It is amazing how many people are caught in the trap of being deeply concerned with how things are looking to others. Keeping Up Appearances has become, for some, an obsession. Many of us will even give up our own happiness (or our chance at it) in order to keep "looking good" in the eyes of others. This is beyond sad. It is tragic.

There’s a beautiful teaching in the Buddhist literature that the Dalai Lama often quotes that says, “If there is a remedy or a cure, a solution to a problem or difficulty, why worry?” There’s no need to worry. If there’s no solution, there’s no point to worry, because worry is always an extra burden. You get [something] in your body that is the suffering or the problem, and then you [add] a second one, which is worry. In both cases, [it is] pointless.

Just be free, and at least you will go through adversity with a stronger mind, and therefore, you’ll be less affected, and pain will affect you less. A big part of pain is the subjective reaction of trying to revolt against pain. If it’s there, it’s better to deal with it. Most of it is “I cannot stand it,” and that component is enhancing pain so much. The way you experience [pain] can change so much depending on your attitude. ~ Matthieu Ricard

"Sometimes I sits and thinks, and sometimes I just sits." This often heard quote by baseball player Satchel Paige may bring a smile to our face as we recall similar behaviors in ourselves.  Hot summer days and nights are conducive to sitting on porches with a tall, cool drink and just reflecting on the state of our lives. Mulling over thoughts aided by summer scents and warm breezes predispositions us for a meditative mood that easily lapses into daydreaming. Half unconsciously, we play out the movie of our life and relive the pleasant parts and hopefully skip over those episodes that need fast forwarding. These thoughts may serve as a personal inventory as to what works in our lives and what doesn’t work so well.

Experiments have indicated that the region of the brain associated with emotions such as compassion shows considerably higher activity in those with long-term meditative experience. These discoveries suggest that basic human qualities can be deliberately cultivated through mental training. The study of the influence of... mental states on health, which was once considered fanciful, is now an increasing part of the scientific research agenda. And, one does not have to be a highly trained: 20 minutes of daily practice can contribute significantly to a reduction of anxiety and stress, the tendency to become angry and the risk of relapse in cases of severe depression. Thirty minutes a day over the course of eight weeks results in a considerable strengthening of the immune system and of one’s capacity for concentration. It also speeds up the healing of psoriasis and decreases arterial tension in people suffering from hypertension. ~ Matthieu Ricard
Mindfulness Meditation Class
Wednesdays 7:15-8:15pm
The Yoga Co-op Savannah
2424 Draton St.
Class fees are $13 (ask about membership rates)
...The Mindfulness Meditation Class teaches a generic mindfulness stress reduction meditation based predominately on Jon Kabot Zinn’s MBSR Programs, Herbert Benson’s research on the Relaxation Response, and Soto Zen practice. The class would provide some instruction, a specific time for practice, and time for questions and comments. Feel free to bring your own sitting cushions if desired. Folding chairs and bolsters are available in the classroom.
More Info: 912-429-7264 or check the link. www.yogacoopsavannah.com

One drop of water taken from the ocean is just as perfect ocean water as the whole great body. The constituent elements of water are exactly the same, and they are combined in precisely the same ratio or perfect relation to each other, whether we consider one drop, a pailful, a barrelful, or the entire ocean out of which the lesser quantities are taken; each is complete in itself; they differ only in quantity or degree. Each contains the whole; and yet no one would make the mistake of supposing from this statement that each drop is the entire ocean. So we say that each individual manifestation of God contains the whole; not for a moment meaning that each individual is God in His entirety, so to speak, but that each is God come forth, shall I say? in different quantity or degree. ~  H. Emilie Cady

There once was a monastery that was very strict. Following a vow of silence, no one was allowed to speak at all. But there was one exception to this rule. Every ten years, the monks were permitted to speak just two words. After spending his first ten years at the monastery, one monk went to the head monk. "It has been ten years," said the head monk. "What are the two words you would like to speak?"

"Bed... hard..." said the monk.

"I see," replied the head monk.

Ten years later, the monk returned to the head monk's office. "It has been ten more years," said the head monk. "What are the two words you would like to speak?"

"Food... stinks..." said the monk.

"I see," replied the head monk.

Yet another ten years passed and the monk once again met with the head monk who asked, "What are your two words now, after these ten years?"

"I... quit!" said the monk.

"Well, I can see why," replied the head monk. "All you ever do is complain."

The big mental shift you have to make is to realize that increased longevity is not an extension of old age. It is a new developmental stage inserted between adulthood and old age anywhere between age 50 and 80, and, for some people, age 90. People go back to school, they form new marriages, they take up new avocations, and they are inventing new ways of growing old. The concept of Active Wisdom, the reason why I use that phrase, is because wisdom is the most positive trait that we associate with old people. In the past, you didn’t have a long life of experience leading to wisdom in combination with many years of continuing energy and health that allow you to be very active.  Most people are still alive at 65 and most of them are going to hang around for another 10 years, and a lot of them 15, 20, maybe 30 years. What’s so sacred about age 65? It has been frozen as a symbolic turning point, but this no longer makes sense. We are still telling people that they should retire and take it easy. I think we need to be telling people, “Contribute, do something worthwhile, participate!” ~ Mary Catherine Bateson

A student went to his meditation teacher and said, "My meditation is horrible! I feel so distracted, or my legs ache, or I'm constantly falling asleep. It's just horrible!"

"It will pass," the teacher said matter-of-factly.

A week later, the student came back to his teacher. "My meditation is wonderful! I feel so aware, so peaceful, so alive! It's just wonderful!'

"It will pass," the teacher replied matter-of-factly.

It is tempting to undertake a meditation practice or path of development with the same kind of clinging motivation with which we might have undertaken anything else. Perhaps we feel empty inside, we feel bereft in some ways, we feel we are not good enough, and so we undertake spiritual practice to try to ameliorate all of that. But evolving a spiritual practice is not about having and getting; it is about being more and more compassionate toward ourselves and toward others. It is not about assuming a new self-image or manufactured persona; it is about being compassionate naturally, out of what we see, out of what we understand. Compassion is like a mirror into which we can always look. It is like a stream that steadily carries us. It is like a cleansing fire that continually transforms us. ~ Sharon Salzberg

In the extensive neuroscience research on meditation being done around the world at this time, mental training has demonstrated the following benefits:

• Attentional balance:
  The capacity to have a sustaining, vivid, stable, effortless, and nonjudgmental attention (the base of presence and executive control)
• Emotional balance:
  The cultivation of prosocial mental states, including altruism, empathy, compassion, kindness, joy, equanimity
• Cognitive control:
  The ability to guide thought and behavior in accord with one’s intention
  The ability to override habitual responses and to down-regulate
  The cultivation of mental flexibility, insight, meta-cognition, and reappraisal.
• Health and resilience:
  Stress reduction, relaxation
  Enhanced immune response, decreased inflammation

In exploring compassion meditation, for example, we see that the base of compassion practice includes mindful attention to the present moment. The meditation teacher Jon Kabat-Zinn has defined mindfulness as “… moment-to-moment, non-judgmental awareness, cultivated by paying attention in a specific way, that is, in the present moment, and as non-reactively, as non-judgmentally, and as openheartedly as possible.”