The Zen Diarist

Author website of Andrew Marshall

Archives

Categories

Mirror, mirror in my head – the biggest liar of them all?

by Leave a Comment

The magic mirror in the tale of Snow White knew a thing or two. “Mirror, mirror on the wall: Who is the fairest of them all?” is not a question that is asked in our house. Our mirrors are not magic at all. In fact, as far as possible, we avoid them unless absolutely necessary. They don’t hide anything. They just throw back a reflection of “how it is”. But what about our internal mirror?

mirror of consciousnessThe mirror of consciousness

It is virtually impossible to describe consciousness in words, so the old teachers often used analogies. Consciousness is like a mirror, they would say, because it simply reflects what appears to it. A more modern analogy is that of a cinema or television screen. The screen does nothing. It is just the medium on which images appear.

So where do hate, love, anger and kindness come from?

There is far more kindness in the world than there is cruelty. But the message we keep seeing and hearing is that the whole planet is a disaster zone. Instead of seeing things as they are, we are influenced by what other people tell us or have told us in the past.

Our mirror is tainted. Smudges and scratches on the glass distort what we see. Not only do we see a narrow, partial picture rather than the whole, we become excited or upset at what we think we see.

Placing a judgment on everything is pretty exhausting. No wonder so many people become depressed. We need to work on it.

Start polishingpolishing mirror

How do we clean the internal mirror, the one in our head? After all, if everything we see is wrong, surely it is just going to get worse?

Okay, it will take quite a while to have a highly polished reflector. But we can start the process right now. The immediate thing is not to add to the distortion and dirty marks that are already there. We simply interrupt the cycle of making judgments. (That may also necessitate changing our newspaper!) We stop shouting “hooray” or “yah boo” at everything we see or read about.

A mirror of peace

Eventually the liar will give up – because no-one’s listening. Accepting things as they are, and importantly not necessarily condoning them, we begin to develop a mirror of peace. And surely that can only be a good thing.

Thanks for reading this. If you liked it, you may enjoy my book The Art of Not Doing

Evening workshop 5th June 2017 in Staffordshire “Pacifying the Mind”. Details here.

Related posts:

  1. Knowledge can be seriously bad for your health
  2. Action: Why everything you do and say is more important than you think
  3. Life: sometimes we can forget why we’re here
  4. Lies: why they are bad for your health

World view: why what we see has to change

by Leave a Comment

There is a truism that says the world is as we are. After all, the only world we can ever know is what we experience through our senses, our perceptions, beliefs, judgements and so on. How the world is to anyone depends on what is sometimes called their view. Due to the vacillations of the mind and the emotions, that view changes many times a day.

Our view is murky: it needs clarity

Our view of the world, however informed we think we might be, is World viewinevitably wrong. If we are driving a car, the view of the road will depend on a number of factors. The windscreen needs to be kept clear, our eyesight good and our focus and attention must be on where we are going.

Similarly, in life our view of what is in front of us must also be clear. That requires work on the heart as well as the head. Unless heart and mind are crystal clear and wide open, what we see is bound to be a distortion of reality.

Let go and let your heart melt

There are two essential areas above all else that affect how we react to the world. The first is how we see ourselves. The other is how we view other people. These are like two sides of a coin – each necessarily depends on the other.

Our heart needs to be soft and relaxed, at ease and accepting. If we are angry with the world or want to escape from it, it’s a sign we have some work to do.

Love and let live

We are not separate from the rest of the universe, but that is how we normally act and react. Our view of other people as being separate from each other and, indeed, separate from us is just as wrong. It is an ancient, entrenched view – and a false one. The cause of most of humanity’s problems lies here. We are all of the same essence, different forms but the same. If we know this, we can love and let live.

A gradual process

To change the way we see things is an enormous step. It is also the single most important and significant thing we can ever do. Because it is so enormous, we have to undertake it carefully and remain focused. There will be countless times when we feel we have fallen backwards. We mustn’t give up when that happens, otherwise we will simply “revert to type”.

