Mindful Happiness

Anthony Quintiliani, Ph.D, LADC

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Meditation on Ecodharma and Buddhist Ecology

Meditation on Ecodharma and Buddhist Ecology  

  1. Sit calmly and begin to breathe in and out deeply and slowly.
  2. Open your eyes to see and appreciate the natural environment you are in.
  3. Close your eyes now if you wish to do so.
  4. Know that this nature – the sky, clouds, stars, father sun, mother moon, especially the trees – is your natural environment of being in this life.
  5. This biosphere is our sacred ground, from which we all arise and to which we all fall at our end.
  6. Mother earth and the surrounding universe deserve our deepest respect.
  7. In Asia, forest monks have ordained old, wise trees to spare them from the wrath of consumerism.
  8. Know that ecodharma is an activist Buddhist program aimed at protecting nature and the earth.
  9. We are living and dying in a vast ecological man made disaster, escape from which requires that our species survives AND that the earth survives as well.
  10. Our survival depends upon a healthy, breathing, cleansing earth and atmosphere.
  11. Now take a few minutes in your own silent solitude to contemplate deeply what has been noted above. Pause.
  12. Recall that The Buddha was confronted by the devil-like Mara. This was an attack on his hard-won enlightenment. The Buddha touched the ground with his fingers and hand to re-establish his connection to mother earth, and his enlightenment survived all challenges.
  13. So today, we should all touch the earth gently with respect – we can touch earth with our fingers, hands, feet, heart, soul, and self.  We may even wish to prostrate ourselves on mother earth to show our deep love and respect.
  14. The Buddha was born, lived, became enlightened , and died (parinibbana) in the gracious company of trees.
  15. Thich Nhat Hanh noted that our caring for and being with the earth is a way of reconnecting with interbeing of all living things.  This great teacher also advised us that to walk and live on Pure Land requires that we love the earth.
  16. Soto Zen founder Eihei Dogen noted that rivers, mountains, and “the great wide earth” as well as “the sun and the moon and the stars” are all part of our personal enlightenment in our minds.
  17. Take a few more minutes to contemplate these teaching. Pause.
  18. Today’s bodhisattva have become an ecosattva to help save the world and humankind – the greatest and most noble act of active compassion and love.
  19. We must be fearless as we confront the extremes of “conspicuous consumption” and its destruction of the earth and all living things. This deadly competition may kill all of us in the future.
  20. Contemplate on this: What will you do very soon to join this battle to save mother earth and the human race as we know it? Pause.

For more information refer to https://tricycle.org/trikedaily/growing-buddhist movement… https://tricycle.org/trikedaily/trees-meditation-teaching... https://tricycle.org/magazine/100-best-climate-solutions… https://tricycle.org/magazine/love-letter-earth… Retrieved 4-21-18

Anthony R. Quintiliani, PhD., LADC

From the Eleanor R. Liebman Center for Secular Meditation in Monkton, Vermont and the Home of The Monkton SanghaChiYinYang_EleanorRLiebmanCenter

Author of Mindful Happiness  

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New Edition of Mindful Happiness in Production…Coming soon!

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The Great Mother of Gratitude Meditation

The Great Mother of Gratitude Meditation

  1. Sit in silence and take a few very slow, very deep breaths in and out.
  2. Relax within your personal comfort with eyes opened or closed. If you prefer your eyes to be open, hold you head level and gently gaze down a few feet in front of you. Continue to breathe slowly and deeply.
  3. Let go of tension in your jaw, in your neck, and in your shoulders.
  4. Do your best to rest your mind.
  5. When your mind wonders away, simply remind yourself that this gratitude meditation is FOR YOU.
  6. Begin each statement below with inner, loving speech – as “I have gratitude for…”
  7. Being alive today, experiencing my precious human life;
  8. My ever-beating heart;
  9. My lungs;
  10. All my functioning senses;
  11. My smile;
  12. Having clean running water;
  13. Having running hot water;
  14. Sleeping in my bed;
  15. Eating food today;
  16. My job with all its difficulties;
  17. My relative safety;
  18. My family;
  19. My friends;
  20. My pet/s if I own any;
  21. The unconditional love I have received;
  22. Having experienced love of some kind in my life;
  23. My relative good health;
  24. The people, places, and things that have helped me to experience joy and happiness;
  25. My relative personal happiness;
  26. My relative freedom from greater suffering;
  27. Not starving like so many children in this world;
  28. Being able to speak my truths in freedom;
  29. Not being bombed and shot at like in war zones;
  30. Not fleeing gigantic forrest fires;
  31. Not fleeing gigantic mud slides;
  32. Not fearing for my life in gigantic storms;
  33. Not living in the deep despair of utter poverty;
  34. Being “good enough” as I am;
  35. Being as I am – how and what I am;
  36. Mother nature and her wonders; and,
  37. Being able to repeat this gratitude meditation as often as I wish to do so.

