A Philosopher of ancient Greece before the time of Socrates, named Heraclitus, used to profess that everything in the Universe is in constant flux and that nothing remains the same. “You cannot step in the same river twice” Heraclitus used to say. This is because all the observable world and even the imperceptible one is changing all the time even if it may appear stationary or permanent from our limited subjective observation.

This is true in so many levels and has been echoed in many philosophies and folk wisdom across cultures and centuries all the way down to modern science. The physical world is in constant movement. Matter and energy is exchanged from one place to the other. Even our own bodies never remain the same. As we grow  each and every atom in our body is changed many times and replaced by new ones. In a way you can say that the body you have now is completely different than  the one you had 5 years ago although it looks more or less the same.

Everything Must Go

Nothing stays the same. This is something that we all observe as time passes by, sometimes to our dismay or anxiety because we cannot come to grips with  change, loss or drastically new things.

We all get through that moment in life when we ponder and reflect back on our past and realize that so many things have irreversibly changed or come to an  end. Of course, aging is one of the most obvious signs although not every one is affected by aging in the same way.

It doesn’t mean that we always get nostalgic or panicky when we look back at our past. We get a lot of nice memories of wonderful moments we passed with loved  ones or friends in lovely places or in special episodes of our lives. But there are other times where we get attached to our past or those happier moments in  life and so we end up getting all emotional especially when the present gets a bit tough or the future is more uncertain than usual. As a line from one of  U2′s old song goes “We glorify the past when the future dries up“.

The Illusion of Permanence

This is normal but can haunt us in more extreme situations. So what is the remedy?

Nostalgia, attachment to the past or fear of change all point to a common, deeper problem: our perspective on permanence.

It is a natural part of our cognitive and mental makeup to attribute permanence to objects or events otherwise we would never make much sense of our  environment. Since we are developing as toddlers we learn that the same object can persist through time and hence learn to recognize it through its  unchanging features and attribute a fixed identity to it. As we color objects or events with emotional overtones, our view of permanence or impermanence,  continuity or loss take on a new dimension of meaning. This is where emotional attachment comes in.

Buddhist philosophy teaches that emotional attachments to things or events, together with ignorance and desire are the root of all human suffering. I tend to  agree with this. So much unhappiness can come out of attachment. In fact Buddhism (the little I know of it at least) recommends meditating on impermanence to  its followers. You might have seen in some documentary a ‘sand painting’ made by Tibetan Buddhist monks. Usually it’s an intricate geometric design made by  colored sand in the form of a Mandala. After spending many back-breaking hours creating the piece of art, the monks blow or wipe the sand away the very  second they finish it. crazy? Not really. The significance of it is that everything is impermanent so you better get used to it or you’ll suffer.

When we realize that everything is impermanent and accept with our heart that everything we know, possess, value, love, hold dear or hang on to will come to  an end, we are able to face the ever changing world fearlessly and afresh.

The Power of  Non-Attachment

But what does it mean to accept impermanence or live your life unattached? Does it mean that you cannot love, take care of your dear ones or keep something  if you like it? Not at all. This is where we can easily fall for half truths or falsehoods. On the contrary, living unattached means that you can value, love  or appreciate something for what it really is without the illusions we create in our heads and without being held in chains to the object such as that our  happiness or sorrow depend on it. This is the great irony of it all. We think it’s perfectly human and normal to be in that situation (we even epitomize it  as quintessential human subjectivity and sensitivity) when in fact it means living unconscious and enslaved to your frivouous emotions.

Liberation and freedom means to break free from the spell of illusion and awaken to see things in perspective without being overpowered by emotional and  subjective distortions. It means loving with more power, strength and focus. When you love something or someone without attachment or the constant fear of  losing it, there is more authenticity and power to it. It feels like vibrating at a higher level. There is more clarity and less obsessions or expectation. It’s quality caring or quality loving.

I know it may sound contradictory or paradoxical to some. I won’t blame anyone becuase it runs counter to what we were always made to believe. The truth is  always a big pain in the ass.

when I look at my beautiful two year old daughter as she is hopping happily around the place and beaming with life and joy, I always get that unavoidable  thought in my head saying: “Alas, what a perfect moment yet so impermanent. Kids grow so fast and this will be just a fleeting memory soon“. Then I always  think back at that thought: “It is beautiful because it is impermanent. (The Japanese culturally recognize this sense of aesthetic that is why such things as  the cherry blossom are so valued as beautiful because they are ephemeral) Instead of wasting your time complaining about it shut up and enjoy it. Cherish  the moment and live it piece by piece!“.