Just water

When we begin, we may be surprised how stuck we are in our outlook. It can be a little frightening. It seems easier to hold onto our traditional view. But once we become aware of our rigidity, we can begin to soften it and gradually let our old beliefs melt. Then we will feel better. The world is not an insurmountable problem. Ice is, after all, just water once it has thawed.

This post based on an extract from my second book, Awakening Heart. Please share it if you feel it is relevant.

Evening workshop 5th June 2017 in Staffordshire “Pacifying the Mind”. Details here.

Related posts:

  1. Heart: why we have to listen to what it says
  2. Passion is life: why we are dead if we don’t have it
  3. Mindful living isn’t easy but it’s worth it
  4. Light lies ahead – we just have to see it

Passion is life: why we are dead if we don’t have it

by 2 Comments

Passion is not something we get very excited about very often. Let me re-phrase that. Passion is something we don’t get excited about often enough. Why? Because without passion there is no heat, no fire and no life. A person who chooses not to be passionate about life is like smouldering coal or damp firewood. The energy is there, inside – but produces little warmth. When we are like that, we are half-asleep. Something in us is slumbering and needs waking up.

Passion is light, life and fire

When we are enthusiastic about something, it is as if we have thrown a switch. The lights come on, our eyes sparkle and our skin seems to glow. We feel good, don’t we? When we feel passionate, it is as though we have become more alive. Our speech is more animated and we have the power to motivate. Passion is good! Or is it? Is it just trouble ahead?

passion fire

Emotions are not bad

I have met many people over the years who want to become “more spiritual”. In their quest, they have come across teachings that describe emotions as being problematical. So following that logic, they decide that they need to train themselves into overcoming them. Or avoiding them. They aim to become the colourless sap of the tree instead of being the glorious effulgence of the tree itself. The error there is that if we do that, instead of allowing consciousness to flow, we tend to block it. In blocking the flow of consciousness, we also obstruct the natural flow of energy in and around us.

Love life and all is good

To have passion for life is not to let the emotions run riot. Rather, it is about letting our natural inner light do its job of illuminating what we do. And all we have to do is be interested and love. We don’t need to make a drama out of mindfulness or turn it into a tough discipline. Just loving what we do, being genuinely interested in others and our world will naturally generate mindfulness. Let the awareness expand and fill the senses. Be natural, be life, be alive. It’s so much better than being dead.

This theme will be explored further in our evening workshop Mind – The Way to Bliss on Monday 3rd April 2017. More information.

Read more on passion in life in the book Awakening Heart: The Blissful Path to Self-Realisation

Related posts:

  1. World view: why what we see has to change
  2. Light lies ahead – we just have to see it
  3. Love: why cosmic glue stops us falling apart
  4. How to live softly with ease and help the planet

Energy: how to improve it for personal and spiritual development

by Leave a Comment

fiery energy

Energy matters almost as much as our thoughts.

In our quest for peace, clarity and enlightenment, we cannot afford to ignore the energy factor. If the energy of the body is free, the body is aligned and the nervous system is in good condition, our consciousness becomes clearer and more at ease.

Energy and posture

Many teachings on meditation stress the importance of keeping the body in good condition. Maintaining a straight back when sitting for meditation is an example of posture being important. We know from our own experience that if we do things that are not good for the body – maybe overworking, eating late or getting insufficient sleep – we can feel pretty rubbish. Unwittingly, we cloud our consciousness and stir it up.

Winds that change us

This is partly to do with the nervous system and the brain but is also due to the fact that what we call the mind is a play of energy. The Tibetan tradition refers to such movements as winds. This term which helps us to understand that if there is movement in one place, there is an effect in another. There are winds or subtle energy movements both in the body and in the mind. Movement in one causes movement in the other.

Presence, energy and breath

What does this have to do with mindfulness and presence? Two things:

Firstly, by practising mindfulness and continually bringing ourselves back to the breath and to the present moment, the mind becomes calmer. As a result, the energy of the body changes so that we actually begin to feel better. The winds within the body flow more easily and there is less tension and less stress.

