Go your own way, all else is straying' - mindfulness HOW, WHAT?

"I am sick of it!" everyone gives me a different explanation."
Orion looked at Arthur, refilled his cup and sipped hot cinnamon tea.
"Everyone is different," he said.
Arthur looked at the master in frustration.
"Yes, everyone is different," he repeated, and that's why everyone gives a different explanation for 'mindfulness?'"
"Yes," Orion watched his visitor.
They sat in his cave in the great Oriander cliff,   outside windriders circled in the breeze coming in from Umi-Jabour, the great desert, created by the technocrats over three thousand years ago.
"But they all say their definition is the only way."
Orion shrugged, sipped tea, and watched  the sea of sand, the circling windriders.
"Learning to walk, no one can do it for you. Once you can do it, it's easy and you are the expert."
Arthur chuckled, "yes, that's true, So what do I do ?"
"Keep learning."
Arthur took a deep breath, "How did you learn to walk ?"
Orion shook his head, smiled his upside down smile, "I tried and tried."
Orion glanced at the small picture of his teacher the back of the cave, "my master told me to feel the ground, to listen to the sounds around me ....and I listened and I followed. And I became more and more heavy and  focussed on the physical world. It didn't help me, didn't work for me.. I thought it was my fault."
He smiled, "but one day I saw. My master was teaching me what had worked for him. He needed that way, but it didn't work for me."
Orion drank from his cup, poured some more from his teapot and leaned back.
"So what worked for you master?"
Orion shook his head, "so you can copy my path ? Don't."
Arthur smiled, "I guess, yes, sort of, I want to hear your story,  I need to try something."
Orion nodded, "I to copy someone until I realized it wouldn't work for me.
Then  I tried something else."
"What ? "
Orion smiled, shrugged, "so you can walk my path ? Ok do it, if you like. But let it go one day and do YOUR thing, 'Go your own way, all else is straying'." 
Arthur nodded slowly, "Tell me more, please."
Orion sighed, smiled, " ..- you will tell your students the same thing one day.
I played with my awareness:  I realized how much I was focused out of myself.
I decided to feel, to become  aware of my feelings, my breath at the SAME time as I lived my daily life."
"Oh," Arthur looked disappointed.
Orion took a small rock from a pile on his right side, looked at it and threw it out of the open cave. It would fall three hundred yards. He listened for the impact, but the whistling of the windriders, and the  sounds of the wind rushing  from the Sea of Sand, smothered it.

He looked at Arthur: "as you listen to me, as you  look at me, at the SAME time, feel inside,  FEEL, -- what do you feel ?"
Arthur was silent for a while.
"Terror. It feels bad."
"Yes, that's the first gate."
"Oh."
Orion smiled.
"What's the second?"
A wry grin was the answer.
A keen cry from the outside brought their attention to the windrider soaring past their cave. The wings of her glider almost scraped the rock.
Arthur rushed to look up, watch and resumed his place on the cushion.
"She made it, only just."
Orion nodded.
"You knew?"
"No..." Orion stood up, walked to the very edge of the cave, looked down, the three hundred yards. "If you like to try something: imagine what your goal will be, feel it, let the images talk to you... " he turned and looked at Arthur with a crooked smile, "I've probably said to much already".

.....to be continued......->

medical empowerment - connecting to yourself

One day Joe Bloe goes and sees the doctor. "Your cholesterol is too high, you need to do this and that and take these pills. Oh and you should cut down on stress, smoking and relax more."
"Your blood pressure is too high.... .... take these pills..."
"Your blood sugar levels are outside the normal range, better take this ...."

Mrauk U Myanmar July2010

At this point Joe has a choice.
He can view his body as a kind of machine and the doctor as a mechanic who 'tries to fix it'. 
OR
He can view the diagnosis as a sign that something in his lifestyle, body, consciousness, emotions is out of balance. 


If  Joe sees himself as a machine then he will remain reliant on outside intervention and specialized equipment to give him feedback how his body-machine is doing. (Note: there is nothing wrong with this view). 


If Joe works out what aspect his body, lifestyle,  consciousness, emotions, is out of balance then he can start to make changes. He can use the external specialized equipment to give him feedback about how well his changes are going. 
The required changes may be simple, such as  cutting back on whatever he is eating, drinking, or doing too much of - or the changes could be deeper, connecting to his emotions and feelings and underlying attitudes. 


Lets say that at some point as Joe looks at his deeper feelings and makes changes. 
His readings come back into the normal range. 
Eventually he will find that he works out the connection between his lifestyle, attitude, consciousness and intent and the blood pressure, and cholesterol readings. 
He finds a connection that is intuitive,  feeling and practical. He will start to know when he is going outside the limits of what is good for him. 


This same principle is used in biofeedback devices, i.e. giving the person a way of connecting to an aspect of their being they were not able to connect to otherwise. 


There is no point blaming the medical establishment, in the final analysis it is Joe's choice in how he reacts. There is a lot of pressure to view things in ONE particular way, sure, but isn't there in every aspect of life ?  :-) 


Even more importantly: there is a temptation for Joe to blame himself for being sick, for not getting better. 

        Lets say Joe Bloe does find the imbalance in himself, his furious temper gets better, he genuinely relaxes, and yet his cholesterol and blood pressure don't change. 

This really frustrates him. 
Then he suddenly realizes: There is another level of awareness he needs to look at: how he treats himself. 
Can he forgive himself for being what is he is NOW ? for being sick ? 
Can he accept himself for being ill ?
Sometimes this acceptance can be the greatest healer of all... 


Authors note: That is one of the biggest lessons of all.... at least I have found it so. Not sure I've got anywhere near mastering it yet... :-P 


Acknowledgements: 
Thanks to many many friends, long conversations over the years, and people I can't all name,.... Vilayphone, Phoenix, Nok, Emmanuel, my father Fritz  Rudolph for being sounding boards for these ideas.

Myanmar 2010