Anthony R. Quintiliani, PhD., LADC

From the Eleanor R. Liebman Center for Secular Meditation in Monkton, Vermont and the Home of The Monkton SanghaChiYinYang_EleanorRLiebmanCenter

Author of Mindful Happiness  

Mindful Happiness cover designs.indd

New Edition of Mindful Happiness in Production…Coming soon!

 

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Self-Care as Ritual

Self-Care as Ritual

Self-care for Americans is often considered a luxury.  Due to our technological demands and addictions (Demons as they are), and the slow slipping of our economic structures, we are often at the mercy of the bottom line at work. Over-paid CEOs and CFOs and their many assistants eat up so, so much of workplace finances. Rush! Rush! Rush! In the 2017 American Psychological Association survey on stress in America, workplace stress and financial worries were major causes of increased emotional reactivity for Americans. Add to this our enormous addiction problems (drugs of abuse, alcohol, nicotine, opioids, cell phones, and “conspicuous consumption” as anormal process).  So instead of healthy self-care many American take the path of least resistance and self-medicate.  To improve psychological and physical health, we need to ritualize self-care practices. We need to make them one of our most important priorities on a regular basis. You may want to note that you must care for your child within. The list below provides some starting points for you to consider. Try as many of these practices as you can, and adopt as ritual a few you really like. Remember effective self-care is bio-psycho-social-spiritual. Ritualize it!

  1. You are transforming at the cellular level – every second some part dies and some part is born, arising and falling
  2. Hot stone massage
  3. Early morning walks
  4. Daily mindfulness, meditation, and yoga
  5. Pray
  6. Mindful movement stretches
  7. A Reiki session
  8. Long warm baths with aroma therapy, oils, and candles
  9. Tea drinking ceremonies
  10. Hot oil foot massage, or whole body hot oil massage
  11. Practice Mindfulness-Based Stress Reductions
  12. Sit with your pet and pet it
  13. Plan for an enjoy one whole day of silence
  14. Un plug everything – TV, computer, cell phones (especially), etc.
  15. Take a break from the evening news
  16. Write brief entries in a happiness journal
  17. Locate a “wisdom mentor” and pay for your time with her/him
  18. Apologize to a person you harmed, make amends
  19. Do  your own personal spiritual practices
  20. Write or recite gratitude lists
  21. Hug a lot – with emotional meaning
  22. Walk in a labyrinth
  23. Recycle – reduce your personal carbon footprint
  24. Walk in nature
  25. Have a conversation with your inner self-helper, that part of you that tries to help you be well
  26. Use helpful mantras – “I an ok the way I am.” ” I have enough right now in my life.” ” All things change.”
  27. Practice deep, slow, calm abdominal breathing often during the day – take a breathing break
  28. Practice active kindness and compassion
  29. Practice self-compassion
  30. Love a lot – with emotional meaning
  31. Radically accept yourself, and stop being self-critical

For more information refer to The Little Book of Self-Care…(2017). New York: Adams Media/Simon and Schuster. See also Thich Nhat Hanh (2017). The Art of Living. New York: Harper Collins.

Anthony R. Quintiliani, PhD., LADC

From the Eleanor R. Liebman Center for Secular Meditation in Monkton, Vermont and the Home of The Monkton SanghaChiYinYang_EleanorRLiebmanCenter

Author of Mindful Happiness  

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New Edition of Mindful Happiness in Production…Coming soon!

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Subtle and Direct Experiences of Happiness

Subtle and Direct Experiences of Happiness

Khenpo Sherab Zangpo’s 2017 publication The Path: A Guide to Happiness, Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications has much to offer about how to become a happier person.  Read over the listing below and see what you may be missing.