No related posts.

Photo by premasagar

Your brain is the most precious and advanced thing you’ll ever own. Unfortunately it does not come with an owner’s manual. Nobody has one and it is nowhere to be found or purchased.

Still, even if we don’t have a technical manual explaining in detail how it works and how to maintain it in optimal condition, there are still ways to access it and reprogram it.

I am using computer-related metaphors here not because I am upholding the mind-computer analogy. That is so 70s and 80s. Yet the metaphor rather serves to  remind us that most of our beliefs, ideas, attitudes, perspectives and reasoning have been conditioned or programmed by our immediate experiences, society and circumstances. A good part of this programming might have taken place without an intention or design and some of it might be of no benefit for us but on the contrary limiting and hindering us from authentically growing.

Meditation is and has always been the best available method for reprogramming the human mind. It has been proven to work for thousands of years. Moreover it is free, always available, requires no resources and is highly effective.

The benefits are numerous and varied ranging from reducing stress, improving health, memory and concentration to enhancing creativity, curing depression and expanding one’s consciousness into higher states of being.

It always really boggles my mind how in our day and age meditation is not that wildly diffused in the western world and around the globe. It strikes me as so out of sync with our times that meditation is not universally recognized by humans as one of the most fundamental practices for a healthy society. Imagine every single individual on this planet learning meditation at school from a young age. Imagine the benefit on a planetary scale. How there would be balanced emotions, harmony, creativity and peace on a collective level. No more wars, atrocities, greed, famine, crime, domestic violence, over-spending in health, law and order. The possibilities are infinite.

Anyway let me stop here before I get too idealistic. I just wanted to express my personal opinion on how important meditation is. If you wish to start learning meditation or if you have already you might find the following resources useful. I have sifted through tonnes of material to select what I think is technically good quality material.

I hope you find them interesting and helpful. Please send me your thoughts and comments on whether you found the material useful or if you want to suggest more. Thanks!

1. Meditation for Beginners

• An article by Alan Wagener Showing the benefits of meditation and how it helps you cope with stress.

• Gil Fronsdal offers a 5 or 6 week instructional series for beginning meditators. Here is some handout material in PDFs and audio recordings from the beginners’ classes.

• Meditation for Dummies – A great comprehensive introduction to meditation from the ‘for dummies’ series.

• A blog article from Zen habits giving practical tips on meditation for beginners

• An article by Chris Joscelyne in which he gives a step by step guided meditation. This type of meditation is called light meditation in which light is visualized during the meditation.

• Meditation for Beginners –   an audio book by Jack Kornfield. Jack is a meditation master and teacher. He was  trained as a Buddhist monk and has travelled extensively teaching meditation around the world.

2. Online Meditation

• Online courses in meditation, Buddhism and practice in daily life.

• Free practical meditation tips on Posture, breathing, loving kindness, walking, mantra meditation, six element practice.

3.  Guided Meditation

• Other seriously  good resources from audiodharma.com this time giving a series of guided meditations.

• A nice guided meditation with Anusari Yogi Bridget Woods Kramer

• A series of short guided meditations lasting between 3 to 10 mins each from learningmeditation.com

• A full guided meditation 22:36 mins

4. Mindfulness Meditation

• A great Google talk by Jon Kabat-Zinn, a master in meditation and a Bio-medical science whose lifetime work was dedicated to bringing mindfulness into mainstream science.

• A guided mindfulness meditation from Angela Carole Brown -

5. Zen Meditation

• Introduction to Zen Meditation: Still Point with John Daido Loori, Roshi, Abbot of Zen Mountain Monastery

• A guided Zen Buddhist Meditation method

6. Transcendental Meditation

• The Transcendental meditation program offers a comprehensive course in meditation. The program is backed up by a high profile organization founded by David Lynch and based on the teaching of the world famous guru Maharishi Mahesh. The course fees are a bit on the high side but it is definitely worth a look.

7. Buddhist Meditation

• How to Meditate.com – A site dedicated to teaching on Buddhist meditation.

