Another day about to go by, then it will be the new year. How time flies! People look back their life this time of year, so what did you find? For me, I need inspiration so I can keep going and move forward. This forms the basis of my resolution for 2012. Here's my inspirations and resolution.
INSPIRATIONS
I was inspired by Tersesa Hsu and Ben Breedlove in the last quarter of 2011. I had also gone to "hell and heaven" at work in November 2011. These are opportunities, however, for me to reflect and take a step back. and learnt about my strength, which are all good and useful experiences. I also learnt from others. I read about the life and death of Tersesa and Ben, both of which inspired me. Strangely, I see subtle similarities between what they encountered and faced, when compared to mine. I think if we can train ourselves to face whatever we encountered in our daily life like facing the last day of our life, maintaining peace and calm (which is attainable through meditation) we are going to do many great things (benefit self and others, obviously i am not there yet) while alive.
My decision to take up Meditation is one of the most important I made in recent years. This step forward opens up new doors for the cultivation of a better self. I knew about the Brahma Kumans Meditation locally and attended the entire full course. Basically this school of thought about meditation (yes, there are a few ways to meditate, each based on individual belief and philosophy) preaches the importance of a peaceful mind as that is where the purest soul supposed to be. This approach is interesting, because it has similarity with Buddhism in the way it preaches its belief, but it starts with the emphasis of a peaceful mind, while Buddhism may start by stressing the importance of being kind, compassion (the Buddha's quality) and then a bit later meditation, at least that is how I was taught back in my school's day. I didn't find this contradict with my Buddhistic belief (you have to attend the whole course to understand why) and I am finding constant practices of meditation has benefited me slowly.
NEW YEAR RESOLUTION
I didn't find myself practising meditations as much as I would like to. Meditation is not as easy as it seems, as it appears. The important question remains, are you convinced this is going to work for you? I guess I can see the importance of being a peaceful soul and also to develop it as a habit. However, you also want to make that a "good quality" habit. For example if we learnt to develop brushing our teeth before sleep every night as a habit, we still could brush our teeth the wrong way, that won't make it better. If we then develop meditation as a habit, we still could do it wrong. While, attending drop-in meditation sessions may be a way to help enhance and improve on our meditations, seeing the benefits it gives is also a good motivating force to drive one to continue meditating. So far, meditation appears to me like an anchor, just like the breathing technique suggested by Ross Harris's "The Happiness Trap".
Mediation gives me a space to be on my own and kept silent for at least 10 minutes a day, and then after that, I get on with my daily routines, and it did make me feel like the 10 minutes had helped me take things a little easy and focus as I carried out each and every task during the day. I supposed that is what meditation is meant to be, and perhaps if now I meditate a bit longer, the effect on my thoughts would be different? It will be interesting to find out. Meditation is empowering. I must change my mindset towards meditation to get the most of it, still making sure I take one step a time, hopefully that help me effectively dealing with the up and down of life Happy and Fruitful New Year 2012 to all. :D
6 comments:
Hi Kai,
Good to know you have such positive feedback on meditation. I always feel that meditating is something really difficult. I don't like to sit still and close my eyes. But then I realised that I can do it before going to sleep. I will lay on my bed, close my eyes and chant. Not sure if this is accepted as a way of meditating, but I feel good doing so. :)
Hi Siew Eng
The meditation I practiced not required you to close your eyes, just some background music, haha! it only requires your mind to be as empty as possible, do nothing, just sit and let your mind "rest", simple as that. It focuses on the mind and as peaceful as possible, I guess i see some effects slowly. The outcome is to let you be calm and take things easily and de-stressed. I tried doing this before i slept and then i get too tired and effectively i slept lol, but if i didn't fall asleep for that 10 mins, i get very alert throughout the night and sleep very few hours. Now I try to do in the morning, seems better :D. Thanks for sharing
Inspirations are external factors that push you forward. What if one day you discover that they are not present to help you, what you gonna do? Internal factors are more critical as you don't need to search for it. They are inside you. They are the foundations of strength. Your subconscious is forever your soul mate who inspires you (positively) wherever you are. It can be your best (negative) soul mate if you constantly feed negative ingredients into it. As said, heaven and help are just fine line apart.
hello Anonymous, thanks for this. Reading about real life stories of people is a very powerful experience and inspired people, provided they are not overly exaggerated and that you know what you are looking for. This is different from reading self-help book, which often tends to be "too mechanical", giving you steps to follow and encourage people to "take the easy way". I suggest you go and read a novel, indulge yourselves in story characters and feel about the life of the characters.I am sure you will experience a different form of inspiration
:) I have already done that many years ago. I dun really like novels unless they are based on real life experiences. In fact, our life in this world is already a novel and it could act as a self help book to others. It's free too cuz we dun demand for money when we share with them. By sharing, we have already made an act of kindness as well as a giving to others. Still, self motivation is better, we dun rely too much on others to keep us going. :)
I love novel, novel is a form of narrative, that reflects the author's view of life, you can learn something, not just the writing style and poetic way of describing emotion, which I can relate to. They say you can discover diamond in rubbish, and I do find novel serves a purpose for me, different to some "self-help" book, novel needs you to be patient, yes, patient is the key, not "quick fix". But then we are all different and have different needs, as long as we know what we want AND what we wish for, we get there one day. All the best! :D
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