Better sleep and improved health

Sleep improves as we become more settled within ourselves. We focus more clearly and our actions during the day are more effective. As the body becomes more comfortable, health tends to be better. With the improved sense of well-being, the body becomes a more supportive vehicle for our consciousness. We work with the mind, which improves the body, and the body, in turn, supports the mind and consciousness. We have more physical and mental energy.

Being fully present

energy listeningThe second point is that with energy comes presence. We can only be fully present if we gather our energy. If someone is speaking to us, we can only listen properly if we offer the speaker our full presence. That means we are focused but also relaxed and receptive. Our consciousness is clear, we are connecting with the other person and with what they are wanting to communicate to us.

The same principle applies to absolutely everything we do. We have to give our full presence to it, not by throwing every last drop of energy we have at the task in hand but by being relaxed and applying ourselves in a balanced way.

Mindfulness is balance, and vice versa

So balanced energy, a balanced life and presence all arise naturally from the practice of mindfulness. Then we hit the vital point by sowing the seeds for a happy, purpose-filled life.

From The Art of Not Doing

Please share this article if you like it.

Related posts:

  1. Action: Why everything you do and say is more important than you think
  2. Rest: how to get what you really need
  3. Breathe! How to make yourself come alive
  4. Change is brilliant, no matter how bad it is – possibly

Light lies ahead – we just have to see it

by Leave a Comment

Light is a real tonic, isn’t it, especially as now when the days are short and often dark? The world of humanity seems to be in something of a dark place at the moment. We need some light, some joy and something to look forward to.

Light up an ostrich today!

Ostriches are extraordinary birds. They are reputed (wrongly) to hide their heads in the sand when trouble approaches.light ostrich

I know a number of people, and you probably do, too, who refuse to read newspapers or watch or listen to news on television or radio. There is merit in that because what we are served up as a picture of reality in the media largely focuses on what is wrong. Apart from being negative in nature, there is the added factor of news manipulation, so we don’t even know if it is correct anyway.

So we can probably agree that news bulletins are generally neither very bright nor uplifting. But if we only want good news or none, and choose to ignore the existence of human suffering, maybe we too have become an ostrich.

We become what we digest – in the mind as well as the body

The old adage is “we are what we eat”. We know that what we take in as food and drink affects the body. It’s not just what we swallow, either. What we breathe affects us, as statistics on poor air quality and health clearly show.

But in many respects, the mind is more important than the body because it dictates everything we say or do. It is responsible for everything we think and all that we make of our world. The mind largely governs our feelings and our moods – it controls our life. It needs light.

The media is an aspect of our environment

Environment is much more than our physical surroundings. Our mental environment is just as important. If we keep taking in information that is predominantly negative, there is a danger that we could become gloomy, too. At the very least, it will sap our energy.

Positive people carriers of light?

Positive people tend to uplift us. They create a light environment. They may be a pain at times, too, but usually only because their lightness and cheerfulness accentuate our shadows.

light aheadEveryone has light within them. The difference between a positive person and a negative one is how that light manifests. The former carries light and passes it on. The latter chooses not to.

There is more light than dark

The world is not Trump, Putin, Brexit, the NHS or anything else. The world is as we are – as we perceive it. If we look around, there is far more goodness being done by ordinary people than there is bad. By making a habit of seeing that, we create a positive mental environment for ourselves which affects those around us. Our words and behaviour reflect increasing amounts of light. Isn’t that why we are here? Happy new year!

More on social responsibility and the need for love in society can be found in Awakening Heart: The Blissful Path to Self-Realisation. If you fancy a long read, I recommend Matthieu Ricard’s Altruism.

Related posts:

  1. How to live softly with ease and help the planet
  2. Passion is life: why we are dead if we don’t have it
  3. World view: why what we see has to change
  4. Love: why cosmic glue stops us falling apart