• In this series Tan Ajahn Jayasaro, gives an introduction to Buddhist meditation, being part of a path leading to profound happiness, inner peace and liberation from suffering.

8. Yoga Meditation

• A series of 5 videos from the documentary ‘Spiritual reality’. The videos are animations rather than real life filming. I had watched the full length film of ‘Spiritual reality’ once and it was very inspiring.

• Introduction to yoga meditation and the importance of breathing in yoga in this free how-to video on kundalini yoga and meditation training

9. Mantra Meditation

• Simple 7 steps on how to do mantra meditation

• A good article describing how mantra meditation works

10. Vipassana (Insight) Meditation

• A good video giving a clear and simple explanation of Vipassana or insight meditation

• Matthew Flickstein explains insight (Vipassana) meditation

11. Meditation and Health Research

• A very good site dedicated to scientific research on meditation

• An excellent  Google Talk by Philippe Goldin on the neuroscience of mindfulness meditation or in simple words the study of the effects of meditation on the brain.

12. Meditation on Twitter

• Meditation Room

• Heart Meditation

• Visit yourself

• Inner space

• 24hr Meditation

• Twit Meditation

13. Music for Meditation

My all time favorite meditation music – The Japanese artists known as Kokin Gumi in this album named Zen Garden. Probably the only music that still manages to shift my consciousness every time I hear it. Purely wonderful. Here are three tracks I found on youtube by someone who added them as background to his/her videos.

• Daylight

• Snow

• Feng shui

There are even better tracks in the album. I suggest you buy the CD for your meditations here: http://www.amazon.com/Zen-Garden-Kokin-Gumi/dp/B00004Y2DV (this is not an affiliate link)

I also loved the music from this 5 minute meditation video

14. Meditation accessories

• Meditation supplies and accessories – a list of suppliers

Related posts:

1. How to Meditate while Being Active
2. 10 ways to improve your meditation significantly
3. Mindfulness Meditation: My Path

photo by Mara ~earth light~

The notion of practicing compassion for other fellow humans has been with us since the beginning of time. After all, Man is a social creature in need of meaningful social connections in order to grow on all levels of his being.

The concept of compassion however has in recent times been appraised in value. Its importance is starting to be understood under the new light of a drastically changing world where people are getting more connected, economies collapse and new global crisis emerge.  Compassion is becoming increasingly tied to the future of humanity. In order for Humanity to keep the balance against the impounding waves of change we need to grow collectively in mind, awareness and in consciousness.  One essential ingredient for this growth is cultivating compassion and loving kindness

Compassion compels action and social change

“You know, there’s a lot of talk in this country about the federal deficit. But I think we should talk more about our empathy deficit — the ability to put ourselves in someone else’s shoes; to see the world through the eyes of those who are different from us — the child who’s hungry, the steelworker who’s been laid-off, the family who lost the entire life they built together when the storm came to town. When you think like this — when you choose to broaden your ambit of concern and empathize with the plight of others, whether they are close friends or distant strangers — it becomes harder not to act; harder not to help.” Barack Obama

President Obama mentions the empathy deficit but why does he put emphasis on it?

What his words imply is that real concern about the future does not stop around financial and monetary issues. These are important but to stop there is shortsightedly missing the whole point about positive social change.

Yes, the economy is a driver of social well being and change but both well being and social change are also driven by something which runs deeper than the balance books and the cash tills. It is driven by social cohesion, understanding, comprehension, extended cooperation, empathy and compassion.

Compassion is empathizing with other beings that are suffering and left behind. It is exactly “the ability to put ourselves in someone else’s shoes” and see their predicament with their own eyes through their own perspective.

Compassion is the deep desire to free others from suffering. It is the understanding that we are not alone and that others have exactly the same desire to be happy as we do and the same right to attain it.

Compassion begets positive social change because it compels action. When you empathize with the suffering and pain of others “it becomes harder not to act; harder not to help.” This means that when you genuinely open your heart and mind to the problems of others, you shift your perspective in such a way that you are inclined and motivated to help and alleviate their pain and suffering. Action is a natural consequence to compassion.

Action brings about change. Even better, action grounded in compassion, in the awareness and understanding of people’s problems and with the intent to improve their condition brings about positive change and one step closer towards the diminishing of suffering in the world.

