💎 Friday Gems (Waking Up, Nature of Thoughts, Moving Towards Darkness)
💎 Friday Gems (Waking Up, Nature of Thoughts, Moving Towards Darkness)
Thoughts don't come from anywhere, they don't go anywhere and in between they don't stop anywhere.
Happy Friday!
Meditation has been on my mind lately.
A friend of mine is dealing with a lot of anxiety and stress right now, so I suggested he give meditation a try. I started meditating when the pandemic hit after many unsuccessful tries and know how helpful it can be in times when we need some stability and relief from negative thoughts.
As I made the suggestion to my friend, I also realized that this was the perfect time for me to get back to my own meditation practice and explore it further.
So, today’s issue is focused on meditation, Zen, and mindfulness.
What does your meditation practice look like? Hit reply and let me know, or share it in the comments.
💎 Here are the gems I found this week:
The Waking Up App: Introductory Meditation Course (Great for beginners!)
The fleeting nature of thoughts
Moving towards what we dislike
A gem of a quote by Peter Matthiessen on Zen.
A gem of a reflection
The Waking Up App: Introductory Meditation Course
Source: Waking Up App
Do you remember the early days of the pandemic and how it suddenly turned our everyday lives upside down? Fear and uncertainty were all around us inside, invading our homes and isolating us from our friends and families.
Those were challenging times for us all. Being locked up in our homes and facing an uncertain future was unnerving. It was in that dark moment of need I decided to give meditation a try.
I had been following Sam Harris, author and creator of the Waking Up app, on X for some time and learned about the app through his posts so I decided to give it a try.
Being new to meditation, as in anything in life, can feel overwhelming at first. Where do I start? What do I do? There are more questions than answers. Luckily or with careful intention on Sam Harris’s part, the app has an introductory course, which made it easy to follow along and focus on one session at a time.
I just needed to make the time and show up for each session to follow along with the guided sessions by Sam.
As a beginner meditator, the guided sessions were my lifeline. They helped me start my journey to mindfulness, meditation, and discovering the world of Zen.
This is why I recommend the Waking Up app to those who are looking to start and are not sure where even to begin.
The introductory meditation course is structured in a step-by-step way over the course of weeks to help you practice and understand the why behind it so you can incorporate the insights into your daily life; after all, if we can’t apply what we learn to make a real change our lives, then we’re just passing time.
As Sam Harris puts it,
Meditation isn’t a quick fix. It’s a practice, a growing perspective.
So if you’re looking to live a more examined and fulfilling life, give the Waking Up app a try.
You can get a free 30-day pass to see if it works for you.
Feel free to reach out with any questions! ✊🏽
The Fleeting Nature of Thoughts
Source: Michael Taft
One of the most helpful insights I had as I started meditating was that I am not my thoughts. Although I struggle to realize this daily, the thoughts I have are not my reality; they are just thoughts that will come and go.
As I was researching mindfulness and meditation, I fell down a rabbit hole and was so glad I arrived at Michael Taft’s website, which led me to this video, which led to this empowering insight Michael shared about the nature of thoughts,
Thoughts don't come from anywhere
They don't go anywhere
In between they don't stop anywhere
How can our thoughts hold so much power over us when we don’t even know where they come from or where they go? As it turns out, it’s when we grasp at them and hold on to them we end up lending them credence.
In the video below, I start off after an hour-long meditation session where Michael talks about the idea of ‘emptiness of thought’ and shares the experience of thoughts.
This is a powerful and empowering concept to break free from the tyranny of our thoughts.
Moving Towards What We Dislike
We have a natural tendency to push away things we don't like within us.
What if we moved towards them and approached those experiences with curiosity to better understand the reasons why they appeared in the first place?
Can we move towards what triggers us?
Can we move towards what we fear?
Can we move towards what we don't know?
Can we move towards what we dislike?
There is an opportunity for growth within us by becoming curious about what our negative emotions, reactions, thoughts, and feelings are trying to convey to us.
That is the opportunity if we become curious about the darkness within.
A Gem of a Quote
I just started rereading The Snow Leopard by Peter Matthiessen. A thoroughly engrossing, vividly detailed book about Peter Matthiessen’s expedition to Nepal in 1973 to study the Bharal, a rare blue sheep native to the high Himalayas. Peter was also in search of a Lama in the Crystal Mountain. Throughout the journey, Peter also explores his inner landscape and deepens his understanding of reality, suffering, impermanence, and beauty.
This quote from the introduction to the book by Pico Iyer stood out to me,
The central feature of the practice of meditation and hard work known as Zen is that, as Matthiessen says, it "has no patience with 'mysticism,' far less the occult."
Nor does it have any time for moralism, the prescriptions or distortions we would impose on the world, obscuring it from our view. It asks, it insists rather, that we take this moment for what it is, undis-tracted, and not cloud it with needless worries of what might have been or fantasies of what might come to be. It is, essentially, a training in the real, what lies beyond our ideas (and they are only ideas of good and bad.
"The Universe itself is the scripture of Zen," as Matthiessen puts it, and the discipline initiates its practitioners in the clear, unambiguous realization that what is, is; the world (enlightenment, happiness) is just that lammergeier in the sky, this piece of dung, that churning river, all of which have life and blood as our perceptions or ideas of them do not.
A Gem of a Reflection
Can you be with what is here right now for you, both the good and the bad, without needing to change it, grasp at it, cling to it, push it away, or wrestle with it?
Just allow it and see what unfolds.
I’m thankful that you read this far.
Have a fantastic weekend!
Rizwan
P.S. Please don't hesitate to hit replay and say hello!✌🏽