Obaitori

obtaining happiness

I'm reminded again and again that when I chant it is best to chant for the happiness of others and my own happiness. Why? Why not chant for the perfect teacher, the best house, the yummiest lover? Because desire is never fulfilled. We know this when we think we will be happy when we get that really comfy lounge delivered, or that book, or that ingredient, dress, pair of shoes, sewing machine, paint tin or that thing we think will fill the hole. That hole is never ending because we cannot become happy with stuff. It is like adding extra fuel to the fire, the fire continuously burns generating more heat. We need to add more to the fire and it just gets bigger and bigger.

We become happy from the inside out, not the outside in.

If I chant/pray for very specific certain things these things might not be the best things for me right now. How do I know what is good for me right now? I can't see into the future. What I think I need one day can very well change the next. We all know those situations. Imagine you want to enrol in a university course. You chant obssessively for this desired outcome. You get in and then realise that this course is really not you. Getting out of the situation is costly, irksome, uncomfortable. Our mind so easily gets caught up in the intellect, the details, the desire, the want. The mind - it being a very cheeky, drunk monkey - runs away with things. It starts thinking what if, maybe this would be better, blah, blah, blah. Our sweet, dear exhausted mind hops back on that treadmil, around, around, around.

Time to get off.

We all want happiness - I'm sure about that - so how do we develop it?

We start by understanding that we are not this mind. We are eternal bliss divine. This is our nature. It is just that we are caught up in this material life. We are easily swayed by 'things.' I'm highly suggestable. So we become aware of the mind. We watch it like a movie. Slowly, step by step we can recognize why the mind is reacting the way it is and we can become detatched from the mind. It is a little bit like observing a child having a tantrum. Watch, understand, be gentle, sooth the mind. Stand back become the witness. Don't try to control the mind, simple watch it.

In meditation the mind is quietly observed like a movie. The 'stuff' or dross comes up and if there is no reaction it simply sloughs off and up to never return.

The things I need to sort out in mind I look at from every angle. I work out what the 'problem' is. I look for solutions. I find resolves, action. I find amongst most things, hope. The concept to never give up, to never disparage.

I turn my mind to a higher consciousness. I feel happy when I'm sitting at my altar. Life is peaceful there. Sometimes it is a torrent. But I can choose to simply watch it - no reaction.

I replace the negative thought not by supressing it but instead by not-reacting to it. The weeds in my mind turn up and die. I replace it with a higher vibration - mantra. It brings me back to my true self.

Eventually the mind becomes silent, eventually, eventually.

I chant for happiness and the happiness of all other sentient and non-sentient beings.

May you be eternally happy.

 

a positive blueprint

One definition of meditation ~

 

"To meditate means to become familiar with your positive thoughts, positive mind. You try to increase the positive potentials of the mind and reduce the negative imprints in the mind. If you can’t do that it’s useless to just focus your mind on the breath. It’s meaningless. The main thing is to increase the positive potentials that are in your mindstream. That’s called meditation.

At the beginning you think over and over the various positive thoughts, and gradually the mind gets familiar with them, your mind becomes of that nature; then, you don’t even need to think or give a reason, the thought will rise spontaneously in your mind.

You practice the positive over and over, and when you’re able to eliminate the negative thoughts gradually, then this will cause realizations." ~ H.E. Choden Rinpoche ~

 

Photo ~ Indira

sacred and still

We enjoyed blissful sunshine. I noticed that Yogi's fur coat is getting thicker - a winter coat.

My sadhana for Lent is, of course, being challenged - giving up negative thought and trying for only positive thinking - is massive. Slow down, be steady, remember that everything happens for a reason.

With Mars - my numero uno planet is at a standstill in the sky - I feel like I'm a bull standing at a fence waiting for someone to open the gate. My astrology says, 'it is good at this time to plan, prepare...' Aaah, I prefer action thanks very much!!! I also need to be reminded, be patient, quiet, steady. Slow down, be steady, remember that everything happens for a reason.

We've been to a 21st birthday party, picnicked in the sun, eaten blueberry pancakes, momos, sketched, created a powerful mandala from coloured rice, read and rested in the cool shade.

I am trying for only positive thought, not to get caught up on that turning mouse wheel of my mind.

Positive thought, word and deed.

I'm off to light massive amounts of incense to cleanse my mind and to connect our house to the higher realms, blast mantras from the speakers and practice peace, peace, peace whilst doing a yoga nidra on my new sheets.

I'm chanting for my happiness, my family's and your's. Hope your weekend was fabulous! Joining Amanda.

Leave a comment, how are you, what did you do over the weekend, how is Lent going, are you practising any sadhana at the moment, is a planet affecting you at the moment, what do you do when you need to be patient?

