Darrell Calkins's Blog - Posts Tagged "alive"
The word wakefulness is a synonym for mindfulness...
The word wakefulness is a synonym for mindfulness. Wakefulness is described by the American physician Jon Kabat-Zinn as a state of mindful awareness. By being fully awake in the present moment, Kabat-Zinn suggests that we can live fully, with great awareness and intent, which has the potential to give us and those around us an improved sense of peace, joy and well-being.
"Mindfulness is often spoken of as the heart of Buddhist meditation. It's not about Buddhism, but about paying attention. That's what all meditation is, no matter what tradition or particular technique is used.
In Asian languages, the word for mind and the word for heart are the same. So if you're not hearing mindfulness in some deep way as heartfulness, you're not really understanding it. Compassion and kindness are intrinsically woven into it. You could think of mindfulness as wise and affectionate attention.
Mindfulness is not about getting anywhere else - it's about being where you are and knowing it. We are talking about awareness itself: a whole repertoire of ways of knowing that virtually all come through the senses.
My definition of healing is coming to terms with things as they are, so that you can do whatever you can to optimize your potential, whether you are living with chronic pain or having a baby. You can't control the universe, so mindfulness involves learning to cultivate wisdom and equanimity- not passive resignation-in the face of what Zorba the Greek called the full catastrophe of the human condition."
Jon Kabat-Zinn
"Mindfulness is often spoken of as the heart of Buddhist meditation. It's not about Buddhism, but about paying attention. That's what all meditation is, no matter what tradition or particular technique is used.
In Asian languages, the word for mind and the word for heart are the same. So if you're not hearing mindfulness in some deep way as heartfulness, you're not really understanding it. Compassion and kindness are intrinsically woven into it. You could think of mindfulness as wise and affectionate attention.
Mindfulness is not about getting anywhere else - it's about being where you are and knowing it. We are talking about awareness itself: a whole repertoire of ways of knowing that virtually all come through the senses.
My definition of healing is coming to terms with things as they are, so that you can do whatever you can to optimize your potential, whether you are living with chronic pain or having a baby. You can't control the universe, so mindfulness involves learning to cultivate wisdom and equanimity- not passive resignation-in the face of what Zorba the Greek called the full catastrophe of the human condition."
Jon Kabat-Zinn
"It is up to us to devise our own rituals. I feel that ritual rises from the earth..."
"It is up to us to devise our own rituals. I feel that ritual rises from the earth. If we slow down and listen to the land we are on, we will know what to do. Our rituals must speak to the particular ways we've been shaped, or misshaped, by our culture. One of the values of ritual is that it has the capacity to derange us, to shake us out of old forms. We need that derangement, because the current arrangement isn't working. We have ceremonies, but we come out of those pretty much the same as when we went in. You're supposed to emerge from a ritual wondering what the hell just happened."
~ Francis Weller
Continue reading on the Darrell Calkins CobaltSaffron Blog...
~ Francis Weller
Continue reading on the Darrell Calkins CobaltSaffron Blog...