Society is a living system. It is a dynamic network through which millions of interactions take place every second and through which ideas, joy, love, energy and compassion can flow between human connections – the nodes of the network.

When empathy and compassion are missing those connections can break and bend. What follows is an ever increasing segregation and detachment between groups of people and individuals giving rise to misunderstanding, inequality, intolerance and unhappiness running from the individual to the social.

Buddhism on Compassion & Loving Kindness

The practice of compassion and loving kindness is central to the Buddhist way of life. The Dalai Lama made it his special mission in this lifetime to spread the teaching of compassion and loving kindness.

I think it is not a coincidence that he chose the teaching of compassion to be his lifetime work in this particular time we are living in. I believe that this is a particularly ripe time for the world to wake up and expand its consciousness, cultivate compassion and sow the seeds of love. There is no better time.

In Buddhist philosophy, compassion is the deep desire and highest motivation to free all sentient beings from suffering. However this notion of compassion is not rooted in subjectivity, judged according to proximity or executed through uncontrolled emotions.

This means that true compassion is unconfined. If I am compassionate about my family but not for those who suffer in far away places or for those whom I dislike then it is not true compassion although it is still a good starting point.

“True compassion is not just an emotional response but a firm commitment founded on reason. Because of this firm foundation, a truly compassionate attitude toward others does not change even if they behave negatively. Genuine compassion is based not on our own projections and expectations, but rather on the needs of the other: irrespective of whether another person is a close friend or an enemy…This is genuine compassion.”  The Dalai Lama from ‘The Compassionate Life’

True compassion is not rooted in the ego. Sometimes we feel distraught by some tragic story because we cannot bear the thought or the emotion of what it ought to be like to pass through that experience. We feel sorry but at the same time we want to stay detached because our heart is not strong enough to bear it. This is because we are seeing it from our own ego-centred standpoint which is natural for an untrained mind.

This has happened to me lately. I went to visit my parents one day. The day before a tragic traffic accident happened where the lives of a whole family were lost including a 3 year old girl. The car they were in was smashed beyond recognition. The story was all over the papers. I did not want to look at it nor the photos of the family. It was like my heart couldn’t bear it. I didn’t want to think about it. I must however admit that this is not compassion. It is feeling deeply sorry but with a detached heart.

Compassion is seeing the suffering of the world with an open heart – a strong heart.

“Compassion is not at all weak. It is the strength that arises out of seeing the true nature of suffering in the world. Compassion allows us to bear witness to that suffering, whether it is in ourselves or others, without fear.” Sharon Salzberg

Expanding our consciousness through compassion

The natural questions that springs out of this is “Ok it’s nice to help others when needed but what good does it bring to soak into the sufferings of others?”, “doesn’t this dull your mind or depress you?”, “does compassion has any other value besides being an ethical or moral thing to do?”

I understand that these are legitimate questions and they should be asked freely.

The answer is simple but not straightforward at the same time

When we understand the concept of true compassion as held by Buddhist teaching and hopefully practice it in our daily lives, we are doing something more than just doing the ethically right thing and helping others that are in need. We are doing more than being responsible humans who reach out for other people.

What we are doing is expanding and shifting our consciousness.  We are freeing ourselves from the tyranny of the ego-consciousness because when we “put ourselves in someone else’s shoes” we are shifting our perspective and center of focus from the self to others. We expand our view and the purpose of our lives.

We start to break away from the self-centered whims and desires that hold us from expanding ourselves. We start breaking the illusion that we are separate from others and the world around us. In fact the Buddhist notion of compassion is intimately tied to the understanding that we are one and the same. Separateness is ultimately an illusion.

When we come to realize more and more of the interconnectedness between all sentient beings, we start to realize that compassion is not only a polite or ethical thing to do. It is the only sensible thing to do. It is the way forward for humanity.

Compassion is a way of realizing ourselves. When we are compassionate and seek to free others from their suffering, we are effectively freeing ourselves. We are part of the grid network. We are connected to it and if we contribute just a little and do our part to expand it by showing compassion and loving kindness to others then we are also expanding ourselves. This is the great web of life.

Cultivating compassion through meditation

There are many ways to practice compassion and loving kindness.  Like most things it takes time and commitment but it can be done in small and easy steps.

