing

Guided meditations

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