Please see information below about our insight meditation (vipassana) retreat starting on Friday 18 June. Information includes email address for registration, timetable and other details. Continue reading
Christopher Titmuss Dharma Blog
A Buddhist Perspective
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The Cost of Thinking Too Much About Yourself. 12 Outcomes and the Resolution
You think about yourself. Then you think more. Then you think even more. Day after day. All this thinking makes your life difficult. Very difficult. Do not think otherwise.
Meditation contributes to clearing the mind, finding space in the mind, for thought to be clear and succinct.
Here are 12 Outcomes of Thinking Too Much about Yourself.
You find yourself:
- Addicted to comparing yourself with others.
- Far away from peace of mind
- Feel isolated from what matters.
- Feel cut off from closeness with life, nature and people.
- Feel lonely.
- Feel someone or something is missing in your life.
- Keep feeling disappointed with yourself
- Keep making yourself unhappy.
- Thinking less about needs of others the more you think about yourself.
- Unable to handle stress.
- What you think and what is seems far apart
- Withdrawing from difficult people.
What is the Resolution?
You do not have to be a Buddha to answer the question,
Think less about yourself.
Wake up in the morning with a single resolution.
You do not have to be a Buddha to know the resolution. This is the resolution.
“Today, I am firmly resolved to think less about myself.”
All this thinking stops you living.
Get back your life.
Develop seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching.
Connect. Live.
Photo shows children meditating in
our beloved Prajna Vihar School, Bodh Gaya, India
Is the British Government dangerously out of touch with Reality? Here are Ten Policies and their Impact to Reflect On
The British Government has been in office since December 12, 2019 – about 18 months. Next general election is about three years away in May 2024.
Few Members of Parliament attend sessions due to social distancing and use virtual participation. The Government frequently tell the media that Ministers are not available to give comment to concerns about government policies. House of Parliament seems lifeless along with a muted opposition. Continue reading
Joan Armatrading sings Willow.
During the 1990s, I drove down to Cornwall, the neighbouring county, to listen to Joan Armatrading, the English singer, sing her signature song, Willow, at the end of her concert.
I played the record regularly at home – a soulful song with fine lyrics on offering another refuge in a storm.
I had a couple of reminders of the song this week including her guest appearance on television and a short conversation in Totnes with a person in their 20s whose name echoes the song. She did not know of the song. Willow is the name of Totnes’s first vegetarian restaurant started in the early 1980’s by Isabel L, our wonderful cook (from Germany) for our retreats in India in the mid-1970s.
Here is the link to Youtube. Joan sings Willow in Edmonton, Canada in 1999.The audience quietly sings at the end. She is singing in the zone. Beautiful.
Here are the lyrics.
WILLOW
I may not be your best
You know good ones don’t come by the score
You’ve got something missing
I’ll help you look you can be sure
And if you want to be alone
Or someone to share a laugh
Whatever you want me to
All you gotta do is ask
Thunder
Don’t go under the sheets
Lightning under a tree
In the rain and snow
I’ll be your fire side
Come running to me
When things get out of hand
Running to me
When it’s more than you can stand
I said I’m strong
Straight
Willing
To be a
Shelter
In a storm
Your willow
Oh willow
When the sun is out
A fight with your best girl
Prettiest thing you ever saw
You know I’ll listen
Try to get a message to her
And if it’s money you want
Or trouble halved
Whatever you want me to
All you gotta do is ask
I said I’m strong
Straight
Willing
To be a
Shelter
In a storm
Your willow
Oh willow
When the sun is out
Shelter in a storm
Your willow
Oh willow
When the sun is out
Thank you, Joan.
May all know a willow in their life who offers shelter in a storm.
May all beings remember to engage in the Dance of Life (Lila in Sanskrit)
PS. We can listen to music, sing with the song or dance to music.
In case you are wondering.
It is not Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson or Mick Jagger.
It is not Fred Astaire (1899-1987)
– regarded as probably America’s finest dancer of all time
along with his dance partner, Ginger Rogers.
Photo taken at a party in Brighton in a dance studio.
Start an Insight Journal. Free from streams of words about what you think, what you did and who you saw.
We often think of a diary or journal as an account of what did from one day to the next. We might write about our feelings and thoughts about ourselves, another(s) and places.
From time to time, you might uncover an insight when you write about an experience.
An Insight Journal (to give this kind of journal a name) makes insight the whole purpose of the writing. Continue reading