Meditation is one way through which compassion can be cultivated. It is good to know that scientific research is now starting to discover through various tests that compassion helps the mind to better cope with stress and conditions such as depression.  Here is one such article from the science daily.

At this point I am tempted to jot down a few practical tips on practising compassion meditation but that would be a bit pretentious from my part. It’s better to leave that to people who know way more than me about compassion.

Here is a short video of 9:56 mins  from Angela Carole Brown in which she gives a guided meditation on Compassion for beginners. It’s a very good place to start.

I’ll leave you to it. Enjoy and may compassion be seeded in your heart.

Related posts:

1. A Note on Happiness
2. From Ego-Consciousness to Eco-Consciousness:10 Meditations

“Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence” Aristotle

Photo by Hadrien

Every living being in this world seeks happiness whether s/he is aware of it or not.  It is the meaning and purpose of life as Aristotle had noted.

“Isn’t it obvious?” I hear you say. Yet is it really that obvious I dare ask again?

If it were that obvious why aren’t billion of dollars being spent in researching the ‘Science of Happiness’? Why aren’t political systems based on the pursuit, achievement and safeguarding of Happiness? Why aren’t there too many religions that instead of attaching themselves to Dogma and authority reorient their beliefs on the basic Human need of Happiness? Why isn’t Happiness a shared point of reference between political, ideological and International transactions?

Something is not that obviously straight forward to me.

A New Earth & Eckhart Tolle

The answers came from a book that I have read during the last year or so and which has profoundly influenced my perspective on life. The book is Eckhart Tolle’s  A New Earth.  Written by a real contemporary Spiritual Master, the book touches on many insightful and profound truths that seem to unknowingly spark off something inside the reader. There is that “A Ha! So that’s what it is!” kind of feeling in everyone who I know has read the book, including myself.

One of these insights is the fact that the human mind is by default dysfunctional since it is caught by the grips of the ego consciousness. The ego consciousness is that little Mr. Hyde in us that sabotages our every attempt to break free from our old patterns of behavior or self-destructive habits such as negative thinking, limiting and self-defeating thoughts, anger, greed & the incessant desire for having more than others and being better than others.

The Ego & its subconscious machinery

The ego-consciousness makes us self-absorbed and self-centered. It makes us blind and shortsighted. It makes us feel special and cut off from the rest.

There is always that ‘I and others’ or ‘’us and them’ kind of standpoint which breeds other negative repercussions such as prejudice, labeling, intolerance, hatred, etc. The ego consciousness is also a trickster. It comes up with apparently rational arguments in our ‘self-talking’ such as to justify our dysfunctional beliefs and subconscious irrational fears.

The Collective Ego

On a social level, the ego has its collective presence too. The world news is such a testimony to that. Everyday we hear about mass attacks on human lives from religious extremists with fundamentalist beliefs, violence spurred by racial or ethnic hatred and intolerance, political standoffs between countries due to a clash of ideologies and cultures.

This is the collective ego at work that makes us perceive the world through a self-centered orientation, making us narrow minded and blind to the needs and rights of others. We attach ourselves blindly to the shallowness of our own self-created and self-perpetuated system of beliefs & values in such a way that change and acceptance become the worst enemies for the ego because they threaten to uncover its covert trickery and end its reign.

The Transcendental Self

On the other end of Human nature there is what is often referred to as the Transcendental self. This is the nemesis of the ego. It is the part of us which transcends beyond the limited and self-centered vision of the ego and gains insights into the real nature of things without being obscured by the delusions of mind. It is free from attachment to thought.

The Transcendental self is not rooted in the conditioning of past habits or future worries but is rooted in the now, in the only moment which is ever real because everything happens in the now. Tying oneself to the past or future will only bring stress and anxiety while it forces us to live our lives on autopilot (which is the opposite of being awake).

The Transcendental self is not self-absorbed. Its vision is wider and feels and accepts that s/he is part of the universal being. S/he understands that all life is interconnected at some level and that all our actions have consequences which incur other consequences in an interdependent Universe of cause and effect.

A person who has transcended beyond his limiting ego-centric view on life is a person who is self-actualizing, takes his destiny in his own hands and co-creates his life rather than just reacting to it with worry, anger, guilt or attachment.

