Wise Heart Way

Principal #8: Mindfulness of the body allows us to live fully. It brings healing, wisdom, and freedom.

Practice: Walking Meditation

Jon Kabat-Zinn: Science of Mindfulness

Very helpful for beginners like me. Recent Speaking of Faith podcast: Jon Kabat-Zinn: Science of Mindfulness

not fixed

I'm behind on my Wise Heart reading, but even farther behind on my posting here. Miss Racing Thoughts is always challenged to make action catch up to intention. So I am backtracking a bit  to Chapter 4, The Colorings of Consciousness and the practice: Recognizing Mental States.

As the Wise Hearts know, I've been doing group therapy for a little over a year now. The term "therapy" rankles me. "Therapy" connotes something negative, something that needs to be "fixed." I have always been the person who needs to be "fixed" -- in my own mind, and in the minds of my significant others. No wonder I  always dragged around a feeling of heaviness and suffered a low-grade depression.  Now I look at my drive to understand myself in a different and more positive way. And -- glory be -- Buddhist psychology supports me. 

Principle #7: Mindful attention to any experience is liberating. Mindfulness brings perspective, balance, and freedom.

Practice: Establishing a Daily Meditation

Principle #3: When we shift attention from experience to the spacious consciousness that knows, wisdom arises.

Practice: The River of Sound

Compassion of Community

Along with my daughters I went to our local women's theater the Brava to see a play "Song for Coretta."  It featured five women of different generations and their individual reasons for coming to ta funeral. On the program was a quote from Coretta King, "the greatness of a community is most accurately measured by the compassionate actions of its members."  Thank you Wise Heart Way members, I love being part of our little community. 

In a larger community of Catholics, I joined a weekly retreat at the Jesuit high school.  I felt a kinship with the others who said they came to figure out just what it is they do believe.  I can see that mindfulness is the holy spirit, shining the light. (The audience sang along with the cast of the play "This Little Light of Mine" which very much moved me). I see that acting with compassion  and the interconnectedness of all beings is related to what St Ignatius says in doing everything for "the greater glory of God."   We are at week two of the retreat, and I still don't like reading  passages from the old testament.  I think I'll stick to St Ignatius and Buddhism.