Source http://www.sonima.com/meditation/mindful-living/inner-peace/
Mindfulness is the cool new trend that also happens to have been around for over 2600 years. The Buddha was the original trendsetter in this regard. Having studied with numerous meditation teachers and mastered their techniques, he realized that he had still not found his way to understanding the cause of his suffering and the suffering around him. So he sat down under a tree and did what we in the West commonly refer to as mindfulness of the breath practice.
Here’s the amazing thing: Mindfulness of the breath is the simplest and most effective way to relate to our own mind, the ways we cause ourselves and others suffering, and to discover our inherent peace. Each time we sit down to follow the breath, we follow in the footsteps of the Buddha. Not unlike him, we focus on the body breathing, then when we notice we have drifted off into thought we come back to the present moment, over and over again.
However, one of the most common misunderstandings when it comes to mindfulness practice is that we should be able to sit down and feel peace right away. If that is the case for you, please let me know—you deserve to be on the front page of The Meditation Times (which doesn’t exist…yet). For many of us, peace feels like a far cry from the reality of the situation. The act of sitting quietly in a chair or on the floor with our legs crossed and focusing on the breath is like issuing an invitation to the mind to run rampant.
It&…
Source http://www.sonima.com/meditation/mindful-living/inner-peace/
Mindfulness is the cool new trend that also happens to have been around for over 2600 years. The Buddha was the original trendsetter in this regard. Having studied with numerous meditation teachers and mastered their techniques, he realized that he had still not found his way to understanding the cause of his suffering and the suffering around him. So he sat down under a tree and did what we in the West commonly refer to as mindfulness of the breath practice.
Here’s the amazing thing: Mindfulness of the breath is the simplest and most effective way to relate to our own mind, the ways we cause ourselves and others suffering, and to discover our inherent peace. Each time we sit down to follow the breath, we follow in the footsteps of the Buddha. Not unlike him, we focus on the body breathing, then when we notice we have drifted off into thought we come back to the present moment, over and over again.
However, one of the most common misunderstandings when it comes to mindfulness practice is that we should be able to sit down and feel peace right away. If that is the case for you, please let me know—you deserve to be on the front page of The Meditation Times (which doesn’t exist…yet). For many of us, peace feels like a far cry from the reality of the situation. The act of sitting quietly in a chair or on the floor with our legs crossed and focusing on the breath is like issuing an invitation to the mind to run rampant.
It&…
What Do You Think?
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