The Reactive vs. The Creative self

Two people can behave quite differently in a same situation. Imagine a situation whereby a man, Mr.A is driving along his way when some other guy thoughtlessly but abusively drives in the main road from a side street and almost makes Mr.A loose control of his car and send him into a possible life-threatening accident.

Mr.A, after getting out of his shock, hoots the horn at the other guy which promptly and cheekily replies with his middle finger. Mr.A gets wrathful to the point of foam in his mouth and steam coming out from his ears. He chases him, swears at him, hoots at him, swerves on him, calls him names, and after a long ride completely off route where he was going, finally decides to call off the chase.

But that’s not the end of it. On the remainder of his trip Mr.A drives with thoughts of revenge, anger, frustration, disbelief and then spends the rest of the day having a mental picture of the guy with all the things he could have said or done to him. Not to mention, the physiological stress and harm, Mr.A wasted his day by running a very vivid and negative documentary in his head.

Now imagine the same situation happening to Mr.B. Car comes out, Mr.B tries to avoid him, takes in a deep breath, makes sure he has full control of the car and himself, slows down then drives off just to forget about it as soon as he turns on the first corner.

Mr.A and Mr.B were victims of the same circumstances but while Mr.A held himself hostage of his own ego, Mr.B was free and made a choice not to hassle himself with the emotion arousing thoughts for the rest of his day.

The Unhappy Ego

The ego-driven self is locked into a powerless state of dysfunction and is very limited in finding happiness. It always wants the next best thing hence eternally dissatisfied with what it has. There is no appreciation of the present moment.

The ego loves a reaction as shown in the case of Mr.A. It feeds on it like a vampire feeds on blood. It is reactive rather than creative, hence its shallowness and shortsightedness.

It reacts as soon as it sees someone else being better than itself or to someone who said or did something that arouses a negative emotion. It will attempt its very best to react to the other person’s actions by trying to win over an argument with intellectual prowess, bitch back, pass on demeaning and insulting remarks, do or say something to show his/her superiority at something and so on down a very long list of silly and futile things the human mind can come up with. Worst thing is that we are not conscious that all this ever happening to us.

The Science of Happiness

Recent studies and Research in Cognitive Psychology and Positive Psychology are time after time discovering and verifying the age-old insights in mind, consciousness and happiness as outlined in brief above. Most of this ancient knowledge derives from Buddhist teachings but now is finding its way further into mainstream western thought and Science. I agree with his Holiness the Dalai Lama when he once was quoted in saying that Buddhism is after all a Science of Mind.

By slowly embracing a relatively more Holistic approach to Science, modern Cognitive Psychology is starting to recognize, through scientific tests, the validity of this ancient wisdom. (If you’re interested in this I recommend checking out the works of Jon Kabat-Zinn here)

Amongst some of the interesting findings, which throw light on the intersection between the old and modern understanding of the mind and happiness there is:

• Meditation has been shown to have many beneficial effects to mental health in general such as significantly reducing stress & anxiety, heart problem risks and depression. It also promotes general happiness and well being

• Attaching oneself to material objects, ideas or a narrow framework of thought causes a kind of black or white mode of seeing reality. Often this brings a loss of perspective and eventually anxiety or depression. The opposite is equally true. People who tend to see things in perspective without blowing up negative happenings tend to be more relaxed & happy.

• People who isolate themselves, are hostile to others or feel cut off and different from the rest have bigger chances of feeling jaded and unhappy. On the other hand, people who receive or give emotional support have a higher chance of being happy.

• Those people who introspect too much on negative things, are self-absorbed and self-centered have more chances of being depressed. Patients suffering chronic depression tend to use the ‘I’, ‘Me’ & ‘Mine’ a lot. Happy people tend to see life and goodness in others.

• Happy people also tend to be people who are not fatalists or who think in a disempowering way. Very often they recognize that they have the power (and the responsibility ) to make a positive change in their life.

Going back to the questions I put in the beginning, it is starting to become more and more clear to me how happiness is the realization and moving away from a rather ego-driven consciousness to a more transcendental one. The only problem is that this is not at all obvious and no one of us is born with a operating manual to mind and happiness.

Related posts:

1. Expanding consciousness through compassion & loving kindness
2. Developing Awareness – Part 2