 

 

{this moment}

 

A Friday ritual;   - a single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

 

 

Inspired by Soule Mama.

may all beings be happy

I know that a lot of people are not celebrating Losar this year. But I am. We have a Tibetan sponsor child ~ Woeser Lhamo ~ living in India who hasn't seen her family for over four years. I know her mother cries out to her child's heart. Every mother would.

No matter what sort of difficulties, how painful the experience is, if we lose our hope, that’s our real disaster.

~ His Holiness the Dalai Lama ~

 

Today with this quote from the HH Dalai Lama, I wish all Tibetans everywhere a very happy and peaceful new year for 2012. Om shanti om. Tibet will be free.

 

When we demand the rights and freedoms we so cherish,

We should also be aware of our responsibilities.

If we accept that others have an equal right

To peace and happiness as ourselves

Do we not have a responsibility to help those in need?

~ His Holiness the Dalai Lama ~

 

Celebrate by taking action. If you are in Australia write to Kevin Rudd to take a stronger step up on goverment action to support Tibet. Elsewhere contact your local Tibetan Council. Please support Tibet!

a better inner me ~ freedom

In preparation for Obaitori's first meeting on the Art of Freedom, here are a few ideas to get your mind going on the concept of freedom...

“The secret of happiness is freedom. The secret of freedom is courage.” Thucydides quotes (Ancient Greek historians and author, 460-404bc)

Freeing yourself from the conditioned mind establishes the most profound experience of joy and inner freedom. Liberation of this kind is what we are all, consciously or not, longing for. It is this longing that drives us to do the things we do. Somewhere deep inside we all long for freedom, satisfaction and pure ecstasy. The only illusion/difficulty here is that most of us seek for it in all but the right place...

“There are two paths in life. One path is known as pravritti - towards materialism, towards the senses, and the other path is nivritti - towards freedom, towards harmony. In our personality we have different attributes which pull us towards pravritti and also towards nivritti. The basic character of a human being on the sensorial path, pravritti, manifests as awareness of ambitions and limitations, whereas nivritti, the path of freedom, is characterized by awareness of needs and strengths. Pravritti is ambition and limitation. Nivritti is strength and need.

Instead of being driven by our ambitions, we should be driven by our needs. Instead of highlighting our limitations and weaknesses, we should be highlighting our positive strengths and qualities. With just this much change we can move from pravritti, sensorial bondage, or the state of technological hypnosis, towards freedom and a more natural life.

Although the process is simple, it is also very involved because we have never been trained in how to educate and discipline the mind. We are not able to look at ourselves. We are performers, what is known in Vedantic terminology as bhokta, the enjoyer, karta, the doer; we are not witnesses of the performance. Yoga says you have to be the drashta, the witness of what you do, the witness of what you enjoy, the witness of your actions.”

The first three sutras of Patanjali's yoga darshan define the process of yoga. The first sutra is: Atha yogah anushasanam - "Yoga is to be understood as a form of discipline". The second sutra is: Yogaschitta vritti nirodhah - "Yoga is a system of mind management, of managing the modifications of mind". The third sutra is: Tada drashtuh svarupe avasthanam - "Once the mind is managed and guided, a person becomes the seer, the observer, and that observer establishes himself or herself in their own true nature". These three sutras are the most relevant ones to understand in today's context.

In our early life, the education we are provided with helps us to become more aggressive and competitive. It gives us the skills, concepts and ideas to act at the outer material level, to know how to attain the things we desire, how to acquire money, how to have an affluent society and how to be part of it, how to excel in our profession or field of expertise. The entire education is directed towards building a better 'outer me', but how to become a better 'inner me' is not part of the education policy.

The spiritual and yogic traditions try to fill this gap. In yoga the concept of discipline is governing the subtle processes of one's personality. Patanjali has used the word 'anushasan', which in English has been translated as discipline, but this translation is not correct. Discipline means establishing certain rules, conditions and norms, defining certain parameters within which one has to function and act. Discipline actually means 'niyama' and the word 'anushasan' means governance. The personality has to be governed just as a country or society has to be governed. In a country you have good and bad people. In a society you have good and bad people. Within you have goodness and badness, and what is within has to be governed in the right manner so that it does not become a barrier or a restrictive factor, but rather helps to create a condition in which one can be optimally creative. “

Swami niranjan. Full article; http://www.yogamag.net/archives/2003/bmar03/freedom.shtml

Looking forward to seeing your lovely faces and connecting with your beautiful soul's. Katie xxxxx

 

 

life is precious and irreplaceable

 

 

Over the weeked I went around the world with Kien Lam.

Farewelled friend's moving to the city. The children bathed in their ginormous tub.