  1. Try this mantra: “I am happy the way I am.” “I am happy with what I have now.” Remember: “You can’t always get what you want.” “All you/we need is love.”
  2. Long-term transformational happiness requires many years of mindfulness practice via meditation and yoga. It requires that you not succumb to the habit of judging all experiences as pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral. It requires that you radically accept your suffering, and that you fully enjoy your happiness – but without trying to hold on to it. You cannot avoid suffering, and you cannot hold on to joy and happiness. Just BE with it.
  3. Since happiness is largely a state of mind, it is true that it is an inside job.
  4. Let go of rigid attachments/desires/cravings for sensory pleasures. Let go of endless efforts to avoid suffering and pain. You cannot do it! Practice fully experiencing life, the good, the bad, and the neutral. Detach from greed, pride, ego-accomplishments, and craved relationships. Practice being satisfied!
  5. Practice calm abiding when engaged in awareness of mind, body, feelings/sensations, and consciousness regarding all arising and falling phenomena in life. Get out of the endless cycle of partial satisfaction with short-term gains, and relief when suffering fails to reach you. Less is more here! Going with the flow of life is helpful.
  6. Notice that all emotional moods, feelings, sensations are short-term in their arising and falling away. It is all about the totality of impermanence of all things, including our own lives. Stop wasting energy working to suppress and avoid suffering and pain.  It will happen; when it does simply radically accept it and use wise mind skills for living.
  7. Realize that along with impermanence, everything comes from dependent origination. Nothing arises of itself; there are always causes and conditions to the arising and falling away of all human experiences. Change is a constant!
  8. Pure joy does occur. When you notice it simply enjoy it, with full knowledge that it too will change. Be content with it and allow it to enter your mind and body. Enjoy your joy; be one with your happiness.
  9. Happiness occurs only in present moment awareness; it does not occur in past-mind or in future-mind.  These are simply memories of the past and projections into the future.  You have no control over the past; it has already happened. You have no control over the future; plan for it but know you do not control it. Accept!
  10. Like happiness, suffering is also subject to impermanence; it changes in time. All things change in time.
  11. You may activate the feeling of joy and appreciation when meditating or doing yoga outdoors in nature.  Can you meditate and complete asanas with an attitude of joy inside yourself?  Practice this! Be the joy!
  12. Negative mood states of anger, jealousy, anxiety, depression, fear, and trauma need to be faced and radically accepted without activating unhelpful behaviors. Stop self-medicating in fruitless hopes that it will bring joy and end suffering. It will not! Make space for them rather than treating them as your enemy. Befriending via wise mind skills and calm abiding may lead to reduced impact on your emotions. You may even make these conditions your allies, all trying to teach you something that will help you do better, be better. Use self-compassion often.
  13. When emotionally reactive, directly observe the process of your mind to understand why you are experiencing what you are experiencing. Recognize, allow, investigate and reduce impact on the self (RAIN process).   Realize that in the end, the ultimate end, everything is empty. Be skilled. Be happier.
  14. Practice mindfulness, mindfulness meditation, vipassana meditation, yoga, loving kindness, compassion, and gratitude. All these practices will help you.
  15. Study the Four Noble Truths and The Eight Fold Path to understand all phenomena and yourself more deeply. Skills here will lead to greater internal, lasting happiness.
  16. For those of you more involved in Buddhist Psychology, you may want to read Nagarjuna’s, Fundamentals of the Middle Way or Shantideva’s The Way of the Bodhisattva.  May you have great success in learning how to be a happier person! There is much wisdom in these writings.

Anthony R. Quintiliani, PhD., LADC

From the Eleanor R. Liebman Center for Secular Meditation in Monkton, Vermont and the Home of The Monkton SanghaChiYinYang_EleanorRLiebmanCenter

Author of Mindful Happiness  

Mindful Happiness cover designs.indd

New Edition of Mindful Happiness in Production…Coming soon!

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Mindfulness & Happiness – Tools

Mindfulness & Happiness – Tools

In this post I will provide basic instructions for several mind-body practices that allow calm equanimity both at rest and in action.  We will cover RAIN, RAINDROP, Cloud Journeying, Gratitude, Tapping, and other Body-Based practices.

