When you have abandoned all past and future, it is as if you have come alive. You are here, mindful...the nature of all types of consciousness reveals itself.
Ajahn BrahmRead
Meditation is like a gym in which you develop the powerful mental muscles of calm and insight.
Interpretation
Meditation strengthens the mind much like exercise strengthens the body.
This quote by Ajahn Brahm illustrates the concept that meditation serves as a mental exercise that cultivates one's ability to remain calm and gain insight into oneself and the world. Just as physical workouts contribute to physical fitness, meditation enhances mental strength and clarity, enabling individuals to navigate life's challenges with greater ease and understanding.
In practice
In a workshop on stress management, you could use this quote to emphasize the importance of meditation for mental well-being.
When you have abandoned all past and future, it is as if you have come alive. You are here, mindful...the nature of all types of consciousness reveals itself.
How many times have you tried to solve “the problem”? you’ll be trying to solve it not just until you die but for many more lifetimes. Instead, understand that this world is just the play of the senses. It’s the five khandhas doing their thing; it has nothing to do with you. It’s just people being people, the world being the world.
When life is good do not take it for granted as it will pass. Be mindful, be compassionate and nurture the circumstances that find you in this good time so it will last longer. When life falls apart always remember that this too will pass. Life will have its unexpected turns.
Love, oneness, is no separation between you and life. It is a progressive letting go, a progressive not fault finding. Just do nothing and love this moment. Its very beautiful and very deep.
Mediocrity is no answer to violence. In fact, it probably invites violence. At least the mediocre and the violent appear together as in the old Western movies - the ruffian outlaw band shooting up main street and the little white church with the little white schoolteacher wringing her hands. To cool violence you need rhythm, humor, tempering; you need dance and rhetoric. Not therapeutic understanding.
If you have somebody who's brilliant and highly creative with a different point of view than you have, and a very different intellectual background, great things can happen.
Our self-perception determines our behavior. If we think we’re small, limited, inadequate creatures, then we tend to behave that way, and the energy we radiate reflects those thoughts no matter what we do. If we think we’re magnificent creatures with an infinite abundance of love and power to give, then we tend to behave that way. Once again, the energy around us reflects our state of awareness.
When we get too caught up in the busyness of the world, we lose connection with one another - and ourselves.
It is with disease of the mind, as with those of the body; we are half dead before we understand our disorder, and half cured when we do.
Like Musa you too will be saved from the Sea. Just look through it and see Him. Then the illusion will crumble and you'll be left with the only Reality: Him.
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