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Training

AYURVEDA’S WISDOM FOR WINTER

The rise in a multitude of ways to have a quick fix, a good body, and perfect health is another manifestation of our cultural sickness. Simple direct ways to live, eat and follow the flow of nature have become totally uninteresting to our hyped-up western culture. If it’s not sexy, trendy or going to make you famous, then it’s not of value to us at all. This is the danger of our current way of being in relationship to our lives and a direct affront to the sacredness and true purpose of life itself.

MINDFUL BREATHING AS A LOVING KINDNESS PRACTICE

Where there is suffering, either in ourselves or in our world, it is because there has been a lack of attention, love, and understanding. Now, each breath, each look, each thought we direct towards ourselves can be brimming with love, Each step, and every attentive moment can be like a gentle caress.

RELAXING MEDITATION

Facing our own compulsive drives and finding the will force to gently let them go, we come to understand the unconscious compulsions that are at work in creating the anxiety-driven, stress-amplifying, vital-force-depleting social condition we see so prevalent the world over.

YOU CAN’T STEAL MY CHOCOLATE

One of the simplest things we can do to decrease our level of stimulation and increase our sensitivity is to sit comfortably and gently in a quiet place and just relax for a few minutes. We may call it meditation, but really it’s just a simple, natural thing that makes a lot of sense.

PROGRESSIVE VARIATIONS ON SHAMATHA CONCENTRATION

Just as we experience the fear, love, and humor of the characters in a movie, so do we experience the enlightened mind of the entities that we visualize. When we visualize an enlightened entity, we are able to recognize its enlightened mind because it is our own – it is inherent within us and it is the basis of our consciousness – so when we call upon it, we find it to be there.

TOUCHING

Touch is such an important element in healing and also in our daily life. But how do we touch? One of the most important elements to touch in the right way is our mind, because if our mind is not in the right space, touch can become very different, even hurtful. Let’s look first at touching ourselves because if we do not know how to touch ourselves, then how can we touch others in the right way?

TRUST – A DOORWAY TO BEING

Trust is one of the basic qualities or life skills we need to learn and embody if we want to shift from living a life based on defense mechanisms and survival strategies to an open and authentic way of being and relating. We need trust to open up and surrender to a broader life perspective, to say Yes to moment-to-moment fresh experiencing of life as it is.

LUCID DREAMING & ENDLESS PURPLE FOG

When we are lucid during a dream, instead of following along with the content of the dream, we have the opportunity to do a variety of useful and insightful kinds of meditation practice. Doing meditation practice while dreaming is particularly interesting because of how quickly and responsively our mental states are reflected in the content of the lucid dream.

EMPATHY

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.

BEING HUMAN

Let’s hold hands together, let’s practice together so that for the sake of our children and the earth, we can go back to being real ordinary human beings again. Through our practice, and our connection to each other and to all things, let’s put the humane back into being human.

ABOUT EQUANIMITY

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.

DEFEATING THE BAIT-AND-SWITCH

A minor influence outside of your psyche, has eaten away slowly your patience and compassion until it has succeeded in boring a hole right through your previously harmonious state of mind. Your weakened mental structural integrity is being eaten by your newly acquired psychologically triggered chemical imbalances. Physical problems arise from the chemical problems. Your stomach may hurt, your head may ache, and your happiness is in pain.

HOW TO MAKE ROOM FOR AWAKENED MIND

The space where wholesome action can flow is felt as a willingness to do the most wholesome. That’s the sign we are doing it right: inside ourselves there is open space to act differently.

THE BLOOMING FLOWER

Our spiritual practice is like a blooming flower. Often as practitioners we want to quickly have spiritual experiences because we think that that is the real key to it all. But if we have this kind of attitude when we practice, we are in a hurry. And by being in a hurry, we can miss the whole point.

ABOUT COMPASSION

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.

COMPASSION, CLEARITY & ENERGY

As soon as we switch on the light, the room becomes bright and therefore we can find what we are looking for more easily. This is the same with our innate light which emanates from our true identity. This light gives us clarity, not just clarity on how to live a healthy life, but also clarity on how to be compassionate to ourselves and others.

RESTING IN BIG LOVE

Big love is our essence, our natural identity. But due to our upbringing, our fears, attachments, you name it, we cover it up. Big love is like a great bright light which flows into all directions; it is like the sun and moon together.

ABOUT LOVE

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.

FLOWING WELL OF COMPASSION

Often in our normal daily life, we find it very hard to be compassionate to ourselves, let alone others. One of the reasons we find this so hard to do is because our mind, body and energy are like frozen water, frozen with jealousy, fear, worry, anger and ignorance.