  1. RAIN (Tara Brach) – This simple to use approach helps you to maintain a cognitive focus, thus reducing limbic system reactivity. Simply say to yourself: “RAIN.” R is for recognition of what you are experiencing right now, right here. A is for radically accepting that you cannot simply avoid it; it is happening to you so you must accept it in this present moment. I is for investigate/interest. Bring sincere interest to the experience and investigate what is happening and why it is happening. N is for non-identification or no-self. Is this happening to me or just happening with me in the environment. After the RAIN analysis, simply breathe calmly and quiet down your emotional system. Think: “What should I do right now?”  Do it! See what happens.
  2. RAINDROP (Michele McDonald) – Add to RAIN by cognitively considering if you are: (D) Distracted or aware of recognition, (R) Resisting or accepting, (O) Oblivious or interested/investigating, and (P) Personalizing or non-identifying? Stop the DROPs.
  3. Cloud Journeying (Mariam Gates & Sarah Jane Hinder) – Lying down comfortably with hands placed gently by your sides, breathe in and out slowly and deeply. Close your eyes and slightly extend your exhalation for 10 breaths. Keep the length and force of the exhalation steady for all ten breaths.
  4. Now allow yourself to imagine being lifted gently, floating into the air safely. Use your imagination and land yourself gently in any environment/place you desire your mind-body to be. Feel the peace and equanimity as your breathe deeply and slowly at that selected location. Rest there in your mind!  Check to see if your emotional condition has improved.
  5. Deep Gratitude (David Whyte) – Rest, breathe calmly, and allow yourself to have gratitude for the simple things in your life. Have an inner conversation, in which you say sub-vocally “Thank you” for…… Repeat this process until you note at least ten simple things you do have right now in your life. Go deeper; appreciate the sacredness of your cherished human life. Breathe calmly and rest.
  6. Body Tapping – Callahan Technique or EFT (Amy Kurtz) – If trained to do so, try this tapping sequence. Take a few breaths and do your best to decide what emotional experience you wish to clear out of your reactive mind and body. For example “I am anxious.” Now begin your phrase or mantra: “Even though I am anxious, I love and accept myself.” Now with 2-3 finger tips tap on each of the following meridian points about 8 times and say your mantra out loud as you tap. Here is the point tapping sequence: a) softer side of hands between wrist and small finger; b) the spot where your inner eyebrows begin; c) outside of the eyes  next to the side of each eye; d) upper part of eye sockets below the middle of the eye; e) center space between nose and upper lip; f) indented spot on chin below lower lip; g) the spot an inch below the lower edge of the breastbone next to your throat indentation; h) 3-4 inches below arm pits at  at softer but dense area; and, i) the center of the crown of your head.  Evaluate your emotional condition, and  repeat this tapping sequence as needed. If things become worse, seek professional help. Remember, our emotions are very powerful human experiences.
  7. BE Your True Self (M. A. Singer, etc.) – Some key ways to counteract typical negative emotional habit formations are listed below. a) Recognize that your true spiritual self is the opposite of your ego-defensive, reactive self; b) mindfully recognize what part of your self is unhappy/disturbed when things do not go the way you want them to go; c) notice your defensive-ego, self-ideal protectiveness when you engage in repetitive, emotionally reactive thoughts, emotions, and behaviors – almost always stimulated by external events; d) understand that our brain and body are built to seek pleasure and avoid pain (Freud) and to respond to external experiences with pleasant or unpleasant internal “feeling” responses (The Buddha); e) Get into the cognitive habit of reframing all negative reactions – seek what alternative interpretation might apply; f) Note that when you live emotionally in the past, certain suppressed/repressed experiences stay alive emotionally in you; g) Recognize that when you live fearing the future, you again trap yourself in a negative expectancy syndrome; and, h) Practice this – breathe calmly, relax your body, do yoga and meditate, walk, calms your reactive thoughts, emotions, and behaviors – and consciously LET GO of the experiential reaction over and over and over again. Make this your practice. Things may improve.
  8. The Six Best Friends (The Buddha, etc.) – Whenever you experience pain and suffering, try this psycho-physiological intervention. Do these six things in a cycle; see if your inner experience improves. You may need to repeat the process. Smile, Breathe calmly and deeply, Sit, Stand still, Move your body, Walk a while, then try lying down for a couple minutes.  Repeat as needed. Feeling any better?

There are many sources for these suggestions. The 6th item is based somewhat on Live Interview: M. A. Singer on The Untethered Soul…New Harbinger and Non-Duality Press. Retrieved 12-11-17.

Anthony R. Quintiliani, PhD., LADC

From the Eleanor R. Liebman Center for Secular Meditation in Monkton, Vermont and the Home of The Monkton SanghaChiYinYang_EleanorRLiebmanCenter

Author of Mindful Happiness  

Mindful Happiness cover designs.indd

New Edition of Mindful Happiness in Production…Coming soon!