Progress & Ego

When you are seeing progression in your meditations and have started to lengthen the sitting periods, you will start to do analytical meditations on a number of subjects. These can be Karma, Precious Human Life, Death and Impermanence etc. These meditations should be done and contemplated regularly to the point that you do not just think about them, but feel them in your heart. You will know when you feel them, as your level of devotion will increase.

By doing these meditations, you may start to see progress in the way you see life and many other traits you had previously. You may have deep periods of insight in your meditations that cannot even be described. This can be very inspiring and you will want to shout from the rooftops about this, however, one needs to be aware of ego at such times, as at any given moment it will use this progress to make you feel more superior to others. These kinds of thoughts are ultimately against every part of what you are seeking, but they can be very subtle. Rejoice in these moments of progress and allow them to keep you moving forward in what is ultimately the right direction, just be aware of the ego wanting to use these small steps on the quest for liberation to bring you back down.
Stay with your course of meditations and keep marching on as every little step allows you one step closer to knowing yourself.

 

Compassion Part 1

Compassion is something used in Buddhism an awful lot, however it is aimed mainly at others, and I will cover this in part 2.
In today's post we will be looking at compassion towards ones self.
How often do we think positively about ourselves. For me and I'm sure many others, we are programmed to think about what we have done wrong, and over the years this leads to negative thoughts that make us feel, at times, that we are bad people, when really nothing could be further from the truth. By thinking this way we are positively reinforcing them negative thought and in some cases can push us towards further negative tendencies.
When I was young, if you were seen to be thinking about your own well being it was considered selfish and I guess this was meant to allow you to grow as a person and develop qualities such as sharing and other great qualities that develop good relationships with others, but what we fail to have learn is to be compassionate to ourselves equally. I will give an example this:

We live in a very busy and hectic society and work an awful lot, this can cause high levels of stress at times. When you leave your place of work you feel somewhat free and able to relax.
Sometimes though, life outside of work can get equally as stressful and you are faced with what feels like a wall of stress, and there is only so much your body can take before you start to get physical symptoms of stress. You see your doctor and he feels that you need to take time off work and he signs you off. So you feel bad, as your letting your team mates down and causing them more stress, you may also feel that people think that you are just blowing stuff out of proportion and are just wanting to take time off.
What we often forget, is that we need to cut ourselves a break, we need to look after ourselves and that is 100% OK. People at work in reality are wishing you well and hoping that you feel better soon, for your own benefit. But we give ourselves a hard time all the time and we really need to stop this as it is very destructive. We are great people and yes we make mistakes and often do silly things but this does not define us. From time to time when I feel a little down or feeling sorry for myself I say the below mantra to myself to make me feel my life is meaningful.

"You are a good person, you care about others and you are just seeking happiness for all"

When I say this to myself, I say it with meaning and it really does make me feel better, why not give it a try. Write your own mantra that has real meaning to you.

To love others, you must first learn to love yourself