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fillyjonk i am the heart that you call home
I teach a meditation class and I sometimes think I am a hypocrite because I am always encouraging everyone to have a steadfast daily practice when I sometimes slip up. I think if you are trying your hardest to keep a daily practice, then that’s what matters. When I teach, I try to remember that I am just passing on Buddha’s teachings. I am a student, just like the people I am teaching. I try to keep Buddha at my heart and let him teach through me. As teachers, we don’t have to be perfect, but we should lead a good example of someone who is striving on the path.
nancywhite23 accepting something I can't change
Thank you for your words.
This kind of sincere feelings move me very much.
joie de vivre here only intermittantly
One time, on a week-long retreat, our instructor became very ill, and each student took turns holding the sacred space for the group. I found this to be a very positive experience – not just for me to sit up there on the platform, but I felt we were all sitting strongly in support of each other, in a way we wouldn’t have if the teacher had been present.
I think you should go for it – you may learn more as a leader than you would just in your sporadic solo practice
fillyjonk i am the heart that you call home
thanks for the vote of confidence!
i’ve also spent several sessions during retreats doing that, and i found that even though i was keeping half an eye on the clock so i could time the sitting and walking meditations, my meditation was surprisingly deep. holding the space for others made me more committed and present in my own practice.
so, i’ve got no doubt that i would benefit from the experience… i just hope that i could offer some benefit to the people who might come to the sessions too.
nancywhite23 accepting something I can't change
What is meditation about? I don’t have the experience but from your words I feel it very interesting and meaningful and rewarding.
What do we usually do when in meditation?
Thinking of the Buddha’s teachings or something else?
I wouldn’t – IMHO, it is important to “walk the talk”, use this as an opportunity to become regular with your own practice….and I am sure that sooner rather than later you will have the opportunity to lead the sessions
fillyjonk i am the heart that you call home
thanks for your response, i appreciate it! my reply to brett’s post was also, in part, a reply to yours.
Brett Sanders is a self-improving, self-knowing tree hugger
If I was given the opportunity to lead a meditation group I would take this as an opportunity to learn more about my self.
I would take time in nature (sitting, standing, walking or moving) and listen to what comes up in your heart. Listening to the heart, and not the mind would tell me whether this is the right thing for me at this particular time in my life.
Does this opportunity take me towards my long term vision of my self, or away?
With regards to whether I would need to be “walking the talk” or not, I feel that with something like meditation I would be happy to teach others even if my own self time had been sporadic.
fillyjonk i am the heart that you call home
my heart tells me to do it, through and through. my mind is telling me otherwise.
re a long term vision of myself… i feel its possibly the only route which will take me to a place where i AM meditating daily. because, being aware of my inexperience, there is no way i would put myself in that position without being fully committed to my own practice.
if i was to wait until the time when my practice was fully established before starting this i might be waiting forever.
but to use teaching as a crutch to jumpstart my own practice seems most back to front.. but as ive said in a couple of other posts, it tends to be a fairly well used M.O. of mine….
is it completely wrong? or is it a way to grow a little more (despite my tendency otherwise to resist anything which is good for me), and facilitate (even if its just a little bit) the same in others?
Brett Sanders is a self-improving, self-knowing tree hugger
The fact that you have noticed this character trait that you have in yourself, this “shadow” of the “ego” is a perfect example of what it is to be a meditator.
You do not have to sit in the lotus position for a set time each day in order to be a meditator.
You must simply be present. You must watch yourself, do not judge your actions to be good or bad, but just what they are, and respond then to the feelings of your heart.
Based on what you have told me, my intuition tells me that you want to do this.
Maybe you should not deny yourself this? Or maybe you should? I can’t answer for you! :-)
I am sure you will choose the right answer. But remember, you don’t HAVE to meditate daily. You just need to be present with yourself.
Lovely words Brett.
“Must” be present, mmmm
To many musts
Make life a bit musty.
We are present.
There is only present.
Realising that,
Is meditation.
Perfection never changes.
It is however,
Rather easy
To get attached to the game,
Of pretending it does.
nancywhite23 accepting something I can't change
What a wonderful word when you say” we just need to be present with ourselves”~~:-)
Maybe I need to do this too. I can’t be present with myself because I have big worries in my life. I am always in thinking what I should do with my boyfriend, to go on or to stop, and so on.
I can’t really appreciate life now for I’m afraid that I can’t be with him in the future because of my mother or my father’s pressure on me. I will be very sad if I can’t be with him only because I don’t have the courage.
It’s a big headache for me. I worry a lot about it.
But the point now is not that I want to or I must be married to him in the future. The point now is I want to fulfill myself, to accomplish myself, to be the best of myself.
I need the courage because I want to change.
I need to cultivate the habit of never caring about others’ opinion.
I need to express my opinion confidently even I am now without position and a job.
And I want to know what meditation is all about.
Brett Sanders is a self-improving, self-knowing tree hugger
Hi, sorry for the delay in replying to your comment.
I have written a blog post on “what meditation is all about” just for you.
I hope you find it interesting!
http://vitalityhealthhub.com/happiness/meditation-whats-it-all-about/
nancywhite23 accepting something I can't change
I must change my habit that when I’m with my parents, I listen to my parents; when I’m with my boyfriend, I listen to him; when I’m with my friends, I listen to them.
I must forgive myself, only by doing this I can begin again, trust myself and do good things for myself.
I must be in total trust of myself, trust my own choices no matter whether they are different with others’ or not.
That’s a lesson I must learn.
I need to love myself, for example change the habit of resisting the good things which are good for me.
Haha.
nancywhite23 accepting something I can't change
Thank you for being so sincere. I am the same that sometimes I resist things which are good for me. I want to change.
Thank you.
The answer depends on what is meant by “leading” a meditation group.
If it means being responsible for being there every week and “opening” the meditation group and leading the group from a meditation text that is a proven method from a teacher or Lama with direct experience of the teachings themselves – then perhaps yes. As long as you don’t offer yourself up as a “teacher” and you redirect questions that you have no actual, direct experience with to a teacher or a text that does.
If this position requires you to provide answers and guidance – then it’s a bit of the blind leading the blind, isn’t it? Your heart obviously has a great capacity for compassion and the wish to help others. You can use this as a motivation to deepen your practice and to become more diligent and consistent with it so that you can eventually help others with theirs.
In Buddhism, teachers are living embodiments of the culmination of the teachings and practice. People will hold you as their example, and if you fall down, then you have taken on the karma of breaking their confidence in teachings that can lead them to enlightenment. This is why being a teacher is something not to be taken lightly. For either student or teacher. As a student you really have to check out your teacher to make sure they are the real thing. And as a teacher you have to really be the thing that you say you are. This is why teachers are not self-appointed in Buddhism.
Though the example I use is taken from Buddhism, it seems to make sense for any spiritual approach that involves the direct methods of meditation.
(Background note: this information is informed by Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhism)
