Sonia Gomes is a Marketing & Branding Communication consultant, a Wellness Business Owner, Ashtanga Yoga teacher, and a Vajrayana lover. She enjoys beauty and creativity in every thing that life has to offer... Traveling and studying are her main priorities. She is Portuguese but totally in love with Indian Culture ... Her vision and aim is to help and contribute for women equality rights and opportunities and also volunteer in some humanitarian health projects. Other LEVEKUNST articles by the same author.
Observe with mindfulness. If we become accustomed to this kind of observation, our vision of the world and of ourselves will change subtly, we will be freeing ourselves from the bounding chains, the clinging and we will be enjoying the events in the present moment, here and now, while they last, letting them go and allowing them to fade away until they become a simple memory.
In our society, there is a constant and intense quest for pleasurable and satisfying experiences, but no room for dealing with disappointment. Things do not always happen as we plan, inevitably resulting in frustration and a lot of effort to avoid it. Increasingly incapable of handling frustration, because on being unprepared for it, we seek illusory alternatives and flee from a real confrontation with the causes.
Our geometric culture with its plethora of sensations but without deep experiences, with a fantastic accumulation of knowledge but with lack of wisdom, with too much vigor of bodybuilding, sexuality, the artifacts of destruction shown in serial killer but without tenderness, affection and the ability to care for each other, care about the Earth, care about our children and animals, for the common future of us all. Our invincible strength comes from the tenderness with which we surround, treat, love and respect all sentient beings without exception.
Every day we see people hiding their true feelings and living to fit in with external demands. People bury what really matters to them, their deepest values in exchange for meeting the expectations of others, to be accepted and to feel superior in some way. So they miss the core of life: creating authentic and true connections.
Have you ever wondered why sometimes in a very bad situation, we can be well and in other times, even in perfect times, we find ourselves in a state of emotional boredom or stress?
–Sonia Gomes
One of my first questions to a teacher was about emotions. In my mistaken view, Buddhists were people who had subjugated all their conflicts, and so they lived continually in a state of equilibrium, which, for me, made them unshakable, but also somewhat insensitive. If I practiced Buddhism, would I become a person in total self-control, cold and without emotions?
Authenticity gives you courage. It comes from an honest place where there is no fear, only truth. It is this core focus that brings contentment sensations, a genuine sense of peace! You no longer feel fear or envy – You have the courage to make the right decisions. You become truly happy for those who are around you, because you know you are living life as authentically as possible. You are being real!
When we say yes, but in fact, we really mean no, when we do things that we really do not want or simply follow what others have done, we are being co-dependent and not patient or generous! A co-dependent attitude may seem positive at first, but actually, it is generating low self-esteem and lack of confidence.
Sympathetic joy holds compassion back from becoming overwhelmed by the sight of suffering. It soothes the painful burning of the compassionate heart and keeps us free from melancholic brooding and from a futile sentimentality that weakens and consumes our strength.
The loss of the feminine features and energy is a serious problem in our society. The society we live in today is shaped by masculine aspects that impose a patriarchal culture based on race, power game, rationalism and success based on strength.
As human beings, we are subject to continuous change throughout life. Taoists speak of ten thousand sorrows and ten thousand joys. The joy turns into sorrow. Sorrow turns into joy. There is no exception. Equanimity is a liberating quality that gives us an open, equitable, peaceful and stable heart towards the vicissitudes of life.
Engaged Buddhism is not a separate school from others; it is more of an interpretation of social commitment that appears in all trends of contemporary Buddhism. It emphases the unity needed between the inner work and the work in the world, the social action as deep compassion, the result of a deep understanding of reality, their dynamics and mutual causalities.
Compassion is one of the core values and ideals of the Buddhist practice. However, as seeing it as an ideal, it becomes easy to overlook the difficult circumstances in which it arises. Compassion does not appear as something abstract. It arises when we are in a direct contact with real suffering, being enough to move and touch us, through our own suffering or the suffering of others.
Love understands the other. It is bonded by what we have to offer, not by what we have to gain. It is said that, as we develop the mastery of the natural potential of our mind, we will have much more to offer others and to the world. There is richness in a relationship when there is trust and joy in sharing the good things.
Whenever we call for Guru, The sun expands itself, The flowers blossom, The birds sing harmoniously, As a whisper of a sweet voice, Flowing from the heart of a beautiful princess, sleeping in the mountains of Northern India.