Ate figs, boccochini and mint here in the Easiest Sexiest Salad.

Attended a Buddhist meeting where the discussion material was on Courage - more about that later.

Painted furniture. Admired Dazla's horticulture abilities.

Swam in the crystal cool ocean and started creating my list for a wonderfully, happy, determined life.

Joining up with Amanda.

Wishing you all a very happy and auspicious week ahead. There are many reasons to celebrate, today is Mahashivaratri, Wednesday heralds Losar - Tibetan new year and is also the beginning of Lent. So, on this new moon it is a good time to start anew.

"This lifetime will never come again; it is precious and irreplaceable. To live without regret, it is crucial for us to have a concrete purpose and continually set goals and challenges for ourselves. It is equally important that we keep moving toward specific targets steadily and tenaciously, one step at a time.”

~ Ikeda ~

 

~ a new opportunity ~

Beautiful Women,

Soon, we enter a phase called the Dark of the Moon or the New Moon, when great things can happen. And on Sunday, at 6.18am, the Sun enters Pisces.

Obaitori is on Tuesday evening at 7 - 9pm.

Lent - the 40 day cleanse - begins on Wednesday with the New Moon . It is traditional to 'give up' something. Working with the yogic 'Theory of Opposites' we can use this time at Lent, using positive language to create beautiful change in our lives that will evolve our Self.

I usually give up negative thought for Lent - so my focus is positive thought. Through this idea I look for opportunities when faced with adversity. These are the things I'm planning for in my life this weekend. I have a list of things that I want to create in my life - I chant for these things twice a day - they are not material things but things like attaining Buddhahood, that my friends and family will be happy.

Mars is in retrograde - so it is a good time for planning and preparing. Keep up your hopes, dreams, affirmations, visualisations and prayers because they will manifest. Repeat your sankalpa whenever you are quiet or still.

It is also a good time to prepare your environment to welcome fresh change, get rid of rubbish, clutter, clear the energy around you, use feng shui, open and clean windows, wash your crystals and leave them out on the new moon on late Tuesday evening. Some ideas; Creating a sacred space.

22 Feb 2012        Moonrise 6:39 AM           Moonset 7:30 PM            Meridian passing 1:08 PM           

new moon 9:30am


If you want to create something new in your life the world is perfectly positioned for these seeds to be planted this week. Be specific in your list writing, prayers - however you do it - , the clearer you are, the clearer your message will be heard. Some inspiration; Life - create a masterpiece. Obtaining your heart's desire.

If you are coming to Obaitori on Tuesday evening please prepare your sankalpa for yoga nidra. Work on it, refine it, make it very clear and it will come true.

We will be discussing the concept of freedom. Think about what this concept means to you, what is your definition of freedom?

Over the next 5 sessions of Obaitori we will be studying the Art of Freedom, what it is, what it means to us individually, how we can practice it and how we can develop this concept in our lives to create peace, love and harmonious happy life.

Please bring a mat, something to cover yourself with and a donation for Indigenous Australian children.

Love Katie xxx

 

{this moment}

Inspired by Soule Mama.

A Friday ritual;   - a single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

motherly love

My wonderful friend Amanda has reintroduced my family to the love of Mother Mary. I feel her presence like any other saint, sage or god like an energy. For me she brings calm, patience and love. Symbolically I notice she is around when I see stars, particularly blue ones, white lilies and a soft and gentle mother, i.e. Amanda.

A short story today of Mary's love;

Yesterday I took the children to school. I had three options of things to do and as I was driving in that direction I put my blinker on to turn left to go to mass. It was bit sub-concious and as I was turning the corner I thought, 'Oh, okay here we go.' As I pulled in to the school where the mass was being held - the first all school mass for the year - I took a little 'gasp' of air. The carpark was packed, people had parked up the hill and all along the top of the road. 'It's okay, you'll find something,' I thought.

As I pulled into the car park my friend Amanda was pulling out. I thought she would be going as it was her little boy's first school mass. She explained that she had been called out by one her friend's in great need. She asked me if I saw her children could I explain what happened and tell them she loved them.

We swapped car spots and mothering roles and I went into the packed church - about 1000 people there.

The service was beautiful, teary and obviously very important for the new 'school leaders' - all of year 6 - and the kindergarteners.

I left to wait outside so I might try and see the children coming out. I was quite confident that I would 'catch' them as they were filing out singley but then I turned around and noticed they were also coming out from the other side! Aarghh, 500 children!

Long story short - I found them, relayed the message of love, told them that I loved them and that they both looked very proud and happy, took photos and left. I sat in the car and felt so happy that Mary had put us there - in that situation - Amanda was able to help her friend and I was able to support them both, able to love her children and nurture myself.

Om shanti om. Thank you divine universe...