Showing posts with label mindfulness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mindfulness. Show all posts

Friday, May 25, 2018

Use the mind; don't be used by it.

Unitarian Universalists covenant together to affirm and promote the free and responsible search for truth and meaning. Many people think this is an intellectual pursuit. It isn't. Truth and meaning does not reside in the mind. The mind, often, can lead us astray and blocks our awareness of truth and meaning.

It is easy to become an educated idiot. Some people overthink things. UUs, more than most, have this tendency because they have been injured and wounded by their previous religious involvements. It is easy to identify what they don't believe any more, and much more difficult to articulate what they do believe in now. But belief is not where truth and meaning lie. The truth and meaning they are seeking is an experience of the Divine. That experience does not reside in one's head. It is more in the heart, and not there alone either. The experience of the Divine is in the witness, that part of us which is mindful and meditative.

Do you use your mind or does your mind use you? As the bumper sticker reads, "Don't believe everything you think."

Osho says, "So I am not saying that you are not to use your mind, but don't be used by the mind. Right now the mind is the master and you are only a slave." p.38, "Ah, This!"

Be mindful. Use your witness to observe your mind. The witness is the part of existence which facilitates our walk with Love on the path of the spirit.


Friday, September 15, 2017

Pax vobiscum

Dear Lucy:

One of the things I miss the most about my Catholic days is the saying "Pax vobiscum" which is Latin, of course, for "Peace be with you," and the response is "Et tu spiritu tuo." "And may the spirit be with you also."

The truth is that the Peace of God is always with us yet we are distracted, pre-occupied, and lose our faith in it. Nowadays, there is a greater awareness that the Peace of God dwells within and among us and we can tune into it if we are mindful and so mindfulness has become increasingly popular.

What mindful practices do you find helpful, Lucy?

I find myself, increasingly, turning off the radio when I am driving in the car, and avoiding my screens just so I can quiet all the chatter which runs in my mind like the hamster in the wheel. I just watch and allow myself to laugh at the nonsense that I have allowed to take over my awareness.

I am reminded of my niece who would get anxious and upset in third grade and her teacher would tell her to take a "chill pill." We used to joke about what her "chill pill" consisted of and even make up a little recipe book for what kinds of coping tactics made up her "chill pill". We discovered in doing this project that she had more than one type of "chill pill." Chill pills are good tools for restoring our faith and experience of Peace.

Pax vobiscum,

David
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