every day shines

[emm7]

good the meditation is going well!
I just remembered, a trick that may help with stage 1 of the metta bhavana is to imagine looking at yourself through the eyes of / from the point of view of someone who loves you.
I haven't done these meditations for ages! Wonder how I would get on. Am very rusty!

I always found the "difficult person" stage the hardest. Difficult people ARGH It's so hard. I would like to see how the Buddha coped with abusive Narcissists lacking in Empathy. ( Even Milrepa in Buddhist tradition had Empathy and he was a murderer. )

Mystical meditation feels different, feels like you can just let go of the problems that are clustered around the difficult person and surrender them, and that they are lifted from your shoulders, that they no longer are your problem. That their nasty behaviour is their problem & their business and that's between them and god. For myself it's in the surrender and the letting go that I find the comfort. That higher power / god / source can forgive them even if I can't.

[WhoCaresWins]

Thanks Emm - I tend to just stick to "may I be happy and well" and thinking about a warm light or heat etc in my body. I have done some of the things in Shakti Gawain's "Creative Visualisation" and they are good too.
Actually the 1st stage hasn't been too difficult on the last couple of sits I've done. I find the neutral person quite tough - just because there's not much to go on. I don't tend to choose someone too difficult for the "difficult" person; recently I have been working on someone a bit annoying at my kickboxing class! When my practice gets a bit stronger I will tackle some more challenging people!

Thanks for commenting on the meditation Emm!

I found a new image of Tara on the Internet on Friday and I was playing around with the Sadhana: I've sort of combined two practises to get the images and ideas that I find most useful. Anyway this image of Tara is really good - I think.



I need to add it to this board thing that I use as a shrine!



This evening - did my Yoga and Gymnastics things. I actually managed some proper L-sits (although they were brief). Also my hand-stand is getting more stable.
WCW

[WhoCaresWins]

Meditation I did 20 mins Mindfulness. I was quite distracted. Probably because of the "excitement" of starting a new job today (I am now a teaching assistant).

Then I did a shortened core workout. Only 3 times through

6 Kneeling Ab Wheel Roll-outs
15 V-Ups
15 Superman
15 Side Crunches
40 Chinnies, short rest, 10 more.

I could have fitted the whole thing in if I had been a bit more focused. It's going to take me a day or two to adjust to the idea of getting out of the door to go to work at 7:45.

The job went well. I'd baked flapjacks for the rest of my "team". On the one hand this could be seen as a sign that I am a nice person who thinks of others. On the other you could take it to show that I am this horrible needy person who seeks approval . Anyway, it made me quite popular with my colleagues

I enjoyed being back in school. I do enjoy working with the young people and it was very interesting not being the person in charge of the class-room.

Hopefully this is the start of some better times

WCW

[WhoCaresWins]

Last Night - kickboxing. Felt good to be back after missing a week's training! Also my punch-bag has arrived - it's huge.

This morning: Short Mindfulness of Breathing (to get in the mood) followed by my Tara practice. I managed to stay with the practise more today - although the dog came over and licked my hands and sniffed at my mouth when I started chanting the mantra

Then I did some "General Physical Preparedness"

5 times through
30 secs burpees
30 secs star-jumps
30 secs high-knee dumbbell press
30 secs shadow box

This is the first time I have done any burpees for a few weeks. My foot feels okay

WCW

[Gelert]

I enjoyed being back in school. I do enjoy working with the young people and it was very interesting not being the person in charge of the class-room.

Hopefully this is the start of some better times

WCW

Great stuff! Hope today went well too

[emm7]

great your first day went well very happy to hear that.
Delicious baking sounds like an excellent way to break the ice!
I like your picture of Tara. She looks like she's deep in thought, very mysterious!
Maybe you are drawn to the Tara practice because she reminds you of your Anima? (Carl Jung)? What qualities about her do you like the most?

Ha ha I think my attraction to jolie laide men is probably because I am a person who basically runs on intuition and loves luxury and daydreaming and rarely has a plan, so probably have a male side (Animus) that's more solid, focussed on the here and now, good at planning things, has hearty appetites and eats big plates of food and takes action rather than holding back and thinking everything through a million times first. I am laughing at myself now

So what I would need to do according to Jung is to be more solid and focussed and down to earth myself (and eat more!) And realise when I am seeing my male side as an overlay onto real life men so that I don't think they're something they're not!

[WhoCaresWins]

Thanks Emm and Gelert!

