Thread by @Swap9l

Thread on Mind Full to Mindful by Om Swami.
1/n Awakening is to have a graceful response to everything life throws at you without losing your sense of serenity and calm.

2/n To be enlightened is to take things lightly (but not forgranted), to laugh away the whims and irratibilities of life.

3/n We tend to take ourselves too seriously, making that the root cause of most of our agony.

4/n Zen teaches us that happiness is not a pursuit. It's not something we have to seek. Zen says just let me be in the present, that even breathing is a blessing.

5/n If I can't be happy with what I have now, I can never be happy with whatever I may have in future.

6/n At any time and point in life, you will have one difficult person, one big challenge, one big adversity: mental, physical, emotional or psychological.
This is very much part of life. But in all this, to be able to flow is Zen.

7/n There are no steps in meditation, only stages or to be more precise there are states.
Hence there is no next step.
Just sit and be aware. You keep perfecting it and then you reach that stage.

8/n If I am doing anything in my life out of choice, there's no reason to complain and if I don't have a choice then there is no sense in complaining.

9/n Mindfulness makes you calm and that calmness makes you more mindful. Positive feedback loop.

10/n Life is a flower. You are born then bloom but ultimately wither away. What you have right now is a blessing. Value it, take care of it, live every moment.

11/n problems would always be there. If you feel smaller than your problems, life becomes very hard.
To live your live to the fullest try to be bigger than your problems.
The more you have to deal with, the more energy you discover in you.

12/n Be loving and kind in your daily behaviour and you will attract right people, right things and right situations in life.

13/n Zazen was created from Sanskrit word Dhyana(meditation) which is different than Dharana(concentration).
In Zazen you don't try to build your concentration but simply maintain your centre of awareness.

14/n Just listen to your breathing and you will automatically be in the present moment. Breath is our first and fundamental connection to life.

15/n When you are calm your breath is deep and slow. When you are angry or anxious, your breathing is shallow and hard.
Regulate your breathing and your mind will be regulated and as you regulate your mind, your breathing will reflect it.

16/n Don't hold your breath for too long. You should be able to exhale gently.
We must never let go of the gentleness.
No matter how dire the situation - be gentle, be kind.
You can say what need to be said without beings harsh or shouting or being too excited.

17/n Use small reminders like keeping a stone to remind you of being mindful.
Not getting too excited when your ae happy and not too low when you are down.
Zen is about being present in the present moment.
Just being mindful as you have your morning tea can uplift your mood.

18/n Mindfulness can also be applied to walking.
Core idea of Zen is to infuse all our actions with a sense of awareness ao nothing remains automatic, so that we are conscious of every little thing in our life.

19/n everything we experience - its inherent nature is emptiness.
Thoughts, feelings and consciousness exist in our mind and experiences but they are transient and, in the end, have no meaning.

20/n If we take all our thoughts & emotions seriously, as they are real, then we experience more pain & suffering.
By being mindful, we remind ourself that because our mind is talking doesn't mean we have to listen to it; just cause you are feeling low doesn't mean life is bad.

21/n Measuring our own happiness based on what others have is a pointless & terrible thing to do.
It is far meaningful to compare yourself to your past. If you are doing better than before you are progressing.

22/n Thoughts and emotions come like a raging storm. In those times, you just have to take cover and revisit your issues when everything has settled and is calm.

23/n one of the greatest dillusion people have is of a life where they are comfortably sitting, relaxing and have no stress. Delusion is that somehow it could be a happy life, but nothing could be far from truth.

24/n A life where there are no challenges is unfulfilling. Pain is an essential part of our spiritual progress.
Our challenges: self-imposed as well as forced ones, they make us work, think and appreciate the more desirable aspects of life.

25/n We have filled our emptiness not with beauty or bliss but discontentment. We have become fundamentally discontent with what we have. And if you are not content, you can not be happy.

26/n Emptiness does not mean that you no longer enjoy life.
Coming to terms with emptiness is the understanding that no matter how deep your struggle, any joy you gain will be short-lived. That all joys, pleasures are momentary and so are the pains and worries.

27/n Meditation will not calm you. You need to be calm to meditate.
Meditation is your training to be calm afterwards, when you step out into the world.

28/n Evry day we start fresh but inside we are carrying the same old emotions from the past.
You can't experience peace while harbouring negative emotions in your heart. Whether or not someone deserves it, forgive if you want peace.

29/n When you are thinking about someone negatively, you are simply causing grief to yourself. The other person doesn't even know you are thinking about them.
Let it go.

30/n Most people feel angry and unfulfilled in their lives is because they want someone to make their choices for them.
Making choices is hard work but to have a chance at life, we've got to make our own choices, to take responsibility. Have our own philosophy of Life.

31/n Walking the path of meditation by simply meditating is not enough. There are 4 key virtuea that you need to instill in your life:
Compassion
Humility
Discipline
Forgiveness

32/n Compassion: You can be firm, you can push back, but not by using hurtful words or losing grace.
When you don't react to someone else's harsh words; that's path to nirvana because you have liberated yourself from the behaviour of another person as well as your own impulses.

33/n: Humility is another name for being truthful.
Being polite is different than being humble.
Real humility is staying true to who you are, and if people think you are no good, it's ok cause those are not the people you need in your life.

34/n Discipline is freedom. More discipline we have to work on mundane things, more freedom we'll have to work on fun things.
Eat that frog first. Do the difficult task first, else it will keep playing in the back of your head, adding to your fatigue and sapping your willpower.

35/n Forgiveness is an emotion that doesn't depend on whether the other person deserves it or not. Holding a grudge for someone who had wronged you in the past is like punishing yourself all over again for the same thing.
Decide What you want, to be proved right or peace? Forgive

36/n Four zen principles to follow.
Sit quietly
Care for your body
Learn to handle pain
Practice non-violence

37/n Sit quietly: Zen is about living with awareness, with Mindfulness. All it requires is to sit and be quiet. If you practice it daily it will eventually become effortless but reaching that stage will require a lot of purposeful effort.

38/n Care for your body:
Sleep well and enough.
Eat well and not too much.
Move and stretch enough.

39/n Learn to handle pain: Everybody has pain. More self centred you are, greater the pain you will feel.
Happy people are less self centred, eager to help others, have compassion & are content with their lives.
Be like that, help others and don't take your thoughts too seriously

40/40 Life belong to those who love it.
It's all about how you handle life.When we start adjusting to what life has planned for us, it starts to move according to us. If we keep hurting it and battling with it, life will ignore us and begin to distance itself.

End.

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