I’ve been very interested by a story on the BBC which details the findings of scientists who are studying meditation. You can find the article here. It seems that the days of waiting for hard scientific evidence for the positive effects of meditation may well be over!

As a person who considers meditation to be an absolutely valuable practice this is music to my ears, I notice that they suggest it may help people struggling with substance abuse, and promotes happiness and enthusiasm.

I can certainly relate to that, I know how I feel when I miss my practice for a few days, I feel that my creativity and ability to engage properly with the world declines without meditation.

How do you feel your meditation practice benefits you? Drop me a comment.

I had a dangerous experience on the way to work today. Part of doing meditation is having old emotions released, I personally have found that it doesn’t always happen during the sitting though. This happened to me today while driving, a blast of anger and impatience that almost caused an accident.

So I took a look round Blackle and found something very interesting. Most talk of meditation and emotions is in terms that I personally consider to be less than ideal, the words ‘control’ and ‘cure’ are used and I personally think that this isn’t the way to approach this.

I feel that the word ‘control’ can lead to repression, something I have been guilty of in the past, that’s not the way to go. I have similar feelings about the idea of “cure”, as if emotion is a disease of some sort, something to get rid of.

Emotions are a part of our being and while we may not like or feel proud of some of them, they are not an enemy to be controlled or a malady to be removed, they’re an integral part of who we are. I’ve found that the best method is to allow them to arise, then try to observe them, nothing more, just observe. The act of observing moves you a little more in the third party and allows you to let go of the emotion when appropriate. This sounds a heck of a lot easier than it is, mind you, but I’ve found that a regular meditation practice stands you in good stead.

That, for me is the ticket, that releasing. Think about it, if you’re trying to control or cure or dominate your emotions, then you’re not letting them go when they’re no longer appropriate; that sounds like a sure way to cause emotional problems to me.

Last weekend, I was fortunate enough to be invited on my Tai Chi clubs’ annual retreat to a place called Unstone Grange. The itinerary varies from year to year, but includes plenty of Tajiquan, some meditation and some drinking. A recipe for a good weekend!

Unstone Grange is a country house set in the beautiful Derbyshire countryside. It’s owned by a charity who maintain it and run it for organisations and clubs to hold retreats, though there have been weddings here as well. Below, you can see the view from the drive, followed by the view from the side of the house. You can see the attic dorm I was in, in the first photo, it’s the one on the left hand side.

As I hinted earlier, we slept in single sex dormitories, which are located on and above the first floor, I was located up in the attic.

The break was just what I needed, just when I needed it, Unstone Grange is an amazingly peaceful place. It’s an amazing experience for townie like myself to do outdoor Tai Chi practise surrounded by rolling countryside instead of houses. Doing some early morning Chi Kung in the clear country air was a fantastic way to start the day!

Unstone Grange has it’s own gardens where they grow their own organic herbs and vegetables, they also run courses on organic gardening. The Deer Tribe have their own area as well, you can see the TeePees in the lower photo below.

In addition, it was good to get the chance to talk about eastern philosophy and Zen Buddhism, the Zen guys in the group gave themselves away as soon as the guided meditation started!

Finally, I got the chance to experience a Reiki healing courtesy of a friend in Kaiming. I was privately a little sceptical, but it did the trick, and I was able to feel the flow of Qi into some of the worst hit areas of my head and neck. For someone who has always kept a sceptical view of such things, it was an eye opener.

Needless to say, I’ll be going back next year!

Thanks to Peter from The Buddha Diaries, I’ve realised that there is another easy way to install Sitquietly. I’m kicking myself a bit for not realising it sooner and I’ve updated the Sitquietly page with that.

Thanks for the nudge Peter!

Just short one this time, I’ve update Sitquietly to V1.0.1. Nothing major, just the short list of changes below. You can find Sitquietly and the links to the latest version on the right hand side of the blog.

Well, I think I’ve earned a cup of tea!

V1.0.1
——-
Added contact details to readme.
Small code cleanups.
Changed contact details in about dialog.
Added contact details and changelog to the online help.

I was thinking over the weekend about our habit of building abstractions and structures on top of things. For example you can buy meditation products, from CDs to incense to statues and more, some of it at great expense. Very interesting and some of the statues are very nice pieces of work, no argument. But do we really need all these trappings? In my view, the answer is ‘no’, in many cases the structures and trappings that we put round our activities can cloud our purpose, it’s as if we’re trying to bribe the universe into giving us success without realising that we’re getting in our own way!

I use meditation as an example, but I have no doubt that anyone can think of their own example or will certainly happen across one. Take meditation, in my case I’m beginning to work with zazen now, but in general I’ve found that what matters is your approach to it both before and during your practice. The effort to make a regular habit of it, combined with even a small amount of basic guidance from an experienced instructor is worth more than all the robes, CDs and incense in the world and will make a great deal more difference.

Meditation should be a simple affair, but I’ve seen meditation exercises in which you actually have to remember what to do next, it should be a thing of simplicity but we’ve strayed off and made it (as with many other things) into something that’s needlessly complex.  When you think of your own example, I don’t doubt you’ll see the same.

Personally, I think the simple approach yields greater benefits.

I’ve been a little busy in the background for a while now, programming, refining, testing. The result is my first program written for Linux. It’s called Sitquietly, and it’s a simple meditation timer.

You can see its’ page along the top of my site, I’ve been using it for my own meditation sessions, I think it works well enough to be shared out. I hope to get it into Ubuntu Universe as soon as I can, and I’ll be continuing development of it as I have a few things planned, including selectable chime sounds and maybe even background music. I certainly need to develop the online help and may even throw in a few basic meditation exercises to get people started.

Please give me feedback and let me know what you think, enjoy!

I was doing my meditation practice yesterday, when a wave of anger swept through me.  I was remembering an incident from my college days when I had anger directed at me for no real reason.  I tried to practise loving kindness for a little while and the feeling left me.

It occurs to me that we clutch our anger to us,  even to the smallest insult, do we think it somehow validates us?  It’s important to realise that though someone may have hurled angry emotions at us in the past, indeed they will probably do so in the future, holding onto those things is harmful.  In order to progress we need to let these things go, I’m finding meditation to be a fantastic tool for that.

I’m amazed by how much we keep getting in our own way sometimes.

It’s as if there’s a little gremlin in our heads that sets us up to fail, constantly undermining us and taking any excuse to help us procrastinate. One of the things I’ve learned from practicing meditation is that it’s possible to turn that gremlin to your advantage.

It’s like Tai Chi, you use it’s force against it, in meditation you use the fact your mind is wandering to remind you “Hang on, I should focusing!”. So, why not use the fact your gremlin is acting up to remind you that generally, you’re a lot more capable than you give yourself credit for?