As for Tara. She's the embodiment of compassion. She supposed to move swiftly to rescue beings (in images, one foot is coming out of the meditation posture as if she's about to jump up and help someone!). She's young, beautiful, green and female - what's not to like!

One of my other favourite figures, Milarepa, is also often depicted as green - but that's because he survived on nettles in his mountain cave for a long period of time


In the practice, you are supposed to imagine that this personality has dissolved into emptiness and that you actually are the bodhisattva. I like this idea - I want to be Green Tara!

WCW[/url]

[emm7]

thought you might like this about colours in Buddhist art
http://www.kheper.net/topics/Buddhism/colors.html

Green is in the middle of the visible, seven-color spectrum and thus epitomizes the qualities of balance and harmony. It is the color we relate to in nature, trees and plants. Hence Green Tara' s color represents a blending of white, yellow, and blue - colors which symbolize, respectively, the functions of pacifying, increasing, and destroying. Green also denotes youthful vigor and activity and hence the Green Tara is always shown as a young girl having a mischievous and playful nature.

The Buddhist Lord of karma (action), Amoghasiddhi, is also associated with this color, thus reiterating that green in Buddhist thought is the color of action.

so she's kind but also full of vigour, playful and mischievous!

maybe Green Tara is your Anima wanting to play and act daft and have a laugh and a joke, in other words the opposite of Seriousness and Graft and Discipline.
I think Tara would be saying be kind to yourself and make sure life isn't all work work work!
I bet she has got a good sense of humour and is rather irreverent.
I don't think that she would turn helping people into a chore, I think she would help them because she gets a kick out of it and loves seeing people happy because she is happy and bubbly herself.

Actually have you seen the film Amelie?
Your Green Tara reminds me of Amelie!
In other words naughty but nice!
Yes I think that the Green Tara is calling your name.........

[WhoCaresWins]

Thanks Emm - yes I think you are right: balance is something I don't have much of. I'm more the all or nothing type. Maybe that's why I am drawn to Tara. I have been for years, but I've never settled into the practice the way I have this time. I did do some creative writing in which her practice featureses. I may post that up - when I get time to catch up with the great stuff on the Creative Writing thread here!!

No - I haven't seen Amelie. But what you wrote reminded me of someone I used to know at work, who was a good friend and had some of those qualities - so I might let a bit of her personality "flavour" my visualisation. I had a really good sit with Tara on Friday. There's a bit where you are supposed to imagine the Boddhisattva Avalokiteshara sending an empowering stream of light nectar down into your heart and I was really feeling it!

Update
Weight 69.5kg

Wed am Core
Eve Yoga and Gymnastics
Thurs am Mindfulness of Breathing plus GPP#2
Fri am Visualisation plus Core
Sat am Loving Kindness Meditation plus Strength #2

may you all be happy and well!!

WCW

[WhoCaresWins]

Weight 69.5kg (10st 13lbs)

Today: 67.7 (10st 9lbs)
WCW

[WhoCaresWins]

Sunday Metta and Core
Monday Tara and General Physical Preparedness
Eve Kickboxing
Tuesday Metta and Core
Eve Yoga and Gymnastics
Wednesday Mindfulness and "magic 50"
Thurs Tara and Core
Eve Kickboxing
Friday Metta and Burpee intervals
Sat Mindfulness and Core

I have narrowed my eating window a bit this week, so I am eating generally from 1:20 to 5 or 5:30pm. This makes it easier for me to exercise later on in the evening. Unhappy that I skipped workouts on Wed and Fri evening, but overall a good week.

One thing I have noticed that must be a result of the fasting is that sweet things are starting to taste really sweet - unpleasantly so. For example my homemade flapjacks (yes - I do allow myself treats!!) taste really cloying and Alpro Soya yoghurt is also too sweet!! I may make my next batch of flapjack with glucose instead of sugar

Anyway, probably won't lose 4 lbs next week as I found this a bit of a struggle. Getting leaner though!

WCW

[WhoCaresWins]

Sat Eve: Strength
Sun am: Tara Sadhana and GPP
Eve Yoga and Gymnastics
Mon am: Metta and Core

WCW

[WhoCaresWins]

Been to kickboxing. The instructor noticed I was looking more "ripped" and asked if I had upped my training .


WCW

[emm7]

are you enjoying the kickboxing, sounds like it!

[WhoCaresWins]

Hi Emm7 - yes the kickboxing is going well. I am trying to regain some of my conditioning (I haven't been running for ages due to that bruised foot, but I am back on burpees etc.)
I'm hoping to do my next